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Can Liverpool get back to winning ways in the Premier League against under-pressure Jesse Marsch and Leeds? Join Scott Murray.
Jesse Marsch cavorts! He knows how important this victory is for his team … and for him personally. That’s surely bought him a little more time. Crysencio Summerville was magnificent all evening, and the young winger’s late winner capped a brilliant team display. Leeds were staunch in defence, effervescent in attack, and outran Liverpool all evening. That’s their first win since beating Chelsea in late August, and they don’t look like a side that should be battling relegation at all. They celebrate a famous, crucial, momentum-shifting win.
As for Liverpool … they were dreadful. Illan Meslier had to make a few saves, granted, but the hosts never really convinced. That’s their first home defeat in the league since March 2021. The title had been a pipe dream for a while already, but now European qualification is beginning to look like a big ask, too. Jurgen Klopp sportingly congratulates Leeds, and tries a wry smile, but he can’t hold it for long. He knows this team are in trouble now: out of form, out of confidence, out of energy. Napoli and Tottenham coming up next. Having been turned over by Nottingham Forest, then thoroughly outplayed by Leeds, they won’t fancy facing either of those. January could be a big window for a squad that clearly hasn’t gotten over the deflating end to last season.
A blissed-out Crysencio Summerville speaks to Sky. “It’s a huge moment for me and my family. Scoring at Anfield: it’s a big moment for me, you know! When you are in the box you have to think quick, and it just happened. It was my dream to play in the Premier League, and to score at Anfield is just a dream for every kid. So I can’t describe my feeling right now! I will visit my family at home in Holland tomorrow as it is my birthday. This one is going to be special!”
That’s one delighted young man, and such a heartwarming interview! Happy 21st, Crysencio! He then more than happily presents the player of the match award to his team-mate Illan Meslier, who saved nine of the ten shots he faced. “This one is for the main man! Well played, my brother!” A moment to melt the stoniest of hearts, the team spirit that saw Leeds through tonight on full display.
FULL TIME: Liverpool 1-2 Leeds United
Leeds leap out of the bottom three with a sensational and fully deserved victory at Anfield!
GOAL! Liverpool 1-2 Leeds United (Summerville 89)
Gnonto works his way down the left, reaches the corner flag, then cuts back. Summerville picks up possession in the Liverpool box, sneaks in between Van Dijk and Gomez, and threads a shot across Alisson and into the bottom right! And this doesn’t flatter Leeds at all!
90 min +6: Leeds are in complete control here. They’re calmly getting the job done.
90 min +5: Henderson has an aimless tock. Jones crosses from the left. Meslier snaffles.
90 min +4: The match restarts. Liverpool continue to look as disjointed as they’ve been all evening. All season.
90 min +3: The Leeds fans are making one hell of a racket. And no wonder! Their team have done a number on Liverpool here. If they make it, this will be no more than they deserve.
90 min +2: The ball’s rolled into the Leeds box down the left. Robertson goes for the ball. Meslier is always going to get there first. He does, but takes a whack from Robertson’s trailing boot. Accidental, as everyone on the field seems to agree, but on come the physios.
90 min: Summerville, his work here done, makes way for Ayling. Liverpool have five minutes to save themselves.
88 min: Milner sends a long diagonal towards Robertson on the left. Robertson sends the ball into the centre. Firmino heads downwards from six yards. Not enough power, and Meslier is able to make the stop, then smother.
87 min: Milner crosses dangerously from the right. The ball somehow threads its way through a crowded box and sails away harmlessly.
86 min: Salah runs down the left and shoots from a tight angle. Meslier extends a leg to divert the ball out for a corner. One corner leads to another; the second one leads to nothing.
85 min: The game restarts. Anfield is very quiet, the Leeds travelling support excepted. “Patrick Bamford always enters the fray looking and acting like somebody just had to drag him out of bed,” writes Adam Hirst, “and he’s playing like it and all.”
84 min: Robertson and Adams clash heads and require a bit of treatment. Time for everyone to take on some water.
82 min: Milner barges his way down the right. He crosses. Leeds fail to clear. Nunez heads down for Firmino, who aims for the bottom left. The shot is on target, but there’s no real pace behind it, and it’s an easy enough claim for Meslier.
80 min: The corner leads to a melee in the Leeds six-yard box. Nobody can get a shot away. Leeds counter, Summerville driving down the inside-left channel then slipping a pass towards Bamford on his right. Bamford is clear in the box! But he inexplicably lets the ball roll past him, and when he goes to retrieve it, Henderson has arrived on the scene, and the opportunity to score is gone. He forces a corner that leads to nothing, but that should have been the winner for Leeds.
79 min: Nunez, with nothing much on, drops a shoulder and takes a touch infield from the left. He looks for the top-right corner. An excellent curler is tipped over the bar by Meslier. Before the corner can be taken, Leeds old boy Milner comes on for Alexander-Arnold.
77 min: Thiago juggles the ball in midfield and dinks forward for Salah down the right. Exquisite skill. Salah helps the ball infield in the hope of releasing Nunez, but Koch is in position to ensure the striker can’t break free.
75 min: Salah ghosts past Struijk and Cooper down the right, and tries to loop a cross towards Firmino at the far stick. He only succeeds in slicing out for a goal kick. Liverpool have been impotent in attack tonight.
67 min: A long ball down the middle. Cooper makes a hash of it, allowing the ball to bounce, airkicking, then letting Salah run away from him with it. Salah can’t tear clear himself, but is able to slip wide left for Nunez, who enters the box, one on one with Meslier, only to slam the ball straight at the keeper.
74 min: Liverpool continue to huff and puff, and the Kop groans as Jones passes the ball forward to nobody in particular. “It’s the most extraordinary decline isn’t it?” begins Paul Griffin. “The home team have gone from being a mentally and physically ferocious battalion to a disjointed, nervy rag tag band. I can’t recall such a remarkable collapse from greatness to chaos, except perhaps the Stone Roses’ clunkingly flat follow up to their joyous first record. The comparison is a little unfair perhaps, as I suspect almost all of the Liverpool side are superior vocalists.”
72 min: The 18-year-old Italy international Wilfried Gnonto comes on for his Leeds debut. Harrison makes way.
71 min: Salah dribbles in from the right. He lays off for Jones, who makes some ground himself before giving the ball back to Salah, who shoots from 12 yards. The shot is deflected over the bar by a Leeds defender, but the referee awards a goal kick. Henderson is not happy.
69 min: Salah and Firmino hassle Leeds down the right and earn a corner. Henderson nearly sneaks the ball in at the far post. Another corner. Then Liverpool try to replicate their goal, Robertson dinking from the byline on the left. Struijk knocks that out for yet another corner, and the final one in the sequence is easily cleared by Leeds.
66 min: Nothing comes of the corner, but Leeds will be extremely happy with the way this is going at the moment.
65 min: Liverpool can’t get anything going at all. Robertson tries to barge his way down the left but overruns the ball and Leeds counter. Roca sends a diagonal towards Harrison on the left. Harrison makes it into the box and earns a corner off Alexander-Arnold.
63 min: Leeds have been the better side tonight. They certainly don’t look a bottom-three side on this evidence. At the moment, they look the more likely, and their fans are in full voice, marching on together.
61 min: Jones and Henderson come on for Elliott and Fabinho. Jones is quickly in the thick of it, dribbling in from the right. His presence pushes Leeds back. The ball breaks left to Robertson, who strides into the box and hits a first-time pearler straight at Meslier.
60 min: Van Dijk barges into the back of the ever-lively Summerville and it’s a free kick out on the right. Aaronson tries to surprise Alisson, going direct from 40 yards when everyone was expecting him to swing it in. The keeper claims on the line. Leeds quickly come again, Bamford whipping a shot goalwards from 25 yards. Alisson is behind that one too.
58 min: Salah cuts in from the left and tries a curler towards the top-left corner. It’s miles off. He throws his arms around in visible frustration.
57 min: Summerville out-battles Robertson down the right. Again the young winger’s final ball is found wanting, but Leeds will be encouraged by the way he’s pulling the Liverpool defence this way and that.
54 min: Liverpool faff about in midfield to audible groaning from the home fans. There hasn’t been too much in the way of pushback from the Anfield faithful in recent years, but this seems to be testing some punters’ patience.
56 min: Summerville strides towards the Liverpool box and should shoot, but instead lays off to Kristensen on his right. The pass isn’t great, and Kristensen’s eventual shot is blocked out for a corner. Nothing comes of that, but once again Liverpool’s defence has been made to look extremely ragged.
52 min: The first change of the evening, as Bamford comes on for Rodrigo.
51 min: Fabinho waves his leg at the ball and concedes a needless corner. Liverpool clear and look to counter through Salah, who is cynically stopped by Roca. A free kick, but no yellow card, strangely. Referee Michael Oliver is in a lenient mood, it would seem, having earlier let Elliott off with kicking the ball away in frustration.
49 min: Some space for Elliott down the right. He rolls inside for Alexander-Arnold on the overlap, but Cooper comes across to block. Leeds clear but Liverpool come again through Nunez, who whips into the six-yard box hoping to find Firmino. Meslier gets down well to smother.
47 min: Thiago tries to release Nunez into the Leeds box with a pass fizzed down the inside-left channel. Too hot to handle. Goal kick.
Liverpool get the second half underway. They’re shooting towards the Kop. No changes by either side.
HALF TIME: Liverpool 1-1 Leeds United
Aaronson flays the free kick deep into the Kop, and that’s the end of a frenetic and entertaining half. Perfectly poised for more prime-time Saturday-night light entertainment!
More Saturday-night light entertainment. Who needs the final of The Voice or the Blankety Blank reboot when you’ve got Jonathan Wilson?
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45 min +2: Summerville dribbles down the inside-left channel and is clipped on the heel by Gomez. A free kick, just to the left of the D, and there’s just enough time to take it.
45 min +1: Rodrigo scampers into the Liverpool box from the left and has a dig from a tight angle. Alisson claims.
45 min: There will be two added minutes.
44 min: Robertson romps down the left, barging his way past Kristensen and Adams, then crossing. The ball deflects off Koch, up and over Meslier, and nearly nestles into the top right. Neither Firmino nor Nunez, lurking nearby, can trundle home. The ball somehow flies wide of the post and goes out for a corner that leads to nothing.
42 min: Robertson chases after Adams and clips him to the floor. He then slyly knocks the ball into the prone opponent, and for a second, it looks like kicking off when Adams springs back up to object. Robertson pleads his innocence, and the referee makes do with a lecture.
39 min: Nunez and Salah almost get in each other’s way as the pair barrel down the middle of the park with the ball. Eventually Nunez defers to his elder and more storied team-mate. Salah tries to thread a curler into the bottom left from distance, but it’s an easy gather for Meslier.
41 min: Nunez and Robertson combine well down the left to earn a corner. It’s Liverpool’s sixth of the evening. Meslier half-clears Alexander-Arnold’s delivery. Elliott picks up possession just to the right of the D, and looks for the top left, only to send the ball sailing over Stanley Park.
37 min: Rodrigo romps down the right. His deep cross is gathered by Summerville, who cuts back up the left wing, sashays infield, and shoots. His effort is blocked and baloons towards Kristensen, who can’t control, the ball eventually ending up in Alisson’s arms. Liverpool continue to look shaky at the back.
35 min: Alexander-Arnold takes. The corner’s half cleared. Robertson swings it back in from the left. Thiago wins a header at the far post, but can’t direct it goalwards. Instead he looks for Nunez. Leeds clear out for another corner. Nothing comes of that one.
34 min: Elliott’s handball gives Leeds a free kick in a promising position, 30 yards out, a little left of centre. Everyone congregates on the edge of the Liverpool box. Harrison hoicks straight into the Kop. Liverpool counter, and Alexander-Arnold and Elliott combine down the right to earn a corner.
27 min: This game is being played at 101 miles per hour, and is utterly chaotic. If Marcelo Bielsa is watching somewhere, he’ll be so, so proud.
32 min: Alexander-Arnold plays a glorious long diagonal pass towards Nunez, haring clear down the inside-left channel. Anfield expects him to take a first-time belt from the edge of the box, but he hesitates, miscontrols, and can only dink a shot straight at Meslier.
31 min: Gomez, out wide on the right, doesn’t play a backpass this time. Instead he blooters forward. Nunez flicks on, and Salah is away … nearly. For a second, it looks as though he’ll tear clear, but Struijk keeps up and gets in the road, ushering the ball back to his keeper.
29 min: … so having said that, Liverpool enjoy a little bit of sterile possession in the midfield.
25 min: A free kick for Leeds out on the right. Everyone lines up on the edge of the Liverpool box. Aaronson swings it in. The ball’s falling to Cooper, six yards out, when Fabinho heads clear. A crucial intervention.
23 min: Liverpool have had twice as much possession so far, but both teams have clocked up the same number of efforts: two off target, two on. No way will this end 1-1.
22 min: … and here come Leeds again, Harrison romping down the inside-right channel and into the box. He finds himself one on one with Alisson, but can’t guide his shot past the star-jumping keeper. This is great fun.
21 min: Some space for Kristensen out on the right. He crosses fiercely towards the far stick. Aaronson races in to meet the ball first time, opens his body, and crashes a shot intended for the top-left corner off the bar!
19 min: Nunez chases down a loose pass in midfield and receives a huge ovation for his efforts. A cult hero already, by the sounds of it. Never mind the occasional comical mistake; he’s in.
17 min: From the Liverpool corner, Leeds break upfield through Harrison, who reaches the edge of the penalty box before Thiago arrives from behind to toe the ball away. There is surely no way this will end 1-1.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-1 Leeds United (Salah 14)
Robertson rolls infield from the left. Nunez dummies and is then played in down the channel by Firmino. Meslier comes out to parry. Corner, which Leeds only half clear. Robertson dinks across the face of goal from the left. The ball drops to Salah at the far stick, and he steers it into the bottom right with a telescopic leg. Liverpool level in short order!
16 min: The ball goes out for a throw near the dugouts. Jesse Marsch catches it, rants at his players, and slams it down on the floor. Robertson, coming across to take the throw, smiles and does well to stop himself laughing. When the game restarts, Salah bursts into space down the right and looks to find Nunez, all free in the middle. Struijk blocks out for a corner.
12 min: Elliott tries to get something going for Liverpool, dribbling down the right at speed and looking for Nunez with his cross. Not quite. “Massively frustrating, but it’s nice that TAA wasn’t involved in the debacle,” writes Matt Dony. “Gives the reactionary Twitter fellas a reason to spread their ire around a bit. A change is as good as a rest, and all that.”
GOAL! Liverpool 0-1 Leeds United (Rodrigo 4)
It’s now 1-1 in defensive cock-ups, but it’s 1-0 to Leeds! Gomez, out on the Liverpool right, plays a blind ball back towards Alisson … or so he thinks. Alisson, expected to be in the middle of his box, had come to the right-hand edge of his area, and the ball angles past him, rolling across the face of the goal and teeing up Rodrigo for the simplest of tap-ins. What a fiasco!
11 min: Adams slips a ball down the inside-right channel for Harrison, who has enough time to take a touch and line up a curler towards the top left. The shot is always missing high and wide, and sails into the Kop, but Leeds currently look as confident as Liverpool appear nervous.
9 min: Alisson’s head is swimming as well. He slices out of play in uncharacteristically skittish fashion. Earlier, he’d offered Gomez a hand of apology for not being in the central position the defender would have expected him to be. Both will be feeling a little guilty right now.
7 min: Gomez, clearly rattled by his mistake, flies a simple pass straight out of play. He’ll need to clear his head quicksmart.
6 min: … and so Liverpool go behind yet again in the Premier League, for the eighth time this season. They try to bounce back immediately, winning a corner down the right. Van Dijk then heads harmlessly over.
2 min: Nothing comes of the resulting corner. Liverpool so close to going in front after 39 seconds!
Leeds kick off and ship possession quicksmart. Alisson launches long. Meslier comes out of his box, but Cooper, rushing the other way, heads the ball past him. Salah nips in and shoots from a tight angle. Koch gets back to head clear off the line. Nearly a farcical start to the game!
The teams are out! Liverpool in red, Leeds white. Jurgen Klopp slips as he enters the dugout and nearly falls peaked cap first into the seats. But he stays upright. Just. We’ll be off in a minute!
Jurgen Klopp speaks to Sky Sports. “Their midfield press is pretty extreme. We need to break lines and have different options to do so. We need to be perfectly protected because of the speed they have on the counter. We need to be patient.”
Jesse Marsch, who made an impression at Anfield during his Salzburg days, also has a word. “When you look at the table, if we find a way to get a couple of results, we will be fine. If we can somehow perform at our best in our toughest moments, it will make everyone feel we are moving in the right direction. We know getting a win here at Anfield is a big task, but we believe in ourselves. The guys are aligned. We have a good line-up on the pitch from the start and guys that can come off the bench to make an impact. We want to be aggressive. Play passively and it makes it almost impossible, under these lights with the crowd. Let’s go for it.”
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Just one change for Liverpool from the XI selected to start the 3-0 win at Ajax. Thiago has recovered from his ear infection and takes the place of Jordan Henderson, who drops to the bench.
Leeds make three changes to the team that lost 3-2 at home to Fulham last weekend. Crysencio Summerville, Tyler Adams and Rasmus Kristensen are back; Luke Ayling and Sam Greenwood drop to the bench, while Luis Sinisterra is injured.
The teams
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Elliott, Thiago, Firmino, Salah, Nunez.
Subs: Konate, Milner, Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jones, Tsimikas, Carvalho, Phillips, Kelleher.
Leeds United: Meslier, Kristensen, Koch, Cooper, Struijk, Adams, Roca, Harrison, Aaronson, Summerville, Rodrigo.
Subs: Ayling, Firpo, Bamford, Llorente, Robles, Gnonto, Gelhardt, Greenwood, Klich.
Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland).
Preamble
Both sides really, really, really could do with a win. Liverpool, second favourites for the title before a ball was kicked this season, have suffered their worst start in six years. Leeds meanwhile are in the relegation places having picked up just two points from the last 24 available. More often than not, one way or another, these clubs put on a show, and with the three points so precious, the same could well prove true tonight. Kick-off is at 7.45pm BST. It’s on!