Coming into the game, Liverpool were on the back of a defeat in the [league 2] against Spanish giants [team 3468]. The domestic form was mixed, but their home form in the [league 8] was abysmal. Six defeats at Anfield in a row, and most of them against came against average sides.
However, the previous round of results helped Liverpool in their hopes of finishing in the top four. Chelsea lost to [team 10], [team 6] drew against [team 20], and Liverpool won convincingly at the Emirates against [player 19]. After this round, in particular, Liverpool’s top-four chances started to look higher.
With [team 18] playing later against [team 51], Liverpool had the chance to take the fourth spot temporarily. Still, to do that, they had to beat a high flying [team 15] side against whom the reds conceded seven goals in the reverse fixture at Villa Park.
Team News
[coach 455353] made three changes to the side that won impressively against Arsenal. Wijnaldum came in for Thiago and Jota replaced Mane. Trent, the man in the English headlines, kept his place after his dreadful performance against Madrid in mid-week. Mane’s absence from the eleven did come as a slight surprise, but Jota’s form doesn’t need much justification.
As for Villa, [coach 524237] made two changes to the side that won against Fulham. [player 25126] came in for [player 96090] in the midfield while Trezeguet replaced El Ghazi on the lanes.
First-Half
[team 8] didn’t start the game well and allowed Villa to dominate in the middle of the park. Villa were looking comfortable and were not troubled much by Liverpool’s pressing. However, as the game started to grow, Liverpool raised their intensity in pressing and began to penetrate Villa’s backline by dynamic and quick movements.
Liverpool did create some great chances but failed to convert them. A mistake from [player 1094] provided [player 4125] with a one-on-one chance against [player 1343], but the Egyptian struck it wide. Liverpool created several good situations, but the end product was not good enough.
As we have seen in the recent games, Liverpool kept missing fine chances and were punished by conceding a goal against the run of play. In the 43rd minute, Villa took the lead through [player 12145]. Firmino gave the ball away in a dangerous area, and from there, Liverpool were in trouble. [player 172611] then played a clever pass into Watkins, whose shot should have been saved by [player 129820]. The ball went through the Brazilian, and his reaction tells us that it was a simple save in fairness.
Into the first-half added time, Liverpool were on a pacy counter-attack. [player 159917] got back onto his right foot and played in Salah, whose touch provided Robertson with a chance. Scott’s effort was saved but only for [player 1461] to chip the rebound and get Liverpool back on level. However, the VAR followed an automatic goal check, and Jota was deemed offside, and the goal was disallowed.
The incident involved a lot of controversies in this as [player 6524] made an obvious attempt to play the ball to stop it from getting to Jota. However, the right-back failed to touch the ball, and as a result, Jota was deemed to be in an offside position despite Cash’s attempt to play the ball. In the end, the goal was disallowed, and there was some obvious fuming going on, on the Liverpool bench.
Liverpool went into the dressing room with a goal down. Once again, an Anfield defeat was about to happen unless Klopp inspires his side for a comeback.
Second-Half
The reds started the second half with a much higher intensity with and without the ball. Undoubtedly, Klopp wasn’t happy with their first-half performance and had to get a reaction out of his side to turn this around. Liverpool looked more threatening and forced Villa into mistakes in their midfield third.
In the 57th minute, Liverpool scored one of the best goals of their season. A lovely passing move all the way back from their goal was finished off by Salah after Martinez’s save rebounded in the Egyptian’s path. The whole move was smooth, quick and dynamic, with the full-back of that side, [player 1078], having a significant effect on that goal.
Liverpool’s relentless nature of attacking and pressing was getting higher and better. Villa were not having many answers to the questions they were being asked. To eat a few seconds, various players from the away side were going down to break Liverpool’s attacking momentum. To add more legs, Dean Smith replaced Nakamba and sent [player 968] on the pitch. Villa made another attacking change, but this time due to an injury as [player 62879] was forced off and [player 25354] was introduced.
To add to Liverpool’s dominance, [player 31857] was introduced in place of [player 1365]. Five minutes later, Firmino was taken off, and [player 1389] joined the action. Liverpool kept creating and kept taking shots, but Villa’s resistance was robust enough to deny the reds. A minute before the 90, [player 1714] came in for [player 5640817] as Klopp decided to throw everything he had.
Into the added time, Liverpool did get the all-important winning goal and the scorer, [player 1917]. He unleashed an excellent shot from 18 yards out. In the build-up to that goal, Martinez made an excellent save to deny Thiago, but the ball eventually fell to Trent, whose technique was too good to miss the target.
