The two best teams on the planet served up another breathless, bouncing, bold classic - and yet again there was nothing to divide them. And we have to do it all again in six days' time, in an FA Cup semi-final!
Twice City led, through Kevin De Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus, but twice Liverpool - despite being second best for much of the game - refused to lie down, and levelled through Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane. The first half had us all wondering whether these two teams could keep up an incredible, relentless pace that was also garnished with some supreme quality. It was exhausting watching from the stands as two pedigree sides went hammer and tongs.
But in the end, a point each means the Blues keep their noses in front in the title race, with seven games to go. Liverpool needed a win, City played for one, but the result was much better for the home side.
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City had a big edge, creating half a dozen big chances as the ball in behind the back four caused untold issues for the Liverpool back four. With Foden marauding down one side, and switching positions with Cancelo, and Walker and Jesus doing the same on the right, the Merseysiders were struggling to cope.
The normally composed Virgil Van Dijk looked like a nervous wreck at times, and Rodri was gobbling up their desperate attempts to play out from the back or clear their lines. Going into the game it was billed as City’s high-class midfield being pitted against the lethal Liverpool front three, but with Rodri, Bernardo Silva and De Bruyne keeping a tight grip on proceedings, that theory was rarely tested - and it was Foden, Sterling and Jesus who continually threatened to cut loose.
The opening sequence must have been quite a shock for a global audience readying itself for a clash of two of the world’s best teams, as Joel Matip lumped the ball out of play after receiving it from kick-off, and then City progressed up the touchline by winning a sequence of throw-ins. More Wimbledon vs Stoke than the Premier League top two.
But that was a false dawn for anti-football, and as soon as Jesus hared down the right onto De Bruyne’s pass and squared it for Sterling, whose shot was superbly pawed away by Alisson, we were off and running.
Liverpool carried a threat, but the attacking waves were overwhelmingly blue and just four minutes in, the Etihad erupted as De Bruyne advanced and let fly from 20 yards, his shot taking a fortunate deflection off Matip, wrong-footing the keeper and bouncing in off the far post.
The buzz had barely died down when Liverpool, taking advantage of a rare moment of laxity from a City side that was hassling, harrying and badgering every red shirt that deigned to go near the ball, drew level.
Robertson drifted a cross to the far post where Trent Alexander-Arnold knocked it back for a simple Diogo Jota finish. The travelling fans’ turn to celebrate.
But City stepped back on the gas as Jesus fired a decent chance into Alisson’s arms, and Rodri’s header from a smart De Bruyne free-kick that caught Liverpool napping and bounced across the face of goal as John Stones tried in vain to get a touch.
Inbetween, Ederson gave most of the stadium palpitations as he fielded a back-pass, kicked the turf as he tried to pass it and then calmly played it off the goal-liner as an eager Jota raced in to capitalise. It would have been a calamitous mistake.
The Blues were getting joy down both sides, using their full backs to good effect,and Cancelo twice beat the offside trap, teeing up De Bruyne for a shot that skimmed the post, and then hitting the side netting via an Alexander-Arnold as he tried his own luck.
The first half ended with City sweeping forward, looking far more likely to score, but they went to sleep at the start of the second half and paid the price.
With 48 seconds on the clock, the Blues failed to clear, Salah pounced on the loose ball and with Stones racing back, but Walker static, it left Sadio Mane the time and space to run onto the Egyptian’s pass and sweep the ball past Ederson.
Now it was Liverpool anthems bouncing around the stadium, and City struggling to get out of their own half as Fabinho and Jordan Henderson found their feet,
Yet again, City breathed deeply, collected their wits and set about controlling the game once more - and they thought they had a winner when De Bruyne’s delicious pass sent Sterling away, and he slipped the ball past Alisson. The crowd erupted but a VAR check ruled that Sterling had gone marginally too early. It was incredibly tight.
Guardiola had talked about the little details in the build-up - that was one, and so was the fact that Thiago Alcantara was booked for one tactical foul five minutes after he had escaped punishment for an almost identical one.
It was not quite as blatant as James Milner’s escape at Anfield in October, but it was another fine margin.
Sub Riyad Mahrez hit the post with a free kick in the dying moments of the game, and then lobbed a great, late chance over the bar after more stunning, tireless work from De Bruyne and that was that. A frantic, fearless 90 minutes of football.
We have to go through it all again at Wembley next week, and if these two keep on at this rate, they might have yet another swipe at each other in a Champions League final.
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