Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Mane brace highlights Liverpool class

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From this performance it’s difficult to see how Liverpool could be deposed from their position of champions of the Premier League. Their 2-0 win away to Chelsea emphasised their class and underlined the strength in the squad.

It was a “perfect day” for Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp who said: “I liked our game a lot. It was a really good game for both teams. They were the dominant side without goals but then a massive game-changer (the red card) in the last seconds of the first half, which was good for us.” He added: “The second half was a different game. The mistake which happens most in football is judging a situation in the wrong way – but we didn’t. We kept the ball rolling and scored the goals.”


Chelsea have a dismal record against Liverpool winning just once in the last 12 Premier League meetings and that was in 2018. Chelsea’s apparent game-plan to strike on the counter during the first half didn’t quite work. Liverpool’s threat gradually grew stronger in the last 15 minutes of the first half. And after Christensen was sent off on the stroke of half time, the outcome of this game had an inevitability.


The incident came after a deep ball from the defence by Jordan Henderson which Christensen failed to read. Sadio Mane set off losing the Chelsea man by half a yard. Christensen in desperation brought Mane down with his arms around the neck and was shown a yellow card immediately. The VAR was then used and the red card was confirmed.


Liverpool took full advantage of the opposition a man short and just five minutes after the break took the lead. It was a beautiful move, the ball was threaded over to Roberto Firmino and the Brazilian’s cross was superbly met and headed in by Mane.


Just four minutes later came the second goal – a self-inflicted wound. Mane had lost the ball to Fikayo Tomori – on as a substitute – who back passed to goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga who, with all the time he had, attempted to pass the ball casually to Reece James. But Mane intercepted and drove the ball into the net. It seemed a never-ending of nightmare errors from the Chelsea goalkeeper.


Chelsea manager, Frank Lampard said: “It was a clear mistake. He (Kepa) has reflected in that way, so we have to keep working. Individually players need support, particularly from myself and I give that to all the players. Nobody tries to make mistakes in football, but it’s the nature of the game.”


To make matters worse for the home side, Chelsea missed a penalty when Alisson saved from Jorginho after new signing Timo Werner was brought down by Thiago Alcantara with 17 minutes remaining. That finally summed up Chelsea’s day.


Lampard added: “We showed moments in the counter-attack when we were dangerous in the first half. My team talk was ‘be more confident on the ball’, then the red card changes the whole team talk.” On the sending off of Christensen, he reflected: “Once the yellow is the first decision, you feel it needs to be absolutely certain that it’s then a red. I am not sure it was. It was one I felt could be given or not.”


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