Manchester City thrash 10-man Liverpool 5-0

Manchester City thrashed 10-man Liverpool 5-0 in a fourth-round clash of the English Premier League (EPL) football championship at the Etihad Stadium here on Saturday.

Liverpool winger Sadio Mane received a red card in the 37th minute after clipping City goalkeeper Ederson Santana in the face with his cleats, reports Efe.

Sergio Aguero opened the scoring for Manchester City 25 minutes into the match. With this strike, Aguero became EPL's all-time leading non-European scorer, according to City's official website. It was the Argentine's 124th league goal since he joined City from Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2011 and meant that he overtook Dwight Yorke in the all-time English record books.

Gabriel Jesus scored the second goal in the injury time of the first half and struck again to score the third goal in the 53rd minute.

Leroy Sane scored the fourth goal in the 77th minute and the fifth in the last minute of the game, thus sealing the 5-0 home victory over Liverpool.

"Obviously we knew it was going to be a very intensive game. They are very strong offensively and for the first 20 minutes it was a bit back and forth all the time," City attacking midfielder Kevin De Bruyne was quoted as saying by his club's website.

"After the first goal we took control and then that (the sending off) happened. It was not a bad foul but with the way Eddy comes out of it its normal for a red card. If he doesn't have the injury it's a yellow card.

"After that I think we played really smart. We didn't give Liverpool time and if you score a few goals it makes it a lot easier."

With this win, Manchester City provisionally lead the EPL table with 10 points, one point ahead of Manchester United, who are to be hosted by Stoke City later on Saturday.

Liverpool are provisionally in the fifth place with seven points after suffering its first defeat this season.

--IANS

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