"Absolutely brilliant": Gary Neville was stunned by Liverpool during wonderful passage of play

Liverpool earned a hard-fought point at the Etihad on Sunday and while the Reds weren't at their best, their quality shone through.

Manchester City were, unfortunately, the better side and they started the game with brighter intentions, opening the scoring in the 5th minute through Kevin De Bruyne.

While it was a deflected effort, the goal gave Manchester City's players and the home fans inside the Etihad a major lift but their lead wouldn't last long as Diogo Jota would strike to cancel it out.

It was a wonderfully worked move that started out with an unbelievable switch from Thiago. The ball fell to Andy Robertson, who swung it into the box to Trent Alexander-Arnold.

The Scouser's first time cutback into the box set Jota up and there aren't many players in the world that are better at poaching those kinds of opportunities and he brought the scoreline back to level pegging.

Manchester City would strike again before half time as a lack of awareness from Joel Matip kept Gabriel Jesus onside while Trent Alexander-Arnold made no attempt to track his run.

Immediately after halftime, the Reds struck back to make it 2-2 and ultimately, settle the tie as Sadio Mane raced in to whip the ball beyond Ederson.

This time, it was a neat bit of work from Trent on the right-wing to find Mohamed Salah, who, despite being quite for large parts of the first half, burst into life to assist Mane.

The Egyptian received the ball, taking two tidy touches, before playing a defence-splitting pass to find Mane.

The Senegal attacker made a brilliant run behind Kyle Walker and the English defender was unable to use his pace to bail him out on this occasion.

Such was the accuracy and weight of the pass from Salah that Mane only had to pick his spot. That said, the finish was world-class and he left Ederson on the ground as he found the top right-hand corner.

Reacting to what was a pivotal moment in the game, Neville exclaimed: "What a pass from Salah!

"And Mane gets ahead and he just slips past Ederson into that far corner.

"What a start to this second half. Absolutely brilliant from Liverpool."