Man City’s Leroy Sane fires pinpoint winner to end Liverpool’s unbeaten run and reignite the title race

Manchester City 2-1 Liverpool: The champions produced a dogged performance at the Etihad with two sublime finishes in order to cut Liverpool’s lead at the top of the table

Leroy Sane fires City's winning goal (Reuters)

Through the very finest of margins, and a match that really went right to every edge, the gap is cut at the top. It was thereby a thrilling night that lived up to all the hype, and may now really enliven the title race. Manchester City showed the ultimate of responses – to so much, and twice in the game at that – to beat Liverpool 2-1 and reduce their lead to a mere four points.

It is not just that which is reduced. So is some of Liverpool’s aura and momentum, as their unbeaten record went with that seven-point lead.

The real work starts now for them. The real pressure builds up now, because this was a real statement from City.

Not that there should be many recriminations for Liverpool, because this was not a match that came down to anyone’s failure. It was a game that went to the limit, had everything, and was decided by centimetres. Literally.

There was first of all that logic-defying and almost physics defying save from John Stones, as 1.12cm of the match ball remained in play, and then the most exquisitely accurate of match-winners from Leroy Sane that so narrowly went on off the post.

Really, though, the bar was raised. Because in between that, and after it, there was just so much: controversy, luck, a goalmouth scramble, brilliant saves, better goals, histrionics and just brilliant football.

Far from being the game that could have ended the title race, the hope now is that this is just the start, that it has set the tone – that we start to see this in both of these clubs’ games every week.

That is what it has set up. That is what is so tantalising.

There was barely a moment to catch your breath, or take stock, which is just as well given that moment in the 18th minute. It took a mere look at his watch for Anthony Taylor to decide in an instant that the ball wasn’t over the line.

It was that quick. But also that close.

Imagine the furore had there not been goalline technology.

Imagine had the game – and potentially the title – been ultimately decided on a moment as farcical as that.

After Liverpool had been anything but farcical in a fine build-up that saw Sadio Mane expose the height of that line to hit the post, John Stones attempted to clear the ball off the line only to hit Ederson’s hands, before fantastically and so fleetingly turning to somehow get the ball away just as it was on the very, very edge of the line.

This is what it was coming down to, although Liverpool will no doubt point to something else that went right to the edge of the margins: Kompany’s challenge on Salah.

The central defender got away with a booking, having gone in high and with two feet off the ground, so may well have been very fortunate not to get a red.

John Stones clears the ball off the line (Reuters) (REUTERS)

It made what happened next all the worse for Liverpool, and all the more pointed since it maybe partly stemmed from the influence of a yellow card on their own centre-half, Dejan Lovren. He was that bit more tentative, and offered up that bit more space.

There were certainly no fine margins about what happened next, in any sense. With Lovren having allowed Aguero that bit more space from one of City’s increasing number of attacks, the striker didn’t need to be so precise. But then this wasn’t about precision at all. It was about emphatic power, and the supremely impressive type of all-in finish that Aguero has made a signature.

It wasn’t just the finish that was all-in at that point, though. It was City. That was only a distillation of their entire display, and every challenge.

There was a proper bite to every challenge, as if all of the enmity that has built between these two clubs over the last year – although, arguably since 2013-14 – was being transmitted into every challenge. There was first of all a fired-up Fernandinho throwing himself into every challenge, and then a furious Kompany appearing to call Salah a “pussy” after that yellow-card foul.

Sergio Aguero opened the scoring (EPA)

More generally and legally, there was the relentlessness of their press at times. They looked super-charged, and super fired up.

Liverpool rose to that – but in the right way. They gradually worked their way back into the game, in a much more measured manner than City’s relentless pressing, and eventually worked yet another supreme goal.

Trent Alexander-Arnold first of all played a supreme cross-field, that was genuinely as good as something you might see from Steven Gerrard or Xabi Alonso. Danilo’s response was anything but good as he got his positioning wrong, but Andy Robertson got his touch just right to set up Firmino for a header.

Liverpool had responded.

Then, however, City countered. And with some quality. This was the level the game was reaching. This what the situation was bringing out of the sides.

Roberto Firmino scored Liverpool's equaliser (PA)

Salah had seemed to have broken the City press to burst through, only for Ederson to so coolly intercept and in the same movement spray the ball out wide. The next few moves were just as slick, but at ever-increasing speed. Taking on more and more responsibility as the game wore on, Raheem Sterling rampaged through the middle of Liverpool’s half, before feeding Sane.

The forward space, but only so much that it required very specific and precise finishes to make something of. He produced one.

With an elegantly angled low drive, Sane found the inside of the post, and then found the inside of the net.

It was all the more remarkable – and impressive – that there was such precision given the invigorating chaos that so often engulfed the game. Goalmouth scrambles were preceded by tantalisingly fine shots, and finger-tip perfect saves, such as what happened with Ederson and Salah in the 86th minute.

There was then the chaos on the sidelines, as Klopp got into an exchange with City fans behind him, and Guardiola was reprimanded by referee Anthony Taylor for just how animated he was.

He may face recriminations, but that won’t bother him in the slightest. That was the emotion of it all, as so much happened, because what really mattered was the result.

City got it, and may now have really animated this title race.

They've cut the gap, by rising to the occasion.