Mohamad Salah and Sadio Mane were the picks of the lot for Liverpool as they came from behind to beat Premier League champions Manchester City 2-1 in the International Champions Cup friendly match.
Mane converted a penalty to hand Liverpool a win deep into the stoppage time and gave the Merseyside club a morale-boosting win over a youngster-filled City team.
"Our players were incredible for 75 minutes. I'm so so proud. But the last 15 minutes we were tired and our quality died. They deserved to score more goals in the end," said Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola after the full-time whistle.
“The second half pleased me, the first half I was not so pleased with, how you can imagine. Pre-season is a really strange period. It’s so important. On the other hand, you constantly play football you don’t want to see because the legs are heavy and it’s really difficult for the boys," said Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
Both Liverpool and City’s pre-season camp in the United States have been disrupted by the absence of several key players who starred in the FIFA World Cup 2018.
However, key players for Liverpool, Salah and Mane reported in time and played their part in Thursday’s clash at the Metlife Stadium in New Jersey.
But, it was the Manchester club who took the lead just after the half-time mark when Premier League’s Young Player of the Year 2017/18 Leroy Sane raced past the Liverpool defence and fired a low shot past Caoimhin Kelleher.
Egyptian star Salah came to rescue for The Reds and scored a header to change the scoreline to 1-1.
The game seemed like to heading for a draw until Tosin Adarabioyo fouled Dominic Solanke in the penalty area only for the referee to point towards the spot.
Senegalese international Sadio Mane stepped up and sent Joe Hart the wrong way to give Jurgen Klopp’s team a 2-1 win.
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