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Liverpool 4 Manchester City 3 (Jan 14 2018)



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Dave Usher at Anfield
 
 
  
I’d had this fixture circled in the calendar for months. Ever since that farcical game at the Etihad when Jon Moss ruined what was shaping up to be an absolute classic, I couldn’t wait for another crack at toppling City. Along with drawing Barcelona in the Champions League, it’s the thing I've wanted more than anything else this season. 
 
I was convinced we’d have won that game at the Etihad had Mané not been sent off and for months I've been convinced we’d win this one too. That said, I’d be lying if I said the late withdrawal of Van Dijk didn’t shake my confidence a little, but I still felt we’d win the game. Not because I think we’re better than City, but because our style is best suited to beating them and because Anfield has been a miserable venue for them. 
 
When City conceded a stoppage time penalty at Selhurst Park recently, I was desperately hoping Palace would choke and I was made up they did. I wanted it to be us who inflicted their first defeat. I daresay Guardiola and his players would prefer it this way too, as surely it’s more preferable to lose their unbeaten streak to a team who are worthy adversaries than to a dodgy penalty against a side coached by Roy Hodgson. 
 
This was a pulsating game between the two best teams in the league. Whether we actually finish second or not doesn’t change that for me. The only team right now who are better than us are City, and as long as we steer clear of injuries I expect the league table will reflect that in May. 
 
We fully deserved the win and it’s a little annoying that the scoreline ended up as close as it did considering we were 4-1 up for a brief, glorious, spell. That said, City didn’t deserve to be hammered either so a one goal margin of victory is probably right all things considered. It’s just disheartening to concede three again, especially considering how well we defended as a team right up until the last five minutes when it started to unravel. 
 
Why did that happen? Tired legs and nerves I’d say. I mean, how could players not be tired after the phenomenal amount of work they put into this? I’d be interested to see the distance covered stats for the team as a whole, and also for the midfield three in particular. Wijnaldum seemed to get though an unbelievable amount of work and still looked fresh even at the end. Amazing stamina and desire from him. 
 
It’s not just about running though, there’s an intricacy about our pressing game that is way beyond my limited comprehension. It looks easy to the untrained eye. Basically it looks like everyone just charging around closing down the man with the ball, but it’s so much more than that. It’s all about closing off angles and pressing at the right moments. 
 
We got an insight into it last week when Ox spoke about how it took him a while to get it all figured out, and how if one man doesn’t do it properly then he’s hanging everyone else out to dry. What we saw in this game was probably the best example of Klopp’s press since he’s been here. From what I recall he said the game in Maribor was the best ‘counter pressing’ performance, but there’s a big difference between doing it against Maribor than being able to sustain it against Guardiola’s previously invincible juggernaut. 
 
The second half of this game was wild. It was just fucking electric from start to finish and is as good a 45 minutes of football as you’ll see anywhere this season. Two brilliant teams just going at each other hammer and tong, we hardly ever see that these days as too many managers are just massive shithouses. 
 
The second half was where we did most of our damage but I felt that our first half performance was superb. City had plenty of the ball but they couldn’t get it into the areas they wanted as we were so energetic and disciplined that their forward players hardly saw the ball. 
 
The pressing was relentless and as soon as we won the ball everyone just went straight at them. I also liked that we didn’t try to beat them at their own game and there was not too much unnecessary passing it round at the back. When the chance was there we played, but when it wasn’t Karius had no qualms about kicking it long. 
 
That actually led to our first goal funnily enough. Firmino challenged for a high ball and it ended up being picked up by Ox, who powered through and scored with a low shot that seemed to catch the keeper a bit by surprise. 
 
I love it when Ox just has these moments where it’s as though he just thinks “right, that’s enough of this shit I’m off” and he just bulldozes forward past people. He should do it more but he’s definitely getting there now and every game he seems to get better and look more comfortable. This was a goal he made himself just by showing determination, purpose and aggression. Three things the entire team were full off all game. 
 
We didn’t create too many clear chances in the first half, but neither did City. We had loads of nearly situations after winning the ball and getting it forward to Mané and Salah, but City generally defended those situations well or we were just lacking with the final ball. 
Defensively we were brilliant though. The only time City really threatened was when Aguero failed to reach a brilliant cross by De Bruyne. Other than that, they offered nothing (other than a typical Sterling dive that the referee saw right through) until just like that, they scored out of absolutely nowhere. 
 
Waker’s cross field ball was superb it has to be said. Gomez thought he could cut it out but the pass was quite literally inch perfect and dropped over his head. The wind may also have played a part too, but as soon as Gomez missed it I knew we were in trouble, as Sane is fucking boss. 
 
The winger immediately took it on his chest which took Gomez out of the play completely and left the German with the opportunity to run into the box and drive at Matip. He skipped round him with ease (hard to criticise Matip for that and Sane is almost impossible to stop when running at pace like that) and then blasted a shot past Karius. 
 
The keeper should have saved it. Any time a keeper is beaten at the near post you always want to have another look at it because more often than now it is a mistake, but sometimes the shot is just so good that there is nothing that can be done about it. I wondered if this was one of those occasions, but then I saw the replay from behind the goal and it’s pretty damning. He has to save that. 
 
I prefer Mignolet, that’s not a secret, but I’m not up in arms over Klopp wanting to give Karius a run now, even though I doubt he’ll prove anything other than what we already know. The thing is though, we know exactly what Mignolet is and don’t need to see any more to form an opinion. To me he’s a good keeper and there aren’t too many better in the Premier League (which tells you how poor the standard is), but ideally we need to upgrade on him. 
 
That means we’ll almost certainly be in the market for a new keeper this summer, but in the meantime it makes sense to have a proper look at Karius now and see if he can be the answer. I’m fairly certain he isn’t, but may as well find out for sure. He isn’t off to a good start but let’s see how he does. 
 
That goal was a real gut punch though. We’d defended so well all over the pitch and done a great job of keeping City at arms length, but just like that, out of nothing, all that good work was undone and we went in level at half time, with our balloon well and truly popped. 
 
The second half didn’t start too well as City came out of the traps quickly, although we had some nice moments too, specifically when Ox jinked his way into the box and then put a shot into the side netting. Sometimes we’re at our best when a team thinks they’re on top of us and are committing men forward, because all it takes is for us to win the ball quickly and we can kill anyone with what we have up front. 
 
The second goal was a great example of that. Ox and Gini crowded out De Bruyne and Ox once again picked up possession and drove forward into City territory. The ball he played in behind was clever but it looked as though Stones would get there and snuff out the danger. He should have done, but he misjudged it a little and also underestimated Firmino, who caught him unawares and just powered him off the ball before producing a Fowler-esque dink over the keeper to send Anfield crazy. 
 
There has been some discussion as to whether it was a foul on Stones. It wasn’t, but many a referee would have taken the easy way out and blew the whistle there. The fact that Stones didn’t hurl himself to the floor when he felt contact was a big factor in that I think.
 
Someone like that Johnny Evans cunt would have hit the deck like a sack of shite and probably earned a free-kick there, but Stones was honest and the referee was strong. 
 
Andre Marriner had a hell of a game actually. Every week across the Premier League we see abysmal refereeing, so it’s nice to be able to praise a referee for once. 
 
The goal had Anfield rocking and for the next ten minutes or so we were unstoppable as the players were like a shark that had got a whiff of blood in the water, and the crowd urged them on in their feeding frenzy. It was fucking wild, the most enjoyable spell of football I’ve witnessed since that 19 minute spell when we put four past Arsenal a few years back. 
 
Even in the face of such relentless, almost maniacal, pressing, City continued to do what they do and were undeterred by the ferocious chasing and harrying they were subjected to by our front six, and that would ultimately prove to be their undoing. 
 
First, Fernandinho passed the ball straight to Mané who hit the post when he would have expected to score, but you could see how rattled City were. Mané didn’t let the miss affect his confidence and soon after he was lashing one into the top corner with his left foot after being set up by Mo. 
 
That goal the perfect illustration of Klopp’s style. We had five players in a ten yard area and they forced the City players to work the ball back to Otamendi, who found Salah on him immediately. The defender tried to get rid of the ball but it was too late, Mo pounced and squared it Mané, and suddenly it’s 3-1. 
 
This is what they work on in training and we’re now seeing the “heavy metal football” we were promised when Klopp arrived. This was the kind of thing his Dortmund team did when they were in their heyday, and he’s really close now to putting us in position to do what Dortmund did. Really close. There’s just a couple of weaknesses that need ironing out and we’re right in business. 
 
After a slightly subdued first half I thought Mané looked back to his best in the second period. He put in one hell of a shift too. They all did. 

 

Mané was involved in the fourth goal too, as he raced in behind the defence looking to get onto another pass from Salah, who had been found beautifully by Wijnaldum who, surrounded by five city players, calmly dinked the ball over them to Mo. 
 
His pass was slightly overhit and the keeper was quick off his line. This time Sadio opted to hang back and not boot him in the head, and that decision paid off as Ederson’s clearance went straight to Salah, whose first touch was heavenly. 
 
His second touch wasn’t bad either, but I already knew he’d scored even before he hit the shot. As soon as he managed to control the initial clearance and I saw the keeper was stranded, the outcome was never in doubt there. What a player. He was brilliant again. This front three is something really special, they’re all fucking class in different ways, but they compliment each other so well and seem to really enjoy playing together. 
 
That keeper is shite though. I’ve been reading about what a great signing he’s been but I’m not having him at all. He flapped at every single corner that came in and although he’s generally brilliant with his feet, ultimately it was his poor clearance that cost City their unbeaten record, as that was the decisive goal. 
 
Tell you what though, in the first half he hit a clearance from inside his own six yard box that landed in our box. It was unreal, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ball kicked that far before. It may have been wind assisted, but it was still fucking impressive like. He’s got an absolute sledgehammer for a left foot. Shame about his hands. 
 
It says everything about this team of ours that even at 4-1 I didn’t feel safe. For a while it looked like a lot of City’s players were just waiting for the final whistle, but De Bruyne kept driving forward and the rest of them drew from that. I said to my Dad with about 15 minutes to go that we needed to get through the next five minutes without conceding because as soon as we let in one it would be panic stations, as usual. 
 
We did that but with seven minutes to go City pulled one back. A big reason for that as far as I’m concerned was that Milner had replaced Can with ten minutes left. While that change was probably necessary (Big Sexy was flagging after playing through illness) it really had a negative impact on us and the control we’d had in the middle of the park was lost. 
 
To clarify, by control I don’t mean possession, I mean the control we had over what City were trying to do. They went from posing no threat to looking like they’d score every time they got the ball. 
 
The goal that got them back into it came about because Milner over committed to a challenge on Gundogan and was skinned by him. A path opened up for Gundogan to run right at the heart of the defence and play a one two. Gomez got across to make a good block on him but the loose ball fell to Bernardo Silva who rifled it home. 
 
Silva had replaced the ineffectual Sterling, and that change had as much of an impact on the game as Milner replacing Can. Prior to those two substitutions we never looked in any danger, but now it was going to be brown trousers time for the last five minutes or so. 
 
As for Sterling, he was shite and once again looked like the occasion got to him. He couldn’t do a thing right and Robertson was all over him like a rash, which was clearly pissing him off and eventually saw him lose his rag and pick up a booking. Subbing him was a kindness, but it didn’t help us because Silva was much more of a threat. 
 
Sterling was booed from start to finish, which is fine as he deserves it. The “one greedy bastard” chant doesn’t well with me though. It makes us look like bitter knobheads because even if we disregard the gigantic pay rise he got, from his perspective he’s clearly bettered himself by joining City and he’s about to win the title. We were shite when he left and I’m sure he has no regrets. So boo him to your hearts content, but lay off the ‘greedy bastard’ chants because it makes us sound like fucking Villa or some other nomark club. 
 
Anyway, City had the bit between their teeth at 2-4 and I felt like we’d lost our composure a little, particularly Lovren, who had been fantastic for 85 minutes but was now all over the place. He went walkabout trying to win a ball he should never have even thought about and he left a huge gap through the middle, but fortunately he got away with that one. 
 
Then he came out to close down De Bruyne and ended up following him all the way across the box without being able to win the ball. No real harm done as he got back in the middle to defend the cross, but then he couldn’t get off the ground and the ball dropped over his head for Gundogan, who had time to chest it down and then score. 
 
You know what I think happened there? I reckon Lovren’s legs went after chasing De Bruyne, and he just didn’t have anything in them to get off the ground and win the header. At the time I thought he’d been shoved in the back, as his whole body shape looked like he’d been fouled. No-one appealed though and having seen the replay there was nothing in it at all, he just didn’t get off the floor. 
 
He’ll now be castigated, as usual, but in this case I think it’s a little unfair as he’d put so much into that game and for 85 minutes he was fantastic. I just think a combination of tiredness and the general panic we always feel in those circumstances caused him to lose it a bit at the end. He was trying too hard and that led to some questionable decisions. 
 
This is where Van Dijk will hopefully help us. If he can settle everyone down, organise and generally inspire confidence in those around him then the defenders we already have, including Lovren, should be fine. Whether it’s Lovren or Matip alongside him won’t matter too much if Van Dijk is as advertised. 
 
The last few minutes were horrible as we’ve blown so many leads that it felt inevitable we’d concede again in those four minutes of stoppage time. In the end though we saw it out with no real scares. Milner did give away a stupid free-kick with a reckless late challenge for which he was booked, but the defence held a great line and Aguero would have been given offside if his header had gone in, which it didn’t. 
 
So the final whistle goes and it was just a joyous feeling, combined with a fair amount of relief. Days like this are fucking boss. I keep saying this, but some of things we almost take for granted are things that fans of other teams never get to see. We’ve won 7-0 in Europe twice this season. We’ve spanked Arsenal 4-0 and we’ve just deservedly beaten the unbeatables. 
 
It’s pretty good being a Red right now. If people want to complain about the goalkeeper, the late defensive collapse or the lack of a Coutinho replacement after a game like this, that’s up to them of course. I’m not telling anyone how to be a fan, and they are valid concerns, no doubt about it. 
 
I just feel like by dwelling on the bad you’re not going to fully enjoy the good, and there’s an awful lot of fucking good at the moment. This was a great game, our lads played out of their skins and pulled off a memorable win. It wasn’t perfect but so what, it was good enough. 

 

Klopp can worry about how to fix the defence, it’s not my problem and there’s nothing I can do about it other than put my trust in him to sort it. I’m just enjoying the ride now. I fucking loved this, I was absolutely buzzing afterwards and despite the loss of Coutinho I’m excited about what we might do in the next few months. 
 
This now, for me, is definitely the best team we’ve had since we last won the title. It’s unfortunate that City are so far ahead this year because in any other season we’d be in a title challenge right now, I’m not sure many people have cottoned onto how good we actually are yet, even a lot of our own fans, but I genuinely believe this is the best team we’ve had in 25 years or so. 
 
We just have to hope that we can continue to improve and that next year City don’t set such a blistering pace. While I have no respect for City’s achievements as it’s come off the back of blatant financial doping, the one thing I would say is that I do respect the way they play. 
Guardiola might have a blank chequebook to sign whoever he likes, but other managers have been in that situation too and they have never played this kind of football. Yes Mourinho, I’m looking at you here, you game spoiling little fucking turd. 
 
Everyone knows what our strength is and most teams are so fucking terrified of what we can do that they completely change their own style. No-one plays it out from the back against us because it’s football suicide. Yet here come City, rolling into Anfield, dicks swinging, saying “we’re not going to change for anyone. We’ll do our thing, you do yours and may the best team win”. And the best team did win, but good on City for standing in the middle of the ring and trading punches instead of running away and covering up. 
 
I give Guardiola and his players all the credit in the world for that approach and I’m struggling to remember coming up against a better team than this one. Maybe one of the great Arsenal teams, or the United side of Cantona, Hughes, Giggs, Kanchelskis etc I dunno though, I think this City team is probably better than all of them. 
 
We won and we deserved to win, but we had to play out of our skins to do it and even then we were hanging on at the end. City won’t lose another game this season, and going into this one I genuinely felt that if we didn’t beat them then nobody would. 
 
Usually after beating a rival team there’s a real having of “have that you fucking knobheads” but I didn’t feel like that after this one. It was just a great game of football, played in a great spirit and it was a privilege to be there to see it. There isn’t the sense of satisfaction there’d be after beating Mourinho’s United, it was more a pride at how well our team played against a brilliant opponent. 
 
City will bounce back from this and increase the huge lead they already have at the top and the rest of us are playing for second. There’s no shame in that and if we got second this year it would almost feel like winning it because what City are doing means you kind of have to disregard them completely. 
 
They’ll probably pick up more points than any team in English top flight history and this loss won’t phase them in the least because they know they won’t have to come up against anyone like us again this season. They knew before the game this was the most difficult game on their fixture list and they won’t have been shocked by anything that happened. 
 
Players know. City players knew what a tough game they were in last time until to the Mané red card made it a procession for them. They wouldn’t have been fooled by that and despite their great record they won’t have been complacent ahead of this game. 
 
I’ve heard a lot shite being spoken about how City weren’t at the races, City didn’t play well, City looked tired, City had too many players who didn’t show up. All kinds of fucking nonsense. 
 
City were brilliant, the best team we’ll play all season irrespective of who we might get in Europe. They had something like 70% possession, at Anfield, in a game where we played fucking brilliantly. So don’t tell me that City were below par. For most of the game we managed to keep that brilliance in check and if City didn’t look as good as they usually do, that’s because we didn’t let them play the way they usually do. 
 
Some may now suggest that we’ve laid down the blueprint for others on how to beat City, but unless you have players that can do what our lads did then City will just play through you and take you apart. And nobody else - with the possible exception of Spurs and maybe Chelsea - have players that can do it. 
 
They are quite literally in a league of their own this season, which they should be given the financial advantage they have over everybody else other than their neighbours, who are doing it by the book and spending money they generate themselves, but are being held back by a snivelling little tit of a manager not fit to even breathe the same air as Guardiola or Klopp. 
 
In any other year we’d be in a title race and it’s frustrating that we aren’t, but it is what it is. It might actually work to our benefit because we’re probably not quite ready to win it and could do without the disappointment of another narrow failure. The target now has to be top three, perhaps even top two, and success in one of the cups we’re still in. 
 
Whatever happens, we’re in better shape right now than anybody other than City. Arsenal fans are miserable, United fans are bored shitless, Chelsea fans don’t know what’s going on with their club. Then there’s us and Spurs enjoying ourselves and playing great football. 
 
Coutinho will be missed of course, but only in certain games. He had a great record against City but I didn’t think for a second we’d miss him in this game, because the high octane style we were always going to play with probably means we were better off without him in this one. I thought Lallana would have played, but Ox got the nod and that proved to be a masterstroke by Klopp because he was probably our best player. 
 
I say probably because it’s such a tough call. All the outfield players were excellent but Ox, Robbo, Firmino, Wijanldum and Can (given the fact he played through illness) really stood out. Even the defence were terrific until those last few minutes. Gomez was fucking monstrous aside from the one misjudgement that let Sane in. 
 
Everyone was boss, I don’t really want to nitpick at any of them over specific errors they may have made because they all did so much right during the game. You can’t beat City without everyone doing their bit, and everyone did. 
 
It wasn’t so long ago that I was largely indifferent to this group of players. It wasn’t so much that I disliked any of them, I just didn’t really like many of them too much because I was getting fed up of them letting us down. 
 
It’s different now. They will probably lose a couple of games they shouldn’t do between now and May, but I no longer see them as untrustworthy losers. They’re an honest group of lads who will run through brick walls for their manager and for the fans. 
 
There’s a lot to like about this squad. It’s easy to pick out the stars like Mané and Salah, but lads like Firmino (who's heading towards becoming another Suarez the way he's progressing this season), Ox and Andy Robertson are fucking boss and I’ve really warmed to the so many of this team now.
 
You see Robbo going on a mad fucking charge down the pitch, forcing one City player after another to pass the ball backwards until they ended up by their own touchline, and how can you not love that? It was fucking awesome, and soon after his name was belting around all four sides of the stadium. 
 
That crazy charge from Robbo has probably taken over from an exhausted Lallana collapsing into Klopp’s arms after being subbed at Spurs as the most iconic Klopp football type moment for me. I was fuming the ref gave a foul against Robbo in the end because it was never a foul in a million years, Otamendi just shit himself as this wild Scotsman came flying at him. I like to think Robertson was screaming some kind of Braveheart warcry as he chased him down, because Otamendi seemed terrified and just fell over wanting the ref to take pity on him, which he did. Thankfully Firmino didn’t score from the loose ball because if that had been disallowed it would have ruined the entire day, win or no win. Andy Robertson, what a guy. 
 
I don’t know what’s in store for us between now and May, but I tell you what, I can’t fucking wait to get some of Europe’s big boys at Anfield because this team are better equipped for those situations than they are playing against some of the shite the Premier League has to offer. 
 
Let’s get past Porto and then hope the draw sends those Catalan cunts here for a second leg under the lights. I also have a a feeling we haven't seen the last of City this year either. Maybe a two legged affair in Europe, or an FA Cup Final at Wembley. It just feels like we're destined to meet again.    
 

 

Team: Karius; Gomez, Matip, Lovren, Robertson; Can (Milner), Wijnaldum, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Mané (Klavan), Firmino, Salah (Lallana):


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I agree tiredness played a massive part in those last 2 goals for city, I also thought Klopp was wrong to sling an attacking midfielder on in Lallana at 4-2 rather than maybe bring Klavan or TAA on instead. See Milner gets a bit of stick elsewhere for that last minute foul but have not people been saying we should be a wee bit cynical more often.

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That was such an enjoyable game to watch so much to love about it, the best bit was the Robbo run I fucking loved that, those last ten minutes almost killed me though I was pacing back and forth the whole time.

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Fantastic report Dave, particularly love the idea of Robertson's Braveheart War cry. I've stopped getting too annoyed about the times we have a poor result, the football's spectacular.

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Fab Usher. Prompt too. And no "jabroni"s as well. Looking good.

 

Tell me though, Firmino's caution...

 

X

 

Actually, being serious, a simply stupendous performance that will live long in my memory. Your report does it the justice it deserves. Klopp and the boys have done us proud.

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The timing for this win is perfect. Hopefully the likes of Lemar, Mahrez, Goretzka  and other potential targets saw this match on the telly.

 

Seeing how we play, how players improve under Klopp, i.e. Oxlade Chamberlain, how we still are a good team after selling out most prominent player. Surely there must be some temptation towards  joining us.

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The timing for this win is perfect. Hopefully the likes of Lemar, Mahrez, Goretzka  and other potential targets saw this match on the telly.

 

Seeing how we play, how players improve under Klopp, i.e. Oxlade Chamberlain, how we still are a good team after selling out most prominent player. Surely there must be some temptation towards  joining us.

 

That's a great point mate. 

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Great report but how you can count Mignolet as “To me he’s a good keeper and there aren’t too many better in the Premier League” I’ll never know.

Keepers better than Mig:

 

Ederson

De Gea

Courtois

Lloris

Cech

Heaton

Pope

Schmeichel

Pickford

Gomes

Adrian

Begovic

Butland

Foster

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Excellent report that,after we went 2-1up and they kicked off again the noise was unbelievable, the fans demanded we get straight back at them and that’s exactly what they did,city’s defence couldn’t handle the atmosphere or the press,I think the fans deserve an assist for that third goal,exhilarating stuff

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Excellent report that,after we went 2-1up and they kicked off again the noise was unbelievable, the fans demanded we get straight back at them and that’s exactly what they did,city’s defence couldn’t handle the atmosphere or the press,I think the fans deserve an assist for that third goal,exhilarating stuff

 

Pep and Gungodan commented that the atmosphere had an effect. It was ace, if we can get that on a more regular basis it would be brilliant!

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