Liverpool vs Swansea a few quick thoughts
Dan Tracey
January 22, 2017
2,071 Views
- Was Saturday Lunchtime the moment in which Liverpool slipped out of the title race
- With them facing Chelsea at the end of the month then perhaps not but defeat at home to Swansea would have been a hammer blow
- Chelsea can extend the gap at the 10 points should they beat Hull later Today
- But returning to yesterday’s action, it was a game that did not get going until the second half but when it came to life it was definitely worth waiting for
- Fernando Llorente had arguably his best performance of the season as his brace of goals put Swansea into a very unlikely 2-0 lead
- His first was a close range toe poke after Liverpool failed to deal with a corner while his second was straight out of the No.9’s textbook
- A bullet header past Simon Mignolet after a perfect cross from Martin Olsson doubled Paul Clement’s side advantage in a game where no-one gave them any hope
- But it was that 2-0 deficit that finally woke Liverpool up and within minutes the deficit was halved
- James Milner was afforded time on the left hand side to deliver a cross and Roberto Firmino rose highest to get the home side back in the game
- And anything Llorente could do Firmino could do better as parity was restored thanks to a moment of Brazilian magic
- Once again a cross came from the left, although this time it was from Wijnaldum. There may have been a suspicion of handball in the build up but what followed was remarkable
- Firmino managed to control, turn and then half volley a shot past Lukasz Fabianski to level the score and put Liverpool very much in the ascendancy
- With Swansea seeing their 2-0 lead evaporate you felt that if anyone was going to grab a winner it would be the home side
- But there was to be one final twist in the tale
- New boy Tom Carroll who had a very impressive debut showed neat footwork on the edge of Liverpool’s area
- He was disposed before being able to get a shot away, but fortune seemed to favour the brave
- The ball landed perfectly into the path of Gylfi Sigurdsson whose outstretched left foot guided the ball into the empty net to make it 3-2
- The upset was back on
- The next 15 minutes was going to have to require a backs to wall performance from Swansea
- And that is exactly what they delivered
- Heroic defending until the final whistle as Liverpool were left launching it long in the hope of nicking an equaliser
- Joel Matip who has been caught up in FIFA red tape came on as an auxiliary striker but to no-avail
- It was to be Swansea’s Afternoon though and a huge win that sees them move out of the bottom three and Crystal Palace sliding into it
- Questions will be asked about Liverpool’s defending and also if Matip was available why did he not play from the start
- That’s no win in three now for Jurgen Klopp’s men and should they fail to beat Chelsea on Tuesday week then you would have to say that the race is over for this season.
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