Sadio Mané levels it up as Liverpool take point at Manchester City in title race

The talk has been of trebles and quadruples, of a historic kind of plunder and, plainly, something will have to give. Only not yet. Manchester City will probably be happier with this draw as it keeps them above Liverpool, with one more Premier League game chalked off, although Pep Guardiola’s team had the chances to have been out of sight at half-time. And to have pinched it at the end.

Liverpool saw their 10-game winning streak in the league come to an end, the sequence that had helped them cut City’s lead at the top to a single point. In January, it had stood at 14, albeit with City having played two extra matches. “A fake lead,” Guardiola had called it. But, again, Liverpool will reason that this was not the worst result for them.

There was pulsating drama, Liverpool digging deep to find a pair of equalisers, the second from Sadio Mané at the beginning of the second half getting them something to keep the dream of four trophies alive. Diogo Jota had scored their first one.

City, who had led through the outstanding Kevin De Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus, made their move at the very end. On as a substitute, Riyad Mahrez had just bent a free-kick against the outside of the post. Now, deep into stoppage time, he was played in by De Bruyne. With Alisson off his line, he jinked inside to set up the chipped finish only to pitch it too high. Liverpool could exhale. At least until the two teams meet again in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday.

The rivalry between the clubs has been relatively short, igniting in 2017-18 – the season in which Liverpool knocked City out of the Champions League – but it has burned with a rare ferocity; each driving the other to new heights. Against the backdrop of the Guardiola/Jürgen Klopp love-in,