At 23:00 Beijing time on December 11, a match in the 16th round of the Premier League began to compete, and Liverpool faced Aston Villa at home. Liverpool have scored 35 points in their first 15 league games and are favourites to win the title. Liverpool have been in very good form recently, winning six straight in all competitions, including a 4-0 sweep over Arsenal, a 2-0 win over Porto, a 4-0 win over Southampton, a 4-1 win over Everton, a 1-0 narrow win over Wolves and a 2-1 win over AC Milan. Liverpool won all six group games in the Champions League and advanced to the knockout stages. This time Liverpool are playing against Aston Villa, who won and lost each other in both legs last season, and this time Liverpool relied on penalties to win with difficulty.
Liverpool were lined up in a 433 formation for the match. Alisson served as the starting goalkeeper. Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk and Robertson partnered at 4 backs. Henderson, Fabinho and Thiago form a three-midfielder. Salah, Mane and Chamberlain's attacking trident combined. Jota, Milner, Naby Keita, Takushi Minamino and Joe Gomez sat on the bench. Aston Villa also had a 433 formation, with Ashley Young, Watkins and Ramsey starting out.
Liverpool went into attacking mode as soon as the game began. None of Arnold's, Robertson's and Chamberlain's shots were scored. However, after 30 minutes of playing, Liverpool lacked stamina, the attack encountered a bottleneck, and the chance of shooting was pitifully small, and Salah had a shot that was deflected by Martinez. The score at the end of half was still 0-0! Liverpool had 63% possession in the first half, with 3 shots on target on target and failing to score. Aston Villa only had a pitiful two shots on goal in the first half, and none of them were on target.
In the second half, Liverpool picked up speed, stepped up their attack and constantly created shooting opportunities. However, the trench warfare offensive was ineffective. As a result, Liverpool won a penalty in the 66th minute. Salah personally created a point and scored the ball to give Liverpool the lead. Liverpool, who scored goals, could play more calmly. Gerald on the sidelines had a sad face and a furrowed brow. Trailing Aston Villa has never been able to play a high-quality attack, and can only watch the time be drained a little bit. The final score was set at 1-0, and Liverpool narrowly won!
Liverpool fired 20 shots on goal, 5 on target and scored 1 penalty. Aston Villa didn't shoot right in all four shots. In the post-match whoscored rating, Salah scored a game-high 8 points, scoring 1 goal on 6 shots and 4 successful passes. He was without a doubt the biggest contributor to Liverpool's victory. Salah has scored 23 goals in 16 Premier League games this season, including 14 goals and nine assists, playing a king-of-the-line performance. Mane shot 4 shots on goal and the underperformer of Aston Villa's best performance was goalkeeper Martinez, who made 4 saves but unfortunately failed to save the penalty.