Carling Cup Semifinal: Liverpool vs. Manchester City

Despite being t0p of the Premier League for a good portion of the season, City have not experienced a lot of success in cup runs this year. They failed to make the Champions League knock out stage, though they did have a tough group including Napoli and Bayern Munich. A couple weeks back city rivals Manchester United ended their hopes of defending their FA Cup title. Coming into this second leg of the League Cup semifinal at Anfield, they trailed Liverpool 1-0 on the aggregate after falling in the first leg 0-1 to a Steven Gerrard penalty kick.

This was an awesome match to watch. King Kenny called his guys out publicly after an embarrassing defeat at Bolton on the weekend and his players responded, taking it to City early and often. Joe Hart was a BEAST in this match. In the 4th minute he turned aside a point blank shot from Jose Enrique and followed it up with three more good saves against the likes of Johnson, Bellamy and Adam over the next 20 minutes. No doubt he was keeping City in the tie.

City had no sight of goal until the 28th minute, when Edin Dzeko had a shot blocked. In truth, it was only a half chance. Nigel De Jong did a lot better on 31 minutes when he smashed a ball into the postage stamp corner to make 0-1 and equalize the aggregate. To say it was against the run of play would be an understatement.

Liverpool went right back on the attack however and took the aggregate lead again just 10 minutes later. In the 40th minute Micah Richards threw himself in front of a shot in the penalty area. The ball ricocheted off of his foot and hit his outstretched hand. Referee Phil Dowd awarded a PK, which Gerrard promptly converted.

City felt pretty slighted and I can see why. It was obviously a case of ball to hand. However, the hand was outstretched, nowhere near the body. To my way of thinking, if you throw yourself into a shot like that in the area with your hands up like that, you're just asking for a penalty. Phil Dowd illustrated this several times by doing what appeared to be the Thriller dance. It was highly entertaining.

Liverpool continued to dominate in the second half and nearly put the tie away. In the 53rd minute Skrtel forced a glorious save out of Hart on a Gerrard free kick. Then in the very next minute the big City 'keeper barely closed his near post in time to Stewart Downing.

City hung in there though, and it looked like the Reds might rue those missed chances. In the 67th minute they struck again against the run of play. Kolarov sent in a cross that Dzeko banged in off of his right foot to make it 1-2 and again equalize the aggregate.

Liverpool was not to be denied this day though. They finally put the tie away in the 74th minute off of the foot of Craig Bellamy, who else? Dirk Kuyt sent in a cross that Bellamy took then passed to Glenn Johnson at close range. Johnson then sent the ball right back to Bellamy who slotted the ball past a helpless Joe Hart to equalize the match at 2-2 and hand Liverpool the 3-2 win on aggregate. They'll face Cardiff in the League Cup final.


THRILLER! (Getty Images)