Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah fired Liverpool back to winning ways and provided Jurgen Klopp’s side with a timely boost ahead of Wednesday’s crunch Champions League meeting with Atletico Madrid.
The pair were on target to help the Reds come back from a controversial Callum Wilson goal to beat Bournemouth 2-1 at Anfield and move within three wins of claiming their first Premier League title.
Andy Robertson was left out of the Liverpool side as a precaution ahead of the second-leg of the last-16 tie with Atleti as James Milner deputised at left-back while Adrian continued in place the injured Alisson in goal.
Bournemouth, meanwhile, made just one change to the side that had started the 2-2 draw with Chelsea as Junior Stanislas replaced the injured Josh King.
The visitors took the lead inside ten minutes as Anfield was left stunned by referee Paul Tierney’s failure to award a free-kick for Wilson’s obvious push in the back of Joe Gomez. Instead, play was allowed to go on, the Bournemouth striker tapping in from Jefferson Lerma’s cross, and Michael Oliver on VAR duty remarkably decided his colleague had got it right.
Klopp was furious but had his mood lifted just 15 minutes later when Jack Simpson, just on as a substitute for the injured Steve Cook, gifted possession to Mane and though the Senegalese’s pass to Salah was hardly ideal, the forward adjusted to fire home his 70th Premier League goal on his 100th appearance in the competition.
Shortly after the half-hour mark the hosts were ahead, Simpson again at fault as he was caught miles out of position, allowing Virgil Van Dijk to send Mane away with a simple straight pass and Liverpool’s no.10 finished coolly.
After a subdued start to the second half, the Reds had Milner to thank for preserving their lead, the stand-in skipper getting back brilliantly to hook Ryan Fraser’s lobbed finish clear a yard before it crossed the line.
Roberto Firmino fired a cross-cum-shot across the face of goal as Liverpool gradually improved, before Mane went within inches of making the points safe, clattering the woodwork with an outrageous curling effort from range.
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