Nathan Ake hits winner to give Man City victory over Liverpool

Nathan Ake headed the winner as Manchester City edged out rivals Liverpool 3-2 in a five-goal thriller to claim a place in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.

The Dutchman turned in a superb Kevin De Bruyne cross just before the hour at the Etihad Stadium to put City ahead for a third and decisive time in absorbing contest on Thursday.

Liverpool had cancelled out earlier City goals from the prolific Erling Haaland and Riyad Mahrez through Fabio Carvalho and Mohamed Salah respectively.

City’s victory ended Liverpool’s reign as holders and kept Pep Guardiola’s side on course for a fifth victory in the competition in six seasons.

Both teams were playing their first games since mid-November but the clash was fought with the intensity that has come to be associated with their encounters.

City’s starting line-up contained six of the 16 players they had on duty at Qatar 2022 along with a couple of high-profile non-World Cup attendees in goalscorers Haaland and Mahrez.

They were up against a stronger-than-anticipated Liverpool side led in attack by Salah and Darwin Nunez.

City wasted little time in settling into their usual groove although Haaland showed signs of rustiness when he fired an early chance well over the bar.

The Norwegian soon got that out of his system and, after further chances fell the way of Cole Palmer and De Bruyne, he opened the scoring after 10 minutes.

Haaland finished in typical fashion, nipping ahead of the defence at the near post and guiding a volley past Stefan Ortega from a De Bruyne cross.

It was his 24th goal in just 19 appearances for City since his summer move from Borussia Dortmund.

Until this point Liverpool had struggled to strong passes together but they eventually began to gain a foothold and