(Football news) Man City defeated Liverpool 3-2 in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup to reach the quarter-finals of the tournament. Despite the World Cup break, both teams appeared to hit the ground running, playing at an intense pace right from kickoff with Erling Haaland continuing his prolific goalscoring form by finding the back of the net in the 10th minute. Liverpool’s Fabio Carvalho then cancelled out City’s lead in the 20th minute but Riyad Mahrez restored the one goal lead 47 seconds into the second half.

Jurgen Klopp’s side equalised once again, this time through Mohamed Salah in the 48th minute but City’s Nathan Ake went on to score the winner in the 58th minute, heading in Kevin de Bruyne’s cross. Manchester City will now face Southampton in the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup and have the opportunity to match Liverpool’s nine Carabao Cup wins if they are successful in the competition this season.

“After the World Cup and a long time of not playing, both teams were incredible with high level and intensity. Liverpool are so difficult, when they play well they destroy you. The quality of the transitions they do, they create chances. Big compliment for the players they played against that team.

“Otherwise, you don’t play in this rhythm and the courage is impossible. It’s true that the guys who came back after one week off, they lost a little bit but not much. It’s more difficult for the players who were here and had time off like Erling Haaland and Cole Palmer. They were brilliant, intense and really good.

“Kevin played with a fire inside of him. He had to find it. What a player. How many years has he been coming here? Eight years? He’s an absolute legend, he has the desire to find this fire. First half the Academy boys played really well. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a performance like Rico Lewis, he’s 17 or 18 years old. The way he played with and without the ball, we are lucky to have this player for the next decade. Hopefully, the club can take him, the game he played was exceptional.”

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola

“Difficult first 15 minutes definitely. We played a formation we are not used to playing. In pre-season, we had Roberto Firmino in the centre, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the wing which helps things. Then we had to change after the last session. You could see we needed time to adapt. When we were compact, we had our moments. They are a super, super, super side who do things extremely well. In midfield, you have to be really spot on. The first 15 minutes, we really struggled and that kills the confidence and the conviction.

“Good for half-time, all ok. Second half starts and they score their second goal with their first shot. It was world-class from Riyad Mahrez but we could have done more before that. The goals we conceded were all unnecessary. When you see the third goal, we changed before and that meant a new organisation.

“We watched the ball. We all expect Nathan Ake to win that header, but behind that is nobody apart from two City players. The goals were unnecessary, the rest was a difficult game for both teams. We had good spells, played good football and could have scored more goals. It’s a result we have to live with, that’s it.”

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp

“It’s always good to score to help the team to win. Overall, we were very good today and deserved to win. Everyone came back with a good mentality to start again. It was a tough opponent but we made the job and especially in the second half, after the third goal, we were good defensively. We stopped them getting a third so we are happy. I don’t know who is left [in the competition] – we’ve beaten Chelsea and Liverpool, two top teams! We take it game by game and we focus on the next Premier League team.”

Manchester City winger Riyad Mahrez

“We had chances, they had chances, it was quite an open game. I’m sure it was a good game for the neutral but for us it’s disappointing to lose and go out of the cup. It was the first game back and I’m sure you could see there were some tired legs at the end there. When you’re pushing to get an equaliser, that doesn’t help.

“We pushed, we had some good chances. The game was decided on fine margins. When you come up against City, both teams raise their game and you can push yourself a bit further. A lot of people played the World Cup and there was a lot of emotion in that. A difficult game to start off and there are positives we can take but we wanted the win.

“Disappointing [to concede those goals], every one could have been stopped. The short corner and the first two. We have to be switched on and the goals are disappointing. We had two good goals from our point of view, they took their chances, we only took two. We don’t have time to waste, especially in the league. Before the break, we picked up the results and we want to kickstart that. We are out of the cup, which is disappointing and you want to go for every trophy available to you. It will be a difficult game at Villa, new manager and they’ve started really well under him. We have to be ready.”

Liverpool defender Andy Roberston

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