IN PICS: European football round-up - Zlatan saves United

Sport360 staff 22:06 15/01/2017

Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s late header saw a thrilling clash between bitter rivals Manchester United and Liverpool end in a pulsating 1-1 draw.

Unlike October’s drab, goalless draw at Anfield, the 50th Premier League meeting of these sides lived up the pre-match hype.

Jurgen Klopp’s men looked set to give the hosts a bloody nose after James Milner thumped home a first-half penalty, but United showed impressive resolve and forced a late leveller through Ibrahimovic.

A draw was probably fair given how the match panned out, albeit the result does little to boost either side’s title chances.

Pep Guardiola refused to blame his humiliated Manchester City stars after they crashed to a dismal 4-0 defeat against Everton on Sunday.

City’s wretched effort at Goodison Park condemned Guardiola to the heaviest league defeat of his glittering managerial career.

But, publicly at least, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss wasn’t angry with his expensively assembled team and he insisted the chastening afternoon could have gone differently if City had taken their early chances.

“We created enough chances in the first half to score. After what happened we were not able to score and Everton had one chance and scored,” Guardiola said. “They scored straight after half-time and that is tough mentally for the players.”

City’s fourth defeat in their last eight league games leaves them trailing 10 points behind leaders Chelsea, with even a top four finish suddenly far from certain.

Romelu Lukaku and Kevin Mirallas put Everton in control at Goodison Park before teenager Tom Davies scored his first goal for the club and debutant Ademola Lookman completed the rout after coming on as an 89th minute substitute.

In Italy’s Serie A, Roma strengthened their grip on second with a 1-0 win away to Udinese thanks to Radja Nainggolan’s effort.

Meanwhile, in Ligue 1, French pacesetters Nice slugged out a 0-0 draw with rock bottom Metz.

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