Liverpool Fall To Defeat Against Leeds United
By: Shane Brennan.
Liverpool took on Leeds United at Anfield on Saturday evening, as The Reds looked to bounce back from their shock defeat against Nottingham Forest a week earlier, here is what we learned from the game.
The hosts managed to cause trouble for their visitors’ early doors, thanks to a long ball from Alisson Becker that left Illan Meslier running out of his goal, he managed to get himself into all sorts of bother, when Liam Cooper headed the ball back towards the goal, which left Mohamed Salah running onto the ball, he chipped the ball towards goal, but on this occasion, Pascal Struijk was there to head the ball away from danger, and spare Leeds blushes.
But shortly afterwards, it was Jesse Marsch’s struggling side who were to take the lead, due to a stray back pass from Joe Gomez that left Alisson Becker totally wrong-footed, he slipped, and sadly this left Rodrigo Moreno with the simplest of tasks to turn the ball into an empty net and give Leeds United the perfect start.
Then a lovely move was put together by Andy Robertson, Darwin Nunez and Roberto Firmino, the Scot played the ball towards Firmino, and the Brazilian stepped over the ball, this left Nunez in space, but he cleverly played the ball back to Firmino who got his shot away, but Meslier was in fine form as he made a super stop to deny The Reds an equaliser.
Thankfully, Liverpool didn’t have to wait long, as Robertson belted the ball in from the second phase of the resulting corner, as Mohamed Salah got on the end of it to put Liverpool back on terms.
Leeds very nearly found themselves back in front, when Rasmus Kristensen found Brenden Aaronson in the box, he volleyed the ball towards the goal whilst hitting the crossbar and in turn, Alisson stood motionless in the Liverpool goal.
The visitors then should have taken the lead, as Jack Harrison was clean through on goal one on one with Alisson, but this time Alisson was equal to the challenge, as he produced a fabulous save, to keep Liverpool in it.
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Liverpool managed to create a few chances in the second half, one of which came from Liam cooper yet again getting himself into a little bit of bother, Salah won the ball off him, and as The Reds sped forward, Liverpool’s Egyptian King picked out Nunez with a decent pass, but sadly once again Meslier brought off a terrific save to deny Liverpool the lead goal.
Nunez was at it once again, when he found himself in plenty of space he let fly with a dipping shot towards goal that sent Meslier diving to his right when he made a quite outstanding save to deny the Uruguayan as Liverpool continued to push for the breakthrough.
The Reds had yet another great chance to take the lead from a Robertson cross, that found Firmino who headed the ball from point-blank range, but the Leeds United goalkeeper was yet again on hand to keep his side in with a chance of getting something out of the game.
The harsh reality of it all despite Liverpool having most of the chances in the second half was about to haunt Liverpool, as Leeds were to have one last chance of their own, and it was a chance they took thanks to a fine finish from Crysencio Summerville into the bottom right-hand corner of the net past Alisson to send the Leeds fans into raptures.
And that was it for Liverpool on a bad day at Anfield, as they suffer their first home league defeat at Anfield in front of fans since April 2017…
