When Liverpool and Manchester City get their fixture lists for the 2026-27 season, each other’s names will be among the first they look for. Given the heft of investment these two sides have put into their squad over recent years, there is no reason — well, aside from the many charges laid at the City door by the Premier League — not to think that these two will be competing for the biggest prizes in years to come.
And yet, this last clash of Mohamed Salah’s nine years at Anfield offers as much of an opportunity to look back at what was as to consider what is yet come to Liverpool and City on the road to Wembley. These matchups have been some of the grandest moments in English footballing history, Salah one of the leading actors in the great power play of this generation. So many have now departed: Jurgen Klopp, Kevin De Bruyne, Vincent Kompany. Who knows how much longer the last few have left?
It would not be a surprise if Pep Guardiola called it quits in the summer, when he would have one year left on his City contract. Bernardo Silva is expected to move on in the summer rather than seek fresh terms. It is hard to envisage that even a yeoman as loyal as Andrew Robertson has many more Liverpool games to play. When those three move, perhaps in a few months, Virgil van Dijk will be the last man standing from the first, and arguably greatest, clash of these titans, the Champions League semifinal of 2018. Those might have been the games that established Salah as one of the game’s outstanding attackers: a goal and assist in the first-leg dismantling, the dagger strike to kill off a comeback in the second.
It is really only when you set that version of Salah, or last season’s vintage, against the current man that you really get the sense of a player not able to deliver at their highest level. There can be no doubt that the 33-year-old hasn’t looked like the menace of City of old when he has met them this season, but this diminished Salah can still put up eight shots, 0.65 xG and five chances created in 180 minutes against the old foe. The story of his games against City this season has been the story of Salah’s 2025-26 writ large: not the force he once was, but still a remarkably impactful player in a bit of a shooting slump.
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These last dozen or so matches — exactly how many will be dictated by Liverpool’s progress in the FA Cup and Champions League — might offer Salah a chance to fire himself out of those difficulties. As he has proven in the past, something takes hold of him when the big games pit him against City. Given the path to the Champions League final would take them via the holders and then perhaps two of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Arsenal, there may not be many bigger games left for Salah than this quarterfinal at the Etihad.
It is a chance to sign off in style, then, and those are exactly the sort of moments where his manager expects him to deliver. “The first day I was impressed by his professionalism,” Arne Slot told the Liverpool website this week. “He had nothing to prove, but for himself he had a lot to prove because Mo always thinks he has to prove something every three days.
“That hunger never stops, and that is something that I find most special about him. To show that hunger every three days, that professionalism, that commitment to the club, to the team, wanting to score again, always wanting to play – when you take him out three minutes before the end, he’s like: ‘Maybe I could have scored one extra!’ – that is what stands out for me.
“Hopefully, he can make his legacy even more special in the upcoming weeks and months, where we still play for something special, but he will always leave this club as a legend.”
His status as one of the greatest to ever do it in a Liverpool shirt has been forged in the fires of these great clashes with Manchester City. How appropriate would it be if he bid farewell to his old rivals with one last blast of brilliance?
Manchester City vs. Liverpool viewing information
- Date: Saturday, April 4 | Time: 7:45 a.m. ET
- Location: Etihad Stadium — Manchester, United Kingdom
- TV: ESPN | Live stream: fuboTV
- Odds: Manchester City -133; Draw +280; Liverpool +280
