Man City 2-3 Liverpool: Five things you may have missed from Wembley as treble hopes are dashed for City

Manchester City fell to a disappointing 3-2 loss to Liverpool in Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final, with Ibrahima Konate and Sadio Mane (2) netting, while Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva scored for the Sky Blues in the second half.

It was a game where the scoreline perhaps didn’t give a fair account of how it panned out, with Liverpool dominating for the majority of the afternoon, but were forced to hold on in injury-time as City had three dangerous efforts.

But the win only strengthens Liverpool’s hopes of a quadruple, while simultaneously putting an end to any chances of City claiming a treble.

Our football reporter was at Wembley and has picked out some of the minor moments from the game which may have passed fans by…

Marking Hillsborough

Ahead of the game, both sets of players stood for a minute’s silence to mark 33 years since the Hillsborough Disaster.

However, as has been widely reported, a few brainless City fans ruined the poignant occasion by failing to remain quiet.

Some fans were heard cheering and making noise throughout, culminating in Liverpool supporters at the opposite end of the stadium loudly booing towards the City masses.

The situation resulted in the referee actually feeling obligated to blow up early and halt the minute of reflection.

Empty seats

City fans won’t want to read this bit, but it was notable how many empty seats there were towards the outer edges of the light blue section of the crowd on Saturday.

Admittedly, the travel issues won’t have helped on a weekend when trains aren’t running from Manchester to London, but opposition fans will take great pleasure in poking fun at the City fanbase.

Friendly rivalry?

So much has been made in recent weeks about how this rivalry between City and Liverpool lacks the intensity of others across the history of English football, such as Manchester United vs Arsenal around the turn of the century.

But there were 27 fouls across the game, and City in particular committed some cynical offences at Wembley.

One tackle that irked Liverpool was a sliding challenge from Fernandinho that caused Sadio Mane to go flying into the air.

Admittedly, it looked like the Brazilian mistimed the tackle rather than maliciously meant to harm the Liverpool forward. However, it caused a few on-field handbags and pushing & shoving as Mane received treatment.

The Senegal international responded by tripping Fernandinho a few minutes later and was booked for the challenge.

Klopp & Grealish mid-game debate

As Liverpool made a substitution in the second period, Grealish wondered over to the sidelines to receive some instructions from Pep Guardiola.

The winger felt slightly aggrieved that he hadn’t been awarded a free-kick a few moments before, and had been complaining to the referee.

As Grealish was standing on the touchline, Klopp seemed to have a light-hearted conversation about the alleged foul, with both sharing a smile about the moment. The pair didn’t seem to agree, but it certainly wasn’t a heated debate.

Goalkeepers’ union

It was a tough afternoon for City goalkeeper Zack Steffen at Wembley and it was his error that led to Liverpool’s second goal, as he failed to clear the ball in time and Mane slid in to almost tackle the ball into the net.

The American also could have done better for Mane’s second, as the ball squeezed in at the stopper’s near post.

After the game, Steffen was clearly downbeat by how the match had played out, even though he responded well in the second half.

But after the full-time whistle, fellow keepers Ederson and Scott Carson headed straight over to the 27-year-old to console him, and were accompanied by defender Ruben Dias.