By: Shane Brennan.
Liverpool returned to action after the international break as they welcomed Watford to Anfield. The Reds knew that victory would see them go top of the table ahead of Manchester City’s clash with Burnley on Saturday afternoon.
It was a sluggish enough start from Liverpool, as Watford had the first real opportunity of the match, Imrân Louza whipped the ball into the box from a corner, he found Cucho’ Hernández who had a decent header, but Alisson Becker was on hand to make the save.
The Hornets threatened to score once again, this time on the counter attack, as João Pedro found Juraj Kucka, who was right in on goal facing Alisson, Kucka managed to get his shot away, thankfully it was Liverpool’s Brazilian stopper that won the duel, as Liverpool survived a big scare.
Then it was Liverpool’s turn to go off on the counter attack, as Thiago Alcantara and Jordan Henderson combined to find Joe Gomez who delivered a super cross for Diogo Jota to nod home and give The Reds a critical advantage, just over a minute after so nearly falling behind.
Liverpool almost made it 2-0 from a corner, when a ball came out to Andy Robertson, he let fly which left Joel Matip flicking the ball on to find Jota, who belted a shot against Ben Foster, but the Englishman was up to the task to keep The Hornets in with a shout.
In a second half of few chances Watford were to have a huge opportunity as Hernández played in Ismaïla Sarr, he picked out pedro, who had the golden chance to get the Hornets back on terms, but his shot was to go just wide of the right hand post, as the majority inside Anfield breathed a collective sigh of relief!
In what wasn’t the most eventful game that you would ever see, it was to have a happy ending for The Reds, as Kucka held on to Jota as he ended up hauling him to the floor, the incident was not spotted initially by referee Stuart Attwell, but VAR intervened and a penalty was given.
With no Mohamed Salah on the field at the time of the penalty, it was down to Fabinho to take responsibility from the spot to seal victory for Liverpool, and the Brazilian was to make no mistake, as he buried the ball past Ben Foster into the top left hand corner of the Kop net.
It was a hard fought victory for The Reds, but it’s one that they will hope to be title winning come the end of the season.
Up next for Liverpool is a trip to Benfica on Tuesday evening.
