After the final Premier League meeting between Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, Alex Keble reflects on the matches that defined the Manchester City and Liverpool managers' rivalry.
The curtain has come down on one of the greatest rivalries in Premier League history.
For eight years Guardiola versus Klopp has been the defining feature of the competition, the head-to-heads between Man City and Liverpool not only deciding titles, but producing a technical and tactical quality that far exceeds anything we have seen before.
Almost every single one of their 16 Premier League encounters were iconic, up to and including the very last on Sunday.
The 1-1 scoreline at Anfield did not do justice to the drama, speed and quality of the match, and had there been a winner, it would no doubt have made our top five.
But in a crowded field, it cannot yet be considered one of the best Guardiola v Klopp matches in Premier League history, although of course where the Trophy ends up in May could invite us to look upon it differently, from Luis Diaz’s missed chances to Jeremy Doku striking the inside of a post.
For now, there are plenty of others to choose from. Here is the story of the Premier League’s greatest ever rivalry told through the five best matches.
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The first two Premier League matches between these two sides, a 1-0 success for Liverpool at Anfield and a 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium, were a little underwhelming.
Then in 2017/18, Man City won 5-0 at home thanks to an early Sadio Mane red card disrupting what had been a pulsating end-to-end contest, before the rivalry really got going at Anfield in January.
A breathless and intoxicating 90 minutes went by in a flash. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain set the tone, bursting through midfield and driving a shot into the bottom corner, only for Leroy Sane to level before the break.
One from each of Liverpool’s famous front three – Roberto Firmino, Mane, and Mohamed Salah – allowed Klopp’s side to storm clear in a frenzied second half, the dizzying flurry of action capped by Salah chipping Ederson from 40 yards.
Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan scored to make it a nervy finish, but Liverpool held on.
It was a game that fired the starting gun on a new relationship; a new furious, all-action rivalry that would define both Klopp and Guardiola.
Three months later, Liverpool blitzed through the Man City defence again on their way to a 3-0 win at Anfield in the first leg of a UEFA Champions League quarter-final.
At this juncture, it looked as though Klopp had Guardiola cornered; that his wild gegenpressing football was the new solution to City’s control and order.
“You can watch it as a manager or as a football fan and I prefer to do that - wow! What a game. Two teams, full throttle,” Klopp told BBC Sport.
"People watched this game all over the world and this is why - take your heart, throw it on the pitch and play like this, both teams.”
It was a mantra both managers would live by over the years to come.
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When we think of classic Man City versus Liverpool matches, this is the one that tops them all.
It had everything: intensity, drama and a decisive impact on the Premier League title race.
Liverpool went to the Etihad seven points clear at the top after 20 matches played. City’s victory closed the gap to four, Guardiola’s side went on to win 16 of their final 17 Premier League contests and Liverpool were denied the title despite winning the third-most points ever amassed in a single campaign, with 97.
Ultimately, everything came down to this one match. Everything came down to a legendary clearance off the line by John Stones. Everything came down to 1.12cm.
That’s how much of the ball remained on the goalline when, with the score at 0-0, Mane’s shot hit a post, Stones’ attempted clearance rebounded back off Ederson and the England defender somehow got back to scoop the ball clear.
Sergio Aguero subsequently gave Man City the lead, Firmino equalised and Sane’s low drive after 72 minutes gave Man City victory in perhaps the highest quality match English football has ever seen.
Stones’ incredible piece of defending helped City win the match and the title, in the process denying Liverpool, who only lost once that season on the way to 97 points, three things - a first league title in 29 years, an invincible season and a centurion season.
“We knew that it was a final today, if we lose it is almost over,” Guardiola told BBC Sport. “All credit to these incredible players.
“Both teams tried to search for each other, we were not scared, we had no fear.”
Both managers stayed true to that philosophy.
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Liverpool won the 2019/20 Premier League title at a canter, but we shouldn’t let knowledge of how things unfolded trick us into believing the end of their 30-year wait was inevitable.
When Man City went to Anfield in November 2019, 11 matches into the season, only six points separated the two sides. A win for Guardiola would have changed history.
But Liverpool were on fire and, channelling the belief it was their destiny to end the drought, they tore Man City apart.
It was blood and thunder, as usual. With four minutes on the clock a furious Man City attack ended in a penalty shout. Soon after, Fabinho had crashed a 25-yarder into the corner and Anfield erupted.
Before the quarter-hour mark a Salah header sent the Kop delirious, and from there the result was never in doubt.
Mane made it three at the beginning of the second half to confirm Liverpool were simply the better side that season.
They went eight points clear at the top and never looked back.
“What a game. If you want to win against City you have to do something special and we had to be intense,” Klopp told BBC Sport, excitable as he always was after playing Man City.
In 2020/21, their meetings captured a weird and foggy covid-hit season.
They drew 1-1 at the Etihad, a missed penalty from Kevin De Bruyne the defining feature as Man City won just their 12th point of the season from seven matches.
But by the time they played again in February at Anfield, Man City had surged back and Liverpool were staggering through a hangover.
A 4-1 win for the visitors, which included two howlers from Alisson in an empty stadium, put Man City five points clear with a match in hand, ending Liverpool’s faint hopes of a title challenge.
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Onto 2021/22, and the restoration of their rivalry at the top with a pair of thrilling 2-2 draws, the best of which was the first meeting at Anfield in October.
All four goals came in the second half, with Mane and Salah twice giving Liverpool the lead, only for Phil Foden and De Bruyne to drag City back into it.
This match will forever be remembered for Salah’s astonishing second goal, a slalom run through the City defence that, were it not for De Bruyne’s deflected strike five minutes later, would be looked back upon as a title-winning moment.
Rodri blocking a Fabinho shot in the dying seconds had just as monumental an impact on the title.
"What a game,” Guardiola said, revelling in the drama. “That is the reason the last year, Man City and Liverpool were always there because we try to play in this way. Unfortunately, we couldn't win - but we didn't lose. That's why the Premier League is the best.”
A stodgier fixture followed in the first half of 2022/23, when a more conservative Liverpool set-up saw them eke out a 1-0 home win courtesy of a genius swivel and finish from Salah.
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But Klopp went back to indulging in chaos at the Etihad the following April, playing in a tempestuous 4-2-4 formation that gave Man City the chance to counter-attack to a 4-1 victory.
Jack Grealish was the standout player, first intervening on Salah to prevent Liverpool from taking a 2-0 lead before crossing for Julian Alvarez to level.
Man City pulled away in the second half, with goals from De Bruyne, Gundogan and Grealish asserting their superiority over a Liverpool team in need of midfield upgrades.
It still left Man City eight points behind Arsenal with a game in hand, but the manner of their performance was an ominous sign.
We will never know if thrashing Liverpool that day affected Arsenal, who subsequently relinquished their grip, but it can’t have helped to see Man City dispatch of their rivals – and their final big test – so easily.
“Minute one to minute 93, it was a perfect performance,” Guardiola told BT Sport afterwards.
Klopp’s assessment was damning. “We had a situation for 3-2 when Robbo [Andy Robertson] broke through, but apart from that, City could do what they wanted because the spaces were too big," he said. “We were lucky they only scored one more.”
At the time, the gulf between Guardiola and Klopp had never been greater. It is to the Liverpool manager’s great credit that this season they are back, level-pegging on points following a pair of absorbing 1-1 draws.
Their head-to-heads are over, consigned to history.
But Klopp and Guardiola have another 10 Premier League matches eyeing each other; fighting for the crown from a distance. It is the end this great rivalry deserves.
