Liverpool 0 Manchester City 3
The Reds U18 side put in a poor performance against table topping Man City and were left to pay the price as City ran out 3-0 winners at the academy. After a free flowing 5-2 win last week this side just never got going and for many a time you thought City were playing with an extra man.
The Reds got the game underway attacking the academy end in the first half. It took City just three minutes to take the lead. City were awarded a free kick wide right after the tricky Weiss was felled. The kick was flighted in and Ben Mee rose superbly well to head home past a helpless Hansen.
The goal just seemed to knock the Reds whilst giving City the confidence to play their own game. It was ten minutes before the Reds had a decent opening. Kacaniklic put in a good cross which was half cleared only for Amoo to see his driven cross back across the area cleared for a corner which the Reds failed to make anything of.
City had a half claim for a penalty a minute later at the other end when Weiss shimmied his way in to the area only to be felled and tackled. It was a close call but the ref probably got it right in playing on. Weiss looked a real dangerous customer down their right hand side and gave O'Connor a nightmare most of the game.
The best chance of the half for the Reds came after twenty seven minutes when Marvin Pourie really should have scored. Picked out by Amoo with a cross he rose unmarked, six yards out only to head wide of the target. It started a reasonable period for the Reds. A few minutes later and Ajdarevic nearly fed Amoo in the box but the ball just went too far away from him and the chance went begging.
On forty one minutes Ajdarevic played a neat ball for Eccleston on the edge of the box. The striker turned and shot only to see the ball go just the wrong side of the post. However it was starting to look a little better for the Reds. Then a minute before half time they were hit with a hammer blow when City went 2-0 up. Ball took two attempts to convert but after hitting the bar with his first header he then converted with Hansen stranded on the floor along with O'Connor.
At half time the Reds were no doubt getting told to get tighter to City who were the better side but also being told to keep their heads up after conceding so late in the half. Just a minute in to the half and O'Connor got that close to Weiss he went straight through the back of him and picked up a deserved yellow card.
The second half proved somewhat dull from a Reds' point of view with very little happening for them. Amoo and Eccleston regularly switched around up front but never truly created a clear chance. In a rare show at the academy as well there were more bookings. Usually reserved for truly horrendous tackles around the head there were three in this game alone. O'Connor had already been booked at the start of the half. City centre back Ramsey joined him in the book for persistent fouling on seventy minutes whilst Irwin joined him three minutes later for leading with his studs in a challenge.
Sadly that's as good as it gets for the Reds in the second half. Michael Collins came for Kacaniklic just after the hour but didn't change the game any. For so much of the half City looked like they had an extra man to the Reds, such was the passing and movement. City got their third goal on seventy two minutes. A free kick was whipped in by Trippier and Ball rose well to glance a header past Hansen.
Overall this was a well deserved win for the away side. The Reds can play better than this but just didn't get fully up and running in it.
MotM : David Amoo - may not necessarily have been a great game going forward but he was always ready to receive the ball and attack his man. Joe Kennedy also did well at the back although I think it was his man that scored on the first and third goals.
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Liverpool Hansen, Awang, O'Connor, Kelly, Kennedy, Irwin, Amoo, Ajdarevic, Pourie, Eccleston, Kacaniklic (Collins 61)
Unused Subs Burton, Dawson, Flannagan
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Manchester City Mentel, Trippier (Ibrahim 77), McGivern, Ramsey, Mee, Tsiaklis, Weiss, Kay, Ball (Poole 80), Daly, McDermott - Chantler used
Unused Subs Hartley, Redshaw
Goals Mee (3), Ball 2 (44, 72)
Ref : D J Enright
Copyright : Liverweb 2007
