TIMU YA LIVERPOOL YACHAPA MABAO 3-0 MANCHESTER CITY, MOHAMED SALAH, ALEX OXLADE-CHAMBERLAIN NA SADIO MANE ‘WALIKIWASHA KINOMA ~ Shamakala

Kocha wa Liverpool Jurgen Klopp akishangilia bao la kwanza dhidi ya Manchester City kayika mchezo wa Ligi ya Mabingwa Ulaya UEFA

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Sadio Mane puts Liverpool 3-0 up just after the half-hour mark with a header from Mohamed Salah's pinpoint cross

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Mane is mobbed by team-mates as Dejan Lovren roars towards a euphoric Kop crowd following the first-half onslaught

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Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain powers home from roughly 25 yards out to double the lead for Liverpool in the 20th minute

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The Liverpool midfielder rifles the ball with his laces as the home side ran riot in an astonishing opening 45 minutes

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The England international celebrates after scoring in his first Champions League quarter-final appearance

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Mohamed Salah fired Liverpool ahead from close range in the 12th minute after a mistake from Manchester City's Kyle Walker

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Salah wheels away in delight after notching his 38th goal of an astonishing debut season at the Merseyside club

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Salah slides to his knees as Roberto Firmino and Andy Robertson join him in celebrating his opening strike in the tie

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Fernandinho, Vincent Kompany and David Silva troop back to the halfway line after Manchester City fell 3-0 behind

MATCH FACTS, PLAYER RATINGS AND MATCH ZONE

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Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain powers home from roughly 25 yards out to put Liverpool 2-0 up. CLICK HERE for more from MATCH ZONE.

Liverpool (4-3-3): Karius 7, Alexander-Arnold 8, van Dijk 8, Lovren 8, Robertson 8, Milner 8.5, Henderson 7.5, Oxlade-Chamberlain 9 (Moreno 85), Salah 8 (Wijnaldum 52), Firmino 7.5 (Solanke 71), Mane 8

Subs not used: Mignolet, Clyne, Ings, Masterson

Booked: Henderson

Goalscorers: Salah 12, Oxlade-Chamberlain 20, Mane 31

Manager: Jurgen Klopp 8.5

Manchester City (4-3-3): Ederson 6, Walker 5, Otamendi 5, Kompany 6, Laporte 4.5, Gundogan 5 (Sterling 57), Fernandinho 6, Silva 6, De Bruyne 6, Jesus 4.5, Sane 5.5

Subs not used: Bravo, Danilo, Stones, Delph, Bernardo Silva, Zinchenko

Booked: Otamendi, Jesus, De Bruyne, Sterling

Manager: Pep Guardiola 5.5

Referee: Felix Brych

We expected goals, and got them, but we expected them shared between two teams standing toe to toe, and instead all went one way. Liverpool were magnificent, delivering arguably the performance of the season, by any English club.

Clinical on occasions, but mighty in their defensive resilience, too. Loris Karius did not have a shot to save against a group of players that have been relentless in their attacking ambition this season.

Liverpool’s midfield were the stars. James Milner, Jordan Henderson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain — as names on a team-sheet they appeared dwarfed by City’s stellar equivalent, yet this was their night. They protected the defensive line, they hassled City’s creators to the point of madness. Guardiola’s side looked lost in a way they have not all season — even here in January, losing 4-3.

This was, as the scoreline suggests, an improvement. A complete, emphatic triumph of will and spirit, backed by ferocious noise that only Anfield on European nights conjures. This was a marker thrown down for this season, and the next, too – a result that says Liverpool are the real deal.

They have the beating of the best team in the land, so next year might be interesting, and if they can do this to City now, might they also be able to do it to Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, this season too?

Liverpool might not be the champions of Spain, as Barcelona surely will be, or of Germany like Bayern Munich, or champions of Europe like Madrid; but they have heart and an appetite for European occasions that is close to unmatched in English football.

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Leroy Sane embarks on a marauding run down the left-hand side of the Liverpool box as Dejan Lovren watches on

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Mohamed Salah and Aymeric Laporte challenge for the ball during the opening stages of Wednesday night's game

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Sadio Mane leaves Manchester City centre-back Nicolas Otamendi for dead as he charges into the penalty area

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Liverpool centre-back Dejan Lovren muscles past Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus as he chases after the loose ball

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Liverpool forward Sadio Mane chases after the ball as Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne attempts to track his run

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Liverpool duo James Milner and Andy Robertson crowd out Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne to try and win the ball

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Jurgen Klopp watches on as Liverpool star Mohamed Salah receives treatment early in the second-half on Wednesday

Here's the difference. Manchester City thought the usual, the plan A that had served them so magnificently throughout this season, would be enough. Liverpool knew that this was different.

It demanded more of them, so they gave more – the way Mo Farah does in his last lap, or Steven Redgrave's Olympic rowers did over the final 500 metres. This game was an apex for Liverpool under Klopp – and, if one recalls the match against Borussia Dortmund, there have been some contenders.

Ultimately, it was not just the Manchester City bus that was harmed. Retreating from Liverpool, the tie near lost, their coach was looking pretty damaged, too.

For Pep Guardiola to say the way his team played suited Liverpool perfectly was an astonishing admission on the eve of such a big game. For him then to stick to that plan was just perverse. Maybe playing four at the back and omitting Raheem Sterling from his starting line up was Guardiola making concessions. If so, it didn't work.

Nobody wants a pragmatic Manchester City or Guardiola. Nobody wants cat and mouse. Yet was there a way City could have set up that did not leave them so vulnerable to Liverpool's front three? It's not as if plan A had worked here as it had elsewhere, Liverpool away being City's sole defeat of the Premier League season.

What cannot be denied is that, by comparison, Klopp got all he demanded from his team, maybe even more. Guardiola talked up the maturity of players like Gabriel Jesus, but the best young player on the pitch was Trent Alexander-Arnold, who stood up to Leroy Sane tremendously.

And, whatever possession statistics show, Liverpool's win was well deserved. The first was against the run of play; the second a shot from way out. Yet by the time Liverpool made it three, nobody could argue there wasn't sufficient merit in this performance.

A lead of that enormity against a team as good as City isn't achieved by accident. The ferociousness of Klopp's men, the sheer volume of work and energy expounded was quite stunning. Liverpool controlled a midfield that had been rampant across Stanley Park on Saturday night.

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Klopp embraces the Liverpool talisman as he makes his way down the tunnel after picking up an injury just after half-time

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Liverpool midfielder James Milner gets his foot to the ball and boots it upfield after a goalmouth scramble in front of the Kop

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Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold tracks the forward run of Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus

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Liverpool substitute Georginio Wijnaldum puts a hand across Manchester City forward Leroy Sane in the second-half

As committed as the defence were, so the forwards were terrifying. No team will approach a fixture at Anfield without a degree of trepidation after this.

Not just the reception en route because any player of significance will have seen inhospitable crowds before – and not the noise because there is plenty of that around Europe on Champions League nights, too. Liverpool's strength is that the passion in the ground finds its echo on the pitch.

An old cliche, sure, but Klopp's players do seem to want it more. They fired into tackles, their recovery sprints were lung-bursting, their forward runs courageous and committed. Seeing Sane, brilliant though he is, watch Oxlade-Chamberlain for Liverpool's second encapsulated the difference.

That Liverpool's first goal was scored at a time when Manchester City had recorded 76 per cent possession sums up the difference between having the ball, and sticking it in the net.

Sane had tested Liverpool with a brilliant dribble through three men into the penalty area, his shot deflected for a corner, but most of City's good work had been done controlling the rhythm and tempo of the game. It was being played at their pace, to their specification. And then a momentary lapse later, and it was not.

Mohamed Salah was left unguarded on the halfway line, which is a bit like leaving Winnie the Pooh to his own devices around honey. What followed was entirely predictable. Salah got the ball – he was a sliver offside, but by a margin that was not outrageous, and this happens – and broke for goal at electrifying speed.

He fed Roberto Firmino, whose shot was weak but wasn't well dealt with by Ederson. Kyle Walker should have cleared it, maybe twice, but it fell to Salah in a position very similar to his goal in Porto. As on that night, he made no mistake.

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Loris Karius gets down to the loose ball as Gabriel Jesus tangles with Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk in the second-half

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Pep Guardiola looks crestfallen on the touchline as Liverpool the first-half of the first-leg Champions League quarter-final

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Jurgen Klopp shakes hands with his opposite number in the technical area before kick-off at a packed Anfield

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Anfield provided an electric atmosphere as Liverpool took on Manchester City in the quarter-finals of the Champions League

From there, City fell apart. They were two goals down after 20 minutes, three behind after 31. Liverpool had one of those spells where stuff just worked. They gambled, and won. They were brave. They were what Klopp asked them to be.

Oxlade-Chamberlain was superb and his goal was just reward for the sort of display that Arsene Wenger rarely extracted from him at Arsenal. A tussle in midfield went Liverpool's way, naturally, and Milner fed Oxlade-Chamberlain who took a chance with a shot from 25 yards – a chance that paid off as Ederson grasped at air.

Scenes. Flares. Maybe a UEFA fine. That wasn't going to dampen anyone's night, and when Sadio Mane added a third the only reason the roof wasn't actually raised was because some Liverpool fans were perhaps dumb with disbelief.

Salah had a shot; Vincent Kompany blocked it. Salah tried again, this time with subtlety – a lovely dinked cross that was met by Mane between two blue shirts heading downwards into goal.

Henderson will be missing for the return, suspended, and maybe Salah too, if his groin injury does not clear in a week.

And of course, Barcelona came from four down against Paris St Germain and Liverpool have surrendered three against everyone from Sevilla to Crystal Palace. Yet it looks as if the damage is already done. Some will blame pre-match intimidation, but that's too easy. What scared City was on the field, not on the streets.