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Classic Games, Lingering Scars and the Finish Line in Sight

Manchester City and Liverpool meet Sunday in the first of a series of collisions that could decide as many as three trophies. Neither team can be sure of what comes after that.

Pep Guardiola and Manchester City will play Liverpool twice over the next week. A third, even bigger showdown, is not out of the question. Credit...Oli Scarff/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

MANCHESTER, England — Pep Guardiola lay on his bed in a Madrid hotel room, staring at the ceiling, contemplating his next move. He had already endured two sapping games, half a dozen choleric news conferences, more than a week of highly charged, thinly veiled animosity.