By: Shane Brennan.
Liverpool returned to Premier League action on Saturday afternoon, as Norwich City came to town, The Reds knew this was a must win to keep the heat on Manchester City at the top of the league.
It was the Canaries who started much the better as they had various ventures into the Liverpool box early on. Teemu Pukki set up Max Aarons for the first cross of the game, which forced Alisson Becker into action, tipping the ball over his cross bar inside the first minute.
Then it was Mathias Normann’s chance to have a run at the Liverpool defence, he set up the dangerous Milot Rashica, thankfully from a Liverpool point of view they were playing a good defensive line, that caught the Norwich man offside as he stuck the ball away well.
Then Liverpool really threatened for the first time when Sadio Mane picked out Mohamed Salah, he crossed the ball into the box to find Kostas Tsimikas free at the back post, but he could only scoop the ball over the top of the bar, as Norwich somehow survived!
Mane was next to have a go at trying to unlock a usually leaky Norwich backline, when he managed to cross the ball for Virgil van Dijk, The Dutchman got a good header in on goal with great direction, but Angus Gunn was more than equal to his effort, as the Canaries continued to frustrate The Reds early doors.
Joe Gomez was starting a Liverpool game for the first time since November 2020, and he conceded a free kick that was to lead to a huge chance for Norwich, when the ball was cleared from the resulting set piece, it found its way to Brandon Williams, he in turn played Pukki through on goal, but somehow he failed to hit the target as the ball went wide of the right hand post.
Liverpool new Colombian superstar Luis Diaz was next to try his luck, he had a rasping attempt, which left Angus Gunn scrambling, but the ball was always rising, as The Reds were turning the screw. Then Salah tried to do the job on his own as he created a chance out of absolutely nothing, when he turned, twisted and quite literally danced The Canaries defence inside out, to create half a yard to get a decent shot away, and it ended up deflecting out off Ben Gibson for a corner.
From the resulting set piece, Tsimikas whipped the ball in, Virgil van Dijk leaped the ball ended up falling for Salah, who directed his header on target, but Mathias Normann was on hand to ride to The Canaries rescue, with an excellent clearing header of his own.
Tsimikas and van Dijk were to have further efforts for Liverpool before the break, but both efforts were denied by good goal keeping and an offside flag respectively, to leave the scores level at the break.
Liverpool were to be given a massive wakeup call at the start of the second half, when Norwich sprung forward on the break, the ball came to Josh Sargent, who attempted to get his shot away, but instead he picked out Milot Rashica who did get his shot away, it ended up taking a massive deflection off Joel Matip, which ended up wrong footing Alisson as the ball flew into the net to give Norwich a shock lead.
This prompted Jürgen Klopp to make changes as Thiago Alcantara and Divock Origi entered the action, and there was an instant response as The Reds scored a quick fire double, through a quite marvellous overhead kick from Sadio mane, and a fantastic assist from Alisson Becker who picked out Salah to dance his way around Gunn and some Norwich defenders to roll the ball into the net, to turn the game around in just over a minute, as the half way point of the second half approached!
Salah had another couple of chances which were close run attempts, which sadly came to nothing. The last laugh of the day was left to The Kops new darling Luis Diaz, who sublimely chipped the ball over Gunn, to round off the day in style for Liverpool.
Up next for The Reds is their game in hand against Leeds United, as they look to reduce the gap to three points after Manchester City’s shock defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday evening.
By: Shane Brennan.
