Manchester, England (SportsNetwork.com) - Stevan Jovetic tallied a goal in each half to help Manchester City to a 3-1 win over Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium on Monday in a battle of the top two teams from the Premier League last season.
After a good spell of play from Liverpool in the first 40 minutes that saw the Reds ask most of the questions, City took the lead through Jovetic in the 41st minute after he cut out an attempted clearance from Dejan Lovren and drove the ball underneath goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.
Jovetic sent a free header just over the crossbar from a corner kick early in the second half, but he didn't have to wait long for another opportunity as a nice build up from City ended with Samir Nasri sending a low ball to the back post for the former Fiorentina man to fire home.
Daniel Sturridge had a shot from a tight angle parried to safety by City goalkeeper Joe Hart as Liverpool started to get some momentum. However, Sergio Aguero came off the bench for City and scored within seconds of his arrival, latching on to a nice ball from Jesus Navas and sliding a shot past Mignolet.
Pablo Zabaleta scored an own goal seven minutes from time to cut City's lead to 3-1 after Hart attempted to parry a header from Rickie Lambert to safety. But the goal did little to unnerve City and the hosts coasted home to collect a second win in as many games to begin defense of their title.
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