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| Image via www.mirror.co.uk |
The first half for Liverpool began in a relatively positive fashion and it was clear as day that Philippe Coutinho was making a difference to the side. Some typical trickery from the Brazilian was on show and he perhaps should have done better when shooting over the bar early on. His efforts however were paid off at 20 minutes when his cross into the box found the head of Adam Lallana. A flick on to a poised Jordan Henderson allowed the captain to net the opening goal of the game.
The Reds may have celebrated but the elation didn't last long when just nine minutes later West Bromwich Albion had found an equaliser. I predicted in the preview that the Baggies would punish on the set pieces and that's exactly what they did. A corner into the box was dealt with poorly by Mignolet who made the decision to leave his line but was nowhere near collecting the ball, in the melee Dawson manages to find goal for Tony Pulis' side.
Things got worse for the Anfield faithful when shortly afterwards the visitors had the ball in the back of the net once again. A massively delayed decision from the linesman however resulted in the goal being ruled out for offside.
The second half saw both sides remain in contention for the best part of 20 minutes but it was West Brom who took advantage and the lead in the game at 72 minutes. Another corner, in-swinging and taken by Brunt found the head of Olsson who did well to gain the edge and find a bit of space. His header put the Baggies into the lead and it certainly felt at this point like they had the momentum.
Liverpool had brought on Ibe prior to the goal who replaced Philippe Coutinho but the Reds were forced into another substitution at 78 minutes after what looked like an horrific injury to Dejan Lovren. There was no malice in the challenge, definitely not, but Lovren was clearly in agony, screaming on the floor even when his teammate Skrtel came to help him out. We wish him well.
Origi was brought on to replace the defender and played a heroes role in the dying moments of nine minutes of extra time due to the Lovren injury. The Belgian did well to even hold on to possession after taking a tumble on his diagonal run towards goal but remaining upright he saw his chance to take a long range shot and with the aid of a lucky deflection he watched the ball fly into the back of the net to secure the Reds a point in super dramatic fashion.
It was a crazy game of football and whilst Liverpool didn't deserve to win I feel a draw was probably the correct result in the end. The Reds have received stick on social media from opposition fans for Jurgen Klopp's show of solidarity with the players bowing to the Kop at the end but I'm not really arsed what others think. It was regularly on display back in Dortmund and if it works there then it can work for us.
I'm not sure what happened during the match between Pulis and Klopp but it was a bit disappointing to see Klopp avoid the handshake. Things get heated sometimes I suppose, I'm sure there are no hard feelings!
Next up for the Reds is Watford away!