Expected to give some kind of response after suffering a 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Atalanta three days before, Liverpool hosted Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Sunday as they aimed to salvage their position in the title race.
However, the home side put their supporters through another batch of frustration, with the visitors walking away with the whole prize as Eberechi Eze scored the only goal of the game in the 14th minute.
The game
Things started rather worryingly again for the Reds, as Palace threatened early on. Alisson Becker, freshly returned from injury, was forced to react to a dangerous cross from Tyrick Mitchell and save a rather feeble shot from Eberechi Eze. And just as it looked Jurgen Klopp’s team were starting to gain control over the proceedings, Mitchell broke down the left again and pulled a low cross back for Eze to fire home. It was mostly the positioning of Ibrahima Konate that Klopp will want to question regarding the conceded opener, after the French centre-back drifted out of position to open the space for Eze in the middle of the box.
It could’ve gotten much worse quickly for Liverpool, as a slip by Virgil van Dijk, so reminiscent of the infamous one by Steven Gerrard in 2014, allowed Jean-Philippe Mateta to pounce, rush goalwards and poke past Alisson, but Andy Robertson showed extreme determination and pace to slide in and kick it off the goal-line. Had he failed, the prospect of his team would’ve looked very black indeed.
As it happened, Liverpool got a bit more grip after that, but though they had two great chances when only luck and the reflexes of Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson prevented an equalizer, both with Luis Diaz as the main actor, a number of misplaced passes and misunderstandings between their attackers caused the scoreline to remain 0-1 at the break.
Apart from Konate, Wataru Endo was arguably the weakest link for Liverpool and it was no wonder than Klopp left the Japan…
Source link : https://www.soccernews.com/liverpool-0-1-crystal-palace-talking-points-as-eagles-ruin-reds-title-charge-again/370198/
Author : Veselin Trajkovic
Publish date : 2024-04-14 15:33:47
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