 |
| To upset West Brom, Liverpool's Alisson scored a Painfully Ordinary last-minute victory. |
We've seen everything now. With Liverpool's title defence in shambles long before Manchester City were declared Premier League champions, and their prospects of even qualifying for the Champions League on the verge of vanishing after a draw with already relegated West Bromwich Albion, up popped their goalkeeper Alisson to head in the winning goal three minutes into stoppage time.
To maintain Tottenham in the European race, Harry Kane defangs Wolves.
That was the extent of Liverpool's desperation. Trent Alexander-Arnold,
on the other hand, leapt at the near post to flick on a powerful header into
the far top corner as another corner was sent over.
Before Alisson, whose father died earlier this year, emerged to point to
the sky, the whole Liverpool squad circled their unusual hero.
Within a minute, the final whistle rang, and the Liverpool bench erupted
in joy. So Jürgen Klopp's team will live to fight another day, having closed to
within a point of fourth-placed Chelsea with games remaining against Burnley
and Crystal Palace.
Mo Salah had shifted to a 22-goal position alongside Harry Kane to
cancel Hal Robson-early Kanu's goal for West Brom in the search for the golden
boat. Despite FA Cup finalist Chelsea and Leicester playing one another on
Tuesday night, the final two Champions League positions are still all over the
air.
Liverpool dominated, of course, despite the loss of Diogo Jota in a
Thursday's Old Trafford ankle wound, which excludes him from the remaining
three games of the season. This offered Sadio Mané, who had already declared
his manager apologised for refusing to shaking his hand at the end of the
previous game, at least directly back to the beginning of the XI.
Two goal scorer Roberto Firmino began wearing his wristband for the
first time, as Liverpool forced West Brom into mistakes in crucial situations
at the outside of its own box.
The miscontrol of Conor Gallagher prompted a Thiago snapshot that
deflected a corner back. The in-form right back-cross was headed by Nat
Phillips until that was restored to Alexander-Arnold.
However, if it seemed that the death was cast, the one-way traffic would
be swiftly reversed once Thiago admitted that Okay Yokuslu had filled in
towards the centre. The playmaker in Spain clutched his head incredulously, but
credibility was discontinued when Albion scored swiftly.
In a game played so quickly and with such a high proportion of turnover,
Matheus Pèreira returned to throw an upholstered side-footed pass over the back
of Liverpool to make robson-Kanu ride in the inner right channel, to open his
body and take a left-foot shoot at home. The first free kick was clean. At the
start of the season, it was the first League goal for the Wales player since
February last year.
At least under pressure from the relegation struggle, Albion may have
been able to play with a little freedom, but Liverpool torn them in ruthlessly.
When Fabinho played in Thiago straight from the penalty box, Mané should
have equated himself. Then Salah drew the lovely crossfield pass of
Alexander-Arnold, right and left out of the sky with an astonishing touch, but
only managed to plug the second into the glad arms of Sam Johnstone.
Salah isn't so ruined But 12 minutes before halftime, when West Brom was
struck by their own D once more. Grady Diangana sent a pass towards a teammate,
but Mané took his initial left foot shot from the edge of the box in order to
square the ball to Salah who hit his 22nd goal of the League during that
season.
The Egyptians therefore stood at the level of Kane, in the subtract of
the golden boat hunt of the Premier League and Liverpool. They might have been
ahead quite instantly. The backheel of Mané rebounded Yokuslu to the path of
Firmino, but his shot hit the post.
The struggle between older pupils and kids encouraged to participate was
a helping hand of a game. As for territory, possession and aims, Liverpool was
dominant yet they had no control.
It was frenzied, rejoicing for the newcomer, but seemed like the last
few minutes of a cup game, not a battle between the last winners of the Premier
League, and the promotion of the following season.
Stirring Leicester's Cup success recalls English soccer.
Once again, Robson-Kanu was clearly on goal, Alexander-Arnold had a
dynamic rehabilitation to avoid another shift.
In this same go-for-broken vein, the second half proceeded. Pereira was
in a one-on-one race from the halfway line with Phillips and was able to save
just a poor shot.
Conor Townsend was left throwing his hands in the air from the Albion's
corner, when he spotted Salah and Alexander-Arnold arriving, two at a time. It
was the thing of the nightmares of a young defender. Fortunately for the home
squad, while Salah timed his move past Alexander-Arnold to Mediocrity,
Johnton's shot was excellent. That did not rescue the players of Albion from
Sam Allardyce's good old rollicking, who recommended that they should do it as
they knew what to do.
Mané was unable to make a clear effort offside him; Albion celebrated when Kyle Bartley only took VAR to the corner of Diangana to deem Matt Phillips offside Allison. Alexander-Arnold had time to quickly cut in just shot at eight metres away. It was a dramatic game as the extinct championship defence of Liverpool reached its insane conclusion.
