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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Harry Siddall

Man City's last FA Cup clash with Liverpool in 2003 revisited

Manchester City's 4-1 victory over Southampton on Sunday booked a FA Cup semi-final clash against Liverpool in a month's time, with the two sides meeting in this particular competition for the first time since 2003.

Both teams are at the peak of their powers at the moment. Boasting the last four Premier League titles between them, it has been the most intense and highest-quality rivalry the Premier League has possibly ever seen - with hitting 90-plus points now seen as the norm.

It is a credit to both Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp that the league has reached such high standards, but back when the two teams faced each other in 2003, things were a little different.

ALSO READ: Klopp warns Liverpool not to fall into Man City double-header trap

Two clubs with infinitely different expectations, the FA Cup third-round draw pitted Kevin Keegan's City against the late Gerard Houllier's Liverpool at Maine Road. The Saturday lunchtime kick-off had all the makings of a cup classic, with the visitors winless in their last 10 league matches.

To get a flavour of what City's team was like back in 2003, Keegan's starting line-up was: Schmeichel, Jihai, Mettomo, Distin, Wiekens, Benarbia, Horlock, Foe, Jensen, Wright-Phillips and Anelka.

One name that instantly stands out is Nicolas Anelka - who played for the Blues 103 times between 2002 and 2005 - and spent a short period before that at Anfield.

Liverpool on the other hand, boasted an array of world class talent in their starting line-up. Household names like Steven Gerrard and El-Hadji Diouf were also supported by the emerging talent of Neil Mellor and the now-Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher.

After a cagey first 45 minutes, the game sprung into life in the second half, with the visitors awarded a penalty after the late Marc-Vivian Foe was adjudged to stop a cross from Vladimir Smicer with his hand.

There was no mistake from the spot by Danny Murphy, who rolled the ball past Peter Schmeichel in the City goal to fire his team into the lead.

From that point onwards the game was all-but-done. Shaun Goater - currently a youth coach at City- was the closest to equalising, heading just over the bar from a hopeful cross.

So it was Liverpool who earned progression, but that was as far as they would go, losing to Crystal Palace in a fourth-round replay.

Fast forward to 2022 and the two teams are on the same pedestal, and they will be hoping the FA Cup is one of many titles they'll be picking up this season. With a quadruple and a treble on the line, there's a lot to play for on April 16th.

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