Fulham 1-3 Liverpool: Talking points as improved Liverpool performance earns three points at Craven Cottage

On Sunday at Craven Cottage, Liverpool emerged victorious from their Premier League encounter with Fulham. The first half ended with no tangible difference between the teams as Timothy Castagne scored in stoppage time to cancel out Trent Alexander-Arnold’s pin-point free-kick from minute 33, but Ryan Gravenberch restored Liverpool’s lead in the 53rd and Diogo Jota wrapped the contest up in the 72nd.

The game

Having suffered huge setbacks in their previous two league games and being knocked out of the Europa League, it was a markedly improved performance from the start by Jurgen Klopp’s team. Interestingly enough, it came with the likes of Mohamed Salah, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai all on the bench, while young Jarell Quansah got the nod ahead of Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez in the heart of defence.

The Reds dominated possession from the start and pushed the home side back completely for the opening 10 minutes, and it took only three for them to create their first really big chance as Luis Diaz escaped the attention of the Fulham defence and headed an Alexander-Arnold cross wide of the target. In-demand Fulham midfielder Joao Palhinha conceded two free-kicks close to the box in quick succession, and while former Fulham man Harvey Elliott slammed the first into the wall, the second not only resulted in a booking for Palhinha, but also in Alexander-Arnold’s brilliant opener.

Fulham did match the visitors’ energy for brief periods in the first half, but they didn’t get a proper sniff of Alisson Becker’s goal before a lucky scramble inside the box allowed Castagne to score with a deflected shot from close range.

But Liverpool turned up the volume quickly in the second half, and Gravenberch, who looked among the weakest performers in his team before, fired from around 20 yards almost as accurately as Alexander-Arnold to score. Another brief period of Fulham attacking followed, but the Reds soon re-established control…

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Author : Veselin Trajkovic

Publish date : 2024-04-21 19:59:09

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