With their 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace (13th), Liverpool (2nd) approached Premier League leaders Manchester City in the 23rd round. Coach Jürgen Klopp’s team suffered from the ups and downs in the match.
“It was a bit of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-style football today,” Klopp joked (alluding to Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘The Doctor and the Monster’) after a game in which his team displayed two faces.
Despite not having their two African stars, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané, who compete in the African Cup of Nations, the ‘Reds’ were irresistible during the first half hour, managing to take the lead with goals from Virgil van Dijk (8) and Oxlade-Chamberlain (32).
Then, the team led by Klopp slowed down and Crystal Palace took the opportunity to enter the game after decreasing through Frenchman Odsonne Edouard (55).
Liverpool faced some difficulties in the second half, as they only managed to secure the victory when the Brazilian Fabinho converted a penalty almost at the end (89) making it 3-1.
“It showed how insanely good we can be and how bad too!” Klopp added.
But there was a lot of controversy surrounding the penalty in favor of Liverpool with a minute left, after a long intervention by VAR to analyze the move in which Vicente Guaita stopped Diogo Jota’s advance.
“When we scored, there was a game to try to equalize. But the referee killed our legs today,” said furious Palace coach Patrick Vieira.
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