By Daily Sports on May 12, 2019

Liverpool are bidding to become the first team to overtake the Premier League leaders on the final day as they look to wrest the title from champions Manchester City.

The Reds, who host Wolves, are one point behind leaders City, who visit Brighton - with both games on Sunday at 15:00 BST.

It is the eighth Premier League title race to go down to the final day.

Champions League finalists Liverpool have not won the league since 1990.

It has been a title race of the highest quality, with City winning their past 13 league games and Liverpool winning eight in a row. Neither side have lost a league game since January.

With City on 95 points and Liverpool on 94, whoever finishes second is guaranteed to have the highest final points total of any runners-up in English top-flight history.

Realistically Liverpool need to beat seventh-placed Wolves and hope Manchester City drop points against 17th-placed Brighton.

The Reds come into the game high on confidence after reaching the Champions League final with a stunning 4-0 victory over Barcelona on Tuesday, after losing the first leg 3-0. They face Tottenham in the Madrid final on 1 June.

City are looking to become the first team to win the English domestic treble. Pep Guardiola’s side beat Chelsea on penalties in the Carabao Cup final and face Watford in the FA Cup final next Saturday.

Those cup finals are on the back burner until the Premier League title is decided, however.

“We think about Wolves,” said Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp, who has not won a major trophy since the 2012 German double with Borussia Dortmund.

“You get millions of messages and nobody speaks about the weekend. It’s all ‘unbelievable’ and ‘all the best in the final’ but we play Wolves now.

“It doesn’t make Tuesday night’s achievement any smaller. It was for sure one of the best moments in football history, not only Liverpool. But it has nothing to do with the weekend except that we should be confident.”

The title lead has changed hands a record 32 times – albeit including several weekends that Liverpool have played their game first. The Reds need to make that 33 to win the league.

Liverpool were seven points clear of Manchester City until the champions beat them 2-1 on 3 January in what remains the Reds’ only league defeat this season.

“It’s a dream to be here. I didn’t expect... to be in the position that we are now,” said Guardiola, who can become only the third manager after Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho to win consecutive Premier League titles.

“We’re going to play well, strong mentally, knowing it’ll be tough. It’s better to focus on what we do. If we win, we don’t have to look at anything else.”

Neither of the title chasers’ final-day opponents have anything left to play for. Wolves are guaranteed seventh spot, which will be enough for a Europa League place if City beat Watford in the FA Cup final. Brighton are safe from relegation, sitting five points above Cardiff City.

There is still a mathematical chance of City and Liverpool finishing exactly level on points, goal difference and goals scored, which would mean a one-off title play-off at a neutral venue to decide the champions.

But the only way that could happen is if City lose 4-0 to Brighton and Liverpool draw 4-4 with Wolves (those two results have combined odds of 18,750-1) – or a 5-1 defeat and 5-5 draw, a 6-2 defeat and 6-6 draw, and so on.

•Excerpted from a BBC report. Photo shows Klopp and Guardiola

Source Daily Sports

Posted May 12, 2019

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