Erling Haaland sums up Man City afternoon at Liverpool FC

In Erling Haaland's embryonic career you could argue he's had two off days and both have come against Liverpool. He's a perfect Manchester City player, then.

Black humour is often the only way for City fans to get through a fixture at Anfield and once again they left the place disappointed on Sunday.

This was supposed to be the day the wait for the away end to celebrate here ended, but even with Liverpool low on confidence and a seemingly unstoppable goalscorer in their team, it wasn't to be.

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The big battle at Anfield was tipped to be Haaland vs Virgil van Dijk, but the sight of Joe Gomez at centre-back encouraged Haaland to drift to that left-side channel to try and get an advantage against much the smaller of Liverpool's central defenders.

It took Haaland a while to warm up, his first chance not coming until the half-hour when he chipped fairly tamely at Alisson, but he should have been on the scoresheet before half-time.

City had struggled to get Kevin De Bruyne into the game, but the first time the Belgian had space to exploit in the inside-right channel he made the most of it. Haaland peeled off the back of Gomez and the delivery was perfect.

The only surprise was Haaland sending his header straight into the clutches of a grateful Alisson. It looked like the opening goal was destined to arrive, but for once the striker's radar was off.

It set the tone for Haaland's afternoon. It was his foul that led to Foden's goal being disallowed and when he had another superb chance just after the hour mark he was thwarted by Alisson again, who had to make a better save this time but was given an opportunity to do so by the finish.

Even in the sixth minute of stoppage time, the ball