CITY halted their woeful away form and handed United a massive boost in the race for the title.
Mark Hughes' side held title-chasing Liverpool to a 1-1 draw that leaves United seven points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Craig Bellamy's deflected shot off Alvaro Arbeloa six minutes into the second half gave Liverpool an almighty fright - and though Dirk Kuyt equalised on 78 minutes, the Merseysiders' championship hopes now hang by a thread.
With United holding a plus 10 advantage on goal difference, it means Sir Alex Ferguson's side are well on their way to making it a hat-trick of titles.
While that will irk City supporters, they will just be pleased to have improved an away record that has been a major concern this season.
They have won only once on their travels in the league, having lost on seven occasions. But a draw at Anfield was a timely boost - particularly following recent defeats at Stoke and Portsmouth.
Liverpool made four changes from the side that won at Portsmouth last time out. There was still no Steven Gerrard with his hamstring injury, while Lucas, back from suspension, Fernando Torres, Dirk Kuyt and Albert Riera returned to the starting line-up in place of Ryan Babel, David Ngog, Fabio Aurelio and Daniel Agger.
Frail
City made one enforced change from the side that drew 2-2 at FC Copenhagen in the UEFA Cup on Thursday, Nigel de Jong replacing the suspended Shaun Wright-Phillips.
City's defensive frailties shown in Denmark were far from evident in this Barclays Premier League clash.
Despite being under plenty of early pressure, Shay Given was rarely called into action.
Riera headed wide from an Alvaro Arbeloa cross, under intense pressure from Micah Richards. Then Jamie Carragher's long ball down the right was touched on by Yossi Benayoun for Torres to fire wide first time.
Kuyt was next away on the right, with Richard Dunne clearing the near post cross from Riera's toes, while both Lucas and Yossi Benayoun failed to connect with crosses.
The pressure mounted and Kuyt drove wide after being set up by Torres before Richards then chested away a Riera hook in the six-yard box.
City had weathered Liverpool's early fire and eased their way into the game. They should have scored after 30 minutes when Andrea Dossena lost possession and the ball was switched immediately to Robinho.
The little Brazilian had been very quiet in the early stages, but he jinked inside to lay a pass invitingly into Stephen Ireland's stride.
The Irishman had a free run at Jose Reina, but the Spanish keeper blocked the first shot, with Ireland firing the rebound into the side netting.
Torres set up Riera and Benayoun, both chances flying wide before Kuyt missed with a far-post header to end a frustrating half for Liverpool.
Four minutes into the second period, City were ahead. Robinho fed the ball into the box for Vincent Kompany to turn it into the path of Craig Bellamy.
And the former Liverpool forward struck a 49th-minute shot from the corner of the penalty area that flicked off Arbeloa, but the effort was clearly on target and flew past Reina into the far corner.
Challenge
This was the fourth time this season that Bellamy has scored against a former club, having netted for West Ham against Newcastle and Blackburn, and for City also against Newcastle.
Ireland had an effort disallowed for offside, Liverpool leaving gaps now as they went forward looking for an equaliser.
Kompany was booked for a high challenge on Martin Skrtel, with Liverpool having brought on young winger Nabil
El Zhar for Riera, with the Moroccan soon booked for a foul on Pablo Zabaleta.
City, who had gradually grown into this game, started to look like a team which has had £120million spent on it in under a year.
They flowed forward, looked fierce and committed, while Liverpool lacked the leadership of Gerrard.
But the Reds responded with fight of their own. After 78 minutes Benayoun got away on the left and drove in a cross that Torres missed in the six-yard box, allowing Kuyt to force home the equaliser.
Kuyt them forced his way past countryman De Jong, and cracked in a fierce 25-yarder that Given beat away. Given's next save, a close range block from Benayoun, was even better.
But when Benayoun hurled himself at the rebound, the ball looked to hit Dunne's arm as it deflected away.
Liverpool had Aurelio and Babel on for Dossena and Mascherano by now, a point just not good enough. Kuyt spun to fire across goal and a foot wide.
City then took off Robinho and sent on Felipe Caicedo up front for the final minutes as Liverpool searched in vain for a leveller.
Liverpool 1 City 1
February 22, 2009
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Far better performance,thoroughly deserved the point,bit peeeed off about another sloppy goal think maybe Dunny monster could of cut it out(maybe a bit critical).Most importantly we played as a team and worked hard,with a certain brazilian at last turning up for an away game,well done boys ,lets just see if we can do it 2 weeks running.
Good result city I would settle for a draw we could of won it Robinho was much better hope we can bulid on this result in are next away game at west ham next sunday
come on city
Only saw the second half but good result and much better performance. At one nil up we looked relatively comfortable and maybe should have scored a second when breaking.
De Jong and Kompany much better.
Typical City. A draw was the least that City deserved today after putting in a performance that grew in confidence and stature as the match progressed and did not wilt after Liverpool equalised against the run of play. In fact I thought City remained too positive after Liverpool’s equaliser and should have shut up shop; indeed if one wanted to be hyper critical you could say that Hughes should have taken Robbie off after 75 minutes and brought on a more defensive player then.
Although we still gave our opponents too much space in our own half, especially early and late in the game, I thought Hughes did put out a team with a better shape today and one that did a better job of keeping its shape, perhaps in part because the returning De Jong is such a disciplined player but also because Zab stuck to the left side of the park and Stephen Ireland to the right.
Confidence is a key factor for City and the manager can help it by using formations and tactics that make the players comfortable and maybe Hughes did just that today. Let’s hope that this will prove to be a result and performance on which to build (never said that before!). Certainly today proves that we can take points away from home even with a tough run of games.
De Jong awesome second half.
Well played to all of the team today, backs to the wall in the first half without being in too much trouble. Liverpool got the lucky break for their equalizer when we were in control in the second half. MOM for me has to be de jong had his best game so far alongside the excellent Kompany & Zab though closely followed by Nedum, pure class today he even tried to fool Reina with a carbon copy of Thursday’s power strike goal.
I await the three match ban Tues/Wednesday for Ronaldo!??
Did anyone else notice the confidence in the side AFTER we scored ! it was like a different team !
Well done City. Two excellent away performances this week.
great result but can stop feeling dissapinted as we were leading the game up intill 78mins and we couldnt hold on to our lead also a lucky goal that did it for them as torres miskicked it an it deflected to kuyt but its a good result only bad thing is united are ertain to win the league now
great result but can stop feeling dissapinted as we were leading the game up intill 78mins and we couldnt hold on to our lead also a lucky goal that did it for them as torres miskicked it an it deflected to kuyt but its a good result only bad thing is united are ertain to win the league now
What as our result got to do with Utd. It was our result and what they do is for their site not ours. pi**ed off with opening lines of this report. Great result for City, not bothered about anybody else!!!!!
I'll own up straight away - I didn't think we'd get anything from thsi match. As I listened to the commentary it was clear that Liverpool were off song and that we were playing reasonably well. Indeed we had chances to add to our score before Liverpool scored. So well done to the team. Incidentally, the commentators wondered by Robinho was playing out on the left. They thought he should he be played in the middle of the pitch where he could get more involved. Perhaps Hughes might like to ruminate on that. Congratulations to Sparky for keeping Vassell off the pitch and on the bench - hopefully sitting in a pool of superglue! Hopefully, Weiss will get a chance in the next league match before SWP returns - not holding my breath on that one though.
Great performance - total opposite to the pompey game. I would have taken a point this morning but disappointed not to have won following that performance. Bring on Copenhagen.
Great Point,well done.
It seems that all teams are helping united to a 3rd title in a row ,even City.Its OBSCENE that a debt ridden club can be allowed to win titles,and I for one was hoping for once City were beaten .Still it shows that ex-Rag Hughes hasnt a clue with his negative line up,and to be honest Liverpool have drawn 6 at home now.As for closet Red Thorley (old trafford)City can do without negative Blues as yourself.
Average 1st half that seemed to continue the pattern of most of our away games but tremendous 2nd half from the boys. Anfield is never an easy place to go even with players like Alonso and Gerrard out. Given made some tremendous saves, but we asked enough questions of the them in the secons half that some may feel hard done we didnt get 3 pts. Great result, would be great to back it up with wins vs Copenhagen and the Hammers.
2 points lost thanks to Richards strolling back with Benayoun. What has happened to that boy? He needs to do a bit of soul searching if he really believes his bling lifestyle is not
Finally the midfield looks like it can compete in the PL. DeJong and Kompany need to keep this together for the rest of the year. Ireland excellent - as usual (give him the contract). Bellamy great, Given great, looks like Hughes is starting to get it together.
City awful first half and lucky not to be 2 down; second half, different City came out and bossed the game until we scored and until about 75 minutes; however fell asleep for the equaliser; three scouse players got the better of 3 city defenders; first the full back (Onouha ?) was skinned when he should have got to the cross, then Dunne gets beaten to it by Torres and then Richards continued his awful form to get beaten to the ball by Kuyt. Pathetic defending AGAIN ! That's 5 points we have gifted the Rags from Liverpool this year. Dunne gets another yellow; gave away 2 edge of the area free kicks and was lucky not to concede a penalty for a clear outstretched right hand. But, I never thought we'd get even a point after last weeks disgrace; so well done the rest of the team. Robinho's touch was sublime to take out 2 defenders to set up the offensive for the goal, and his all round play was just a delight to watch. SI needs some shooting practice.Looks like 6th is beyond us now. Anything less than 7th would be unacceptable.
Well done Blues. Good point......we stood strong.
well impressed today great performances from all bit disappointed we only drew but still much better than of late and wtf are muen doing saying about scummers in our report we dont care about the scummers do we
This was the day 22.02.09 that Manchester City grew up. Well done you BLUES.
Thank god we didn't gift them a penalty or a free header at the death...gutted we couldn't just have shut shop and hung on for three points, that would have awesome..sounded like we may deserved the win too
Seen as we are a club with a 'Losing Mentality' I suppose on balance a Point was Ok today.
Watched the game on P2P.... First half absymal (as we have come to expect)...Players couldn't even string two passes together and were losing out on every challenge (What was the point of this hot weather Training camp then Mr Hughes? a £1M+ expense for a series of defeats and a couple flukey 1-0 home wins?)
Second half they actually played like they deserved £100,000 - £160,000 a week wages (in patches). The tempo was better and we were winning lots of the midfield battles. However a few more appalling misses by Ireland (which is something he has done all season - but at least he tries eh?) and lack of players up front coupled with a complete loss of shape at times meant we always looked likely to lose the lead....and we did - Again!
If this had been a Mark Hughes Blackburn side of last season they would have won 2-1 in this game - they had a knack of fighting (something missing at City) and pulling off late away wins against the run of play.
De Jong was great today, Robinho was acceptable but a big improvement on recent performances. The only big negative is Zabeletta in MIdfield. - WHY?!! He hasn't passed a ball to a City player in any of the past 5 games he has been in that position.....
A single point, we have to be happy given how shocking we have been away from home (even when playing against 10 men)..... But Hughes cannot expect any plaudits for a 2-2 draw in Copenhagen and a 1-1 draw at Liverpool after spending almost a £100m?!!! WBA would be delighted but we cannot settle for this - we need to start winning home and away but the current management team is incapable of this i'm sorry to say.
vinecity, torquay england
22/02/2009 at 17:35
Agreed, most of the boys weren't on song in the first half but I thought De Jong's contribution in the 2nd was outstanding. Some of those tackles he made on international teammates Kuyt and Babel definitely showed it was club before country today.