Match report
That is probably the end of Liverpool’s title challenge, but really today is about Swansea. They were outstanding, superbly organised by Paul Clement, and won it through two goals from Fernando Llorente and another from Gylfi Sigurdsson. Llorente’s second was a mighty header.
Liverpool played some fine attacking football but a Matip-less defence let them down again. Thanks for your company; see you later for Manchester City v Spurs. Until then, you can join Nick Miller for all the news from the 3pm fixtures.
Full time: Liverpool 2-3 Swansea
Swansea win a league game at Anfield for the first time in their history! Better still, it takes them out of the relegation zone. What a match!
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90+6 min Milner’s cross is too close to Fabianski, who claims calmly and confidently.
90+4 min Fulton replaces Fer, and Joel Matip comes on for Wijnaldum. He has gone straight up front. Liverpool have dropped a lot of points in Matip’s absence this season, and will wonder how different today might have been had Fifa and Cameroon not played silly buggers.
90+3 min Leroy Fer has gone down and is being booed. He has signalled that he needs to come off. I thought Swansea had used all three subs but they haven’t, and Jay Fulton is going to replace him.
90 min There will be five minutes of added time. Swansea will jump from 20th to 17th if they hang on.
90 min Fer is booked for diving, a good decision from Mr Kevin Friend.
87 min “Is this Tom Carroll’s best performance for Spurs?” arfs Conor Clarke. He looks a proper footballer, and a massive bargain at around £4.5m.
86 min A double chance for Liverpool to equalise! Lalllana’s deflected cross hits the top of the bar and is kept in play by Sturridge. He hooks it back into the area, where Lallana loops a header over the bar from eight yards!
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85 min Swansea make their final change: Borja Baston replaces Fernando Llorente, who scored Swansea’s first two goals, the second a thunderous homage to Mick Harford.
82 min Swansea, as you probably know, have never won a league game at Anfield. They’ve only ever drawn three.
81 min Lovren takes matters into his hands, walloping a vicious shot towards goal from 30 yards. Fabianski arches his back to tip it over. Fortunately for him it was central, because either side would have made it very difficult to save.
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79 min A Swansea substitution: Angel Rangel replaces Martin Olsson.
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77 min Milner’s corner from the right is headed down by Lovren to Origi, whose smart shot on the turn is kicked away by Fabianski.
76 min Lallana’s volleyed cross towards Sturridge is cleared by a combination of Fabianski and Mawson, and then Sturridge appeals for a penalty when his cross hits the arm of Sigurdsson. It wasn’t a penalty.
75 min “You drinking?” says Carlos Tighe. “Liverpool got tackled by Klavin, 2-0 is a dangerous scoreline (it was 2-1 at the time). Has it come to this? Booze needed to suffer through the greatest league in the world?”
The goal was made by Tom Carroll, who picked up a loose ball 25 yards out and ran at the heart of the defence faster than you could say ‘low centre of gravity’. He got past Lovren before Klavan’s desperate tackle diverted the ball across the box to Sigurdsson, who stretched to clip it past Mignolet and into the net!
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GOAL! Liverpool 2-3 Swansea (Sigurdsson 74)
Words fail me. Swansea are back in front!
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73 min Amid the excitement, Divock Origi has come on for Liverpool, I think in place of Can.
Wijnaldum acrobatically controlled a high pass down the left before lifting a cross to Firmino near the penalty spot. He wore it on the chest as he backpedalled, and then quickly adjusted his body to thrash a half-volley wide into the corner with his left foot. Brilliant.
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GOAL! Liverpool 2-2 Swansea (Firmino 69)
Roberto Firmino equalises with a glorious goal!
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68 min Firmino and Lallana combine on the left to win a corner. Milner’s inswinger is cleared via the noggin of Fernandez.
66 min Swansea almost score again from a set piece! Sigurdsson’s corner from the right was curled towards the near post, where Mawson headed it across goal. Fernandez was a bit slow to follow it in and the ball drifted tantalisingly wide of the far post.
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64 min “Growing up in deep, dark Wales in the 80s, I hitched my wagon to Liverpool, and it’s stayed there ever since,” says Matt Dony. “Being Welsh, though (and not from Cardiff) I’m always happy to see Swansea do well. Except now. And, in honesty, they should have taken something from the reverse fixture earlier in the season. Frustrating clashes of loyalties. Nice to see Lorentz doing well, though. Wasn’t long ago he grabbed a World Cup winners’ medal and had his pick of clubs.”
Indeed. Swansea have a few players – him, Sigurdsson and Carroll in particular – who are far too good for a relegation battle, and they look superbly coached.
63 min The game has resumed the pattern of the first half, though there is greater urgency to Liverpool’s passing. A draw here is no good really; they have to win. I think they will: 2-0 is a dangerous lead in the unequal world of modern football.
60 min Llorente is fouled near the halfway line by the last man Klavan, who has already been booked. I think a second yellow card would have been harsh as he couldn’t really get out of the way.
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59 min “On the train up to enjoy/endure an evening in the away end at the Etihad; how has Tom Carroll done in his first 45 minutes as a permanent Swansea player?” says Richard Coopey. “He was always popular at Spurs, and a neat and tidy player, but he never seemed to kick on and was rather usurped by Harry Winks. The move to Swansea seemed to be one of those transfers that suited all three parties.”
He’s been excellent – diligent defensively, comfortable on the ball, hit the post in the first half and produced that brilliant cross for the second.
58 min Henderson’s scuffed long-range shot is easily held by the plunging Fabianski.
56 min A Liverpool substitution: Daniel Sturridge replaces Philippe Coutinho.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-2 Swansea (Firmino 55)
What a second half this has been! It’s another fine header, this time from Firmino to bring Liverpool back in the game. Milner swung a big, dipping inswinger from the left towards the far post, where Firmino eased Olsson aside and planted a superb header wide of Fabianski.
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54 min “Do you think Coutinho is that good?” says Gary Naylor. “I’m not Opta statted-up, but I feel that he does something extraordinary about once every five matches or so and silences the grumbles about inconsistency and output just as they start to build. It’s like these re-runs of Top of the Pops on BBC 4 - there’s good stuff in most shows, but, though you’re watching Echo and the Bunnymen or Japan, but you’re only ever three minutes away from Modern Romance or Kajagoogoo.”
I think he’s better than that, though you probably see more of him than I do. To me he’s a poor man’s Iniesta, which is a pretty good thing to be.
What a marvellous goal that was. Olsson broke down the left and flicked the ball to the overlapping Carroll. As the ball bounced up he bulleted a left-footed cross into the area, and Llorente towered above the defenders to thump a header under Mignolet from 10 yards. The cross was outstanding; the header was even better. As Peter Drury says on BT Sport, that was a John Toshack header.
GOAL! Liverpool 0-2 Swansea (Llorente 52)
Oh my goodness! This is an immense header from Llorente, and Swansea are 2-0 up!
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51 min A chance for Liverpool. They win the ball high up the pitch and break five on three. Firmino finds Wijnaldum, who plays an angled pass to Coutinho on the left of the box. He has the option of a shot but squares it across the box and Swansea clear. Coutinho should have done better there.
49 min “I’m watching from the West Wing of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington D.C. with Donald,” says Paul Griffin. “He’s a big, big Swansea fan. He says they’re a great, great team. Terrific. Liverpool? Sad!”
GOAL! Liverpool 0-1 Swansea (Llorente 48)
Sigurdsson’s deep outswinger was headed down towards the six-yard line by Fernandez. There was a bit of a scramble until the ball broke to Llorente, who stabbed it through the legs of Wijnaldum and into the net!
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47 min It’s been a flying start to the second half - but by Swansea, not Liverpool. Lovren’s nervous header gives them a corner on the right, to be taken by Sigurdsson - and it leads to a goal!
46 min Peep peep! Swansea begin the second half. Jurgen Klopp came out early on his own, the face well and truly on.
Today’s half-time reading comes from our nostalgia correspondent Steven Pye
Half time: Liverpool 0-0 Swansea
Well played Swansea. They did a textbook defensive number on Liverpool for most of that half, and came closest to scoring when Tom Carroll hit the post, and as such deserve plenty of borderline-patronising praise. You’d still expect Liverpool to win but it’s not going to come easily. See you in 10 minutes for the second half.
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44 min The atmosphere at Anfield is not the best. That’s often the case with early kick-offs, and the pre-match assumption of a routine victory probably hasn’t helped.
43 min “Currently following from a barbershop in Sumatra,” says Gerald Donovan. “The smock thing they make you wear has a transparent window around the lap so people like me can look at our phones and continue to avoid human interaction, even while getting a haircut.”
The internet is a diabolical beast that has led us to Trump and Brexit and Honey D, but I think this is fair enough: there ain’t no small talk as painful as barbershop small talk.
41 min Lallana’s inswinging cross from the left skims off the head of the leaping Firmino at the far post and drifts well wide. The cross was too high for him.
40 min Swansea look extremely well coached, certainly in defence, and they have look increasingly comfortable as the half has progressed.
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39 min “I’m something of a Sigurdsson ill-wisher, purely cause I want Eidur to maintain his tenuous grasp on the Iceland’s all time greatest title,” says Phil Podolsky. “Though six decent years at Chelsea, some of them as a regular starter, plus three years of benchwarming for Barcelona, are hard to beat.”
But what about Arnar Gunnlaugsson?
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37 min Sigurdsson curls a long free-kick into the Liverpool area. It drops for Naughton on the left of the box, but he can’t control his attempted half-volley across the area and it flies over the bar.
36 min Klavan is booked for bumping Olsson to the ground.
35 min “Proud to say I’m missing the match today because I’m in DC on the women’s march,” says Tim Daw. “Keeps footy in perspective.”
33 min Mawson makes a great block to deny Firmino. Coutinho robbed Naughton just outside the box and weighted a soft angled pass for Firmino to shoot first time. He did, low and hard, and Mawson threw himself in the way. That was superb defending.
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31 min Liverpool are having a slightly dry spell in front of goal, with only two in their last four and a bit games. They still look bright and breezy going forward, mind, so I doubt there’s much to worry about - especially as they now have their house genius Coutinho back.
27 min Milner coaxes a fine inswinging cross from the left that just evades the leaping Firmino. Liverpool are starting to get a little frustrated.
27 min “How about Joanne as an English alternative to Yuhan?” says John Palethorpe (and a few others).
Ah yes, of course. It’s a winner!
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25 min “Admittedly I am on the hippie trail in Pai, northern Thailand in a reggae bar,” says Jeremy Dresner. “That said, the Swansea English central midfield duo of no24 Cork and no42 Carroll are merging into two barely distinguishable white dots flying and flitting around each other.”
24 min For all Liverpool’s possession, and the increasing influence of the marvellous Coutinho, Fabianski hasn’t really had anything to do.
23 min “Since you asked, I’m in a hospital at Shanghai, reading your MBM while watching over my wife and my new born baby girl,” says Peng M. “Her first name will be Yuhan, any English name you can recommend that has similar pronunciation?”
Ah, that’s lovely – congratulations to the three of you! As for similar English names, I’m drawing a blank. Anyone else?
20 min Gylfi Sigurdsson makes the world a better place. There’s an understated class to everything he does.
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19 min Carroll hits the post for Swansea! That came out of nothing. Sigurdsson, surrounded by defenders on the left, played a classy little pass to usher Carroll into the box. He tried to sidefoot his shot across goal, and it took a slight deflection off Lovren before hitting the outside of the near post.
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18 min The current workload of the Swansea defenders must surely be breaking some health & safety regulations.
17 min Lovely football from Liverpool. Firmino beats Mawson on the right without touching the ball and stands the ball up for Lallana, who smashes an elegant overhead kick over the bar.
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16 min Swansea cross the halfway line and are almost punished for such naked ambition. Liverpool break through Coutinho, who plays a fine reverse pass to Lallana on the left. He overhits his cross out of play.
15 min The Liverpool pressure is incessant. Swansea’s defensive unit are shuffling from side to side in sync, trying to plug any gaps, but this is surely only going to end one way.
11 min Anyone out there?
9 min The first chance for Liverpool. Clyne on the right plays the ball back to Henderson, who smashes a superb outswinging cross into the area. Can arrives late and heads it wide from 10 yards. He probably should have scored; had he done so there would have been controversy as he was in an offside position.
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7 min Swansea have defended well so far, but they surely can’t do this for 90 minutes. They had nine outfield players behind the ball most of the time, sometimes all ten.
4 min In a surprising development, Liverpool have had almost all of the ball in the first few minutes. This could be a long day for Swansea.
2 min The camera angle at the new Anfield isn’t the best, is it. From 300 miles away, it just doesn’t feel like Anfield. Won’t somebody think of the couch potatoes!
1 min Peep peep! Liverpool, in red, kick off from right to left. Swansea are in white.
“Well, I’ve had about enough of this small town filled with morons and half wits; dolts, dunces, dullards and dumbbells... and you... you chowder-head yokel, you blithering hayseed. You’ve had enough of me?”
RIP Miguel Ferrer, who played the magnificent Albert Rosenfield in Twin Peaks.
Joel Matip is on the bench for Liverpool after Fifa acknowledged that a grown man should be allowed to decide whether he’d like to represent his country or not. Jurgen Klopp said the decision came too late for him to play today, as Liverpool had already done their preparation.
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Blast from the past
There’s much to like from this clip of Liverpool 2-2 Swansea in 1981-82, not least Graeme Souness’s intervention after the last goal.
Team news
Liverpool (4-3-3) Mignolet; Clyne, Lovren, Klavan, Milner; Can, Henderson, Wijnaldum; Lallana, Firmino, Coutinho.
Substitutes: Karius, Sturridge, Moreno, Lucas, Origi, Matip, Woodburn.
Swansea (4-2-3-1) Fabianski, Naughton, Fernandez, Mawson, Olsson; Carroll, Cork; Routledge, Sigurdsson, Fer; Llorente.
Substitutes: Nordfeldt, Rangel, Amat, Fulton, Dyer, Borja, McBurnie.
Referee Mr Kevin Friend.
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Preamble
Hello. Insert Donald Trump joke here. This should be the calm before the Anfield storm for Liverpool: their next three Premier League home games are against Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal, and may determine whether they win their first league title since 1990.
Chelsea’s remorseless front-running means that Liverpool have almost no margin for error. This season they have dropped as many points against teams in the bottom half of the table as those in the top. That will not stand, man, not if they want to win the title. If they fail to win today against Swansea - who incidentally are the only team outside the top four to take points off Chelsea - they will almost certainly be nine or 10 points off the lead by tomorrow evening.
Kick off is at 12.30pm.
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