In the early morning of Beijing time today (29th), in the 20th round of the Premier League, Liverpool challenged Leicester City away. Salah made a point but did not score, and leicester City won 1-0 against Liverpool, giving Liverpool their second defeat in the Premier League of the season.
Since the 2-3 away defeat to West Ham in early November, Liverpool have won six consecutive league games in one go, until just before Christmas when the Reds were forced to draw 2-2 by Tottenham Hotspur and began to fall behind in the championship team. They were beaten 1-0 at Leicester City's King Power Stadium on Tuesday night, the first time they lost in seven weeks in league battles, and the team's points are now equal to third-placed Chelsea.
But this game is another story for Leicester City, who are at home. The Foxes' Christmas Devils fixture is a veritable one, with they going to face Liverpool twice in seven days and face Manchester City on Boxing Day. As a result, Rodgers' side, after struggling to recover from the epidemic, was scored by the Reds last Wednesday with a 3-1 lead in the League Cup to complete the draw, and finally lost the penalty shootout. Boxing Day opened with just 25 minutes of conceding four goals in a row, losing 3-6 to Manchester City. Tuesday's league match against Liverpool came just one day after the Boxing Day defeat.
The opening Leicester was immediately completely suppressed by Liverpool, the home team was pressed by the Reds' high position and could not move at the half, and Liverpool's ferocious pressing also made Leicester's passing errors in front of the penalty area continue to be repeated. In the 15th minute, Ndidi brought down Salah in the penalty area and referee Oliver did not hesitate to point straight to 12 yards and penalty!
Like everyone else, Manchester City star Richards, who worked as a commentator at the BBC, thought liverpool could not miss a hand on the penalty spot: "If you ask me the most ten-handed free thrower in this position, I will be the first to report Salah's name, his penalty makes the goalkeeper feel elusive, and you may be difficult to summarize from his previous free throw video. The very unlikely event of Salah giving up a penalty did happen that night, and Leicester goalkeeper Casper Schmeichel seemed to have already anticipated the Egyptian star's free throw route, and his saving to the left did not even need to open his arms to keep the ball out. What was suffocating was that the ball flew back into Salah's control, this time his header in the face of the empty goal actually hit the goal crossbar again, and when the ball bounced back into the field, Salah even had a second chance to make up the shot, but the Leicester players who rushed up to the ball released the ball.
For this incredible save, Schmeichel Jr. revealed after the match that he had not actually done any penalty saves related to Salah before the match. The Danish goalkeeper frankly stated that all he could do was make the first save, and then saw Salah facing the empty goal, he was completely powerless on the goal line: "I didn't study Salah's penalty carefully before the game, I just reacted instinctively based on my own feelings, but when I saw the ball bounce back to him, I fell to the ground and could only pray that we had been unlucky in this regard. I remember the last time I saved a penalty, the opponent finally made up for it. ”
Although the penalty save was a turning point in the whole game, after all, the game was only in the 15th minute, and Irish star Andy Reed still said in the BBC commentary that he was not optimistic that Leicester City could overturn after escaping the disaster: "Seeing Salah's header on the spot was particularly incredible, it felt like the ball hovered in the air for a moment before hitting the goal frame. Honestly it wasn't a quality penalty, but I don't think Leicester could have escaped Liverpool's subsequent more aggressive attack. ”
Schmeichel Jr. blocked Chamberlain's shot in front of the near post in the 23rd minute, so that he immediately lost his balance and fell into the goal, while Henderson, who came forward, missed the opportunity to face the empty goal because he did not adjust his pace. Five minutes later Jota's shot from the rebels in the penalty area was saved by Schmeichel Jr. In the 32nd minute, the Danish goalkeeper used his finger to lift Salah's close-range blast off the crossbar. It wasn't until they found out that Leicester had stubbornly resisted the three axes that the media began to re-examine their chances of scoring points in this game, with Reid pointing out that as long as the start of the second half could continue to ensure that they did not concede a goal in the first 15 minutes of the second half, the players on Leicester's bench were enough for them to create a threat by counterattacking in the final moments of the game.
However, it was not yet 15 minutes before the kick-off in the second half, and it was Liverpool who conceded the ball first! Lukeman faced Matip's head-on defence after bursting into the penalty area and fired a powerful shot into Alisson's near corner. With Leicester taking the lead with 30 minutes left in the game, their on-field task became to stay on the line. In the end, although Liverpool brushed 21 shots on goal, almost all of the 4 shots from the target occurred in the second half. The Reds won 12 corner kick opportunities in this campaign, and Alisson finally played in person, but the Brazilian goalkeeper did nothing at the front point, but Matip and Firmino at the back point complained to each other after grabbing each other when they were fighting for the top. Leicester eventually won 1-0 against Liverpool with the only target shot in the game to win their second of the last five league games.
After this game, the point difference between Liverpool and Manchester City at the top of the table was widened to 6 points, and chelsea behind them equalized the points, relying only on 5 goal difference advantages to stay in the league second place. Manager Klopp also admitted that Leicester deserved a victory: "It was a very strange game, to be honest I think we didn't play well enough, maybe the team did well at the beginning, but then immediately lost the rhythm and the form. Although the opponents had just finished the game two days ago, they had played hard and fighting spirit. The point difference between us and Manchester City in the table is indeed a bit large, but as long as we play our signature football in the future, we still have time to get back on track. ”
Wen | Liu Chuan
Edit | from the heart