Report:
Full-time: Liverpool 1-2 Crystal Palace
And that’s it. A great win for a very organised Palace against a very disorganised Liverpool, whose hold on the top four looks a lot more shaky now. It’s a testament to the quality of Liverpool’s ineptitude in defence that Palace set up for a draw and came away with a win. Palace are pretty much safe for the season now - they’re up to 12th. Liverpool meanwhile are three points ahead of Man Utd in fifth - but Mourinho’s side have two games in hand. Jurgen Klopp will watch this Thursday’s Manchester derby very intently indeed.
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90min +5: Mignolet is playing sweeper now although Liverpool could do with him at centre forward - along with everyone else.
90 min + 4: Grujic gets up for a header but there’s no threat.
90 min + 3: Corner for Liverpool. Hennessey flaps at it too but Liverpool can’t latch on to the loose ball and Palace clear.
90 min +1: Palace have used all their subs and Tomkins is off the field injured.
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89 min: Six minutes of added time - I’m not sure where they all came from. It makes the Liverpool fans happy anyway.
87 min: It’s coming down to Coutinho long shots now - it ends in a long headshake from the Brazilian. Benteke heads off for Campbell - I think we can say he did his job well today.
85 min: I had forgotten Origi was playing. “In your opinion who could defend better: Klopp’s Liverpool or Keegan’s Newcastle,” asks Mayur Gupta. Oh, Klopp’s Liverpool easily. Nothing touches Keegan’s Newcastle for ineptitude (but they were a better attacking side - because they had nothing else to do).
82 min: Milner is off for the oldest man on Liverpool’s subs bench: 24-year-old Moreno. For Palace, Cabaye is replaced by Delaney. Oh, and Liverpool also bring on Grujic in place of Clyne.
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81 min: Can is allowed to jaunt down the left - perhaps because Palace know he will produce the filthiest the cross of the afternoon.
78 min: Van Aanholt comes on for Zaha, while Liverpool take off Lovren and bring on the 18-year-old Alexander-Arnold. Call me crazy but I think Palace are playing for 2-1 here.
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77 min: Liverpool have produced a lot of pressure and very little threat in this second half- and most of their chances have come from Coutinho’s individual brilliance rather than any teamwork.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-2 Bente... Crystal Palace (Benteke 74 min)
Benteke tones down his celebrations in front of his old team as Klopp chews his lip on the sidelines. It came from a corner and Liverpool were conspicuously absent as their former striker was able to finish from close range.
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72 min: Clyne is forced into defensive duties for once and comes up with a foul, which gives Palace a free-kick in a decent position. There’s a messy melee after the ball is delivered and Cabaye squirms free. His shot goes over but that was a scary moment for Klopp and Co.
68 min: The two teams chasing Liverpool for a place in the top four - the Manchesters City and United – face each other on Thursday. Palace make a rare appearance in the Liverpool half but Lovren snuffs out the danger. I thought the Londoners may have pushed for a win after an encouraging end to the first half but they have defended very deep.
65 min: Firmino rakes a cross-shot across goal, it goes past the far post but a team-mate could have poked it in if anyone had bothered to follow it up.
62 min: Pretty tame stuff from both teams for the last few minutes.
59 min: A brilliant pass from Lucas through to Firmino, who spots the ball a little too late and can’t control it as he lunges into the area.
56 min: Clyne’s cross falls to - who else? - Coutinho but his header is deflected to safety. It also looks like that Coutinho blocked shot a few minutes back came off Tomkins’ hand.
53 min: Coutinho again - he has now produced 98.98% of the highlights of this game. He manages to dance sideways across the area - and past half of the Palace team but his shot is blocked. Liverpool win a corner and Lucas’s attempt to score his first Premier League goal in eight years ends as you may have predicted.
51 min: Coutinho confuses the hell out of Kelly on the edge of the area, with some ridiculous skill before unleashing a shot high into the Kop. Nice of him to get the crowd involved though.
48 min: Clyne’s cross is cut out by Palace. “Would you please do me a favour and start a #sakhoOUT for me,” writes Teja “Enough is enough. All that sympathy over the week is out of the window.” Well, I think Sakho did the job himself with that little celebration on the sideline.
46 min: And we’re back. One concern for Liverpool is that if they do need to chase this game late on, their bench consists of a few teenagers and your kid brother. Anyway, no changes during the break.
Half-time: Liverpool 1-1 Crystal Palace
The teams trail off for a nice sit down. For most of the first 45 minutes Liverpool dominated and Palace were happy to let them do so. Then again, it didn’t take too much pressure for them to come back.
45 min: Benteke has another chance to round out the half. He chests down a cross but his swivelled shot is straight at Mignolet. Palace may well rethink that tactic of sitting back in the second half if slicing Liverpool open is this easy.
44 min: Interesting post-script to that goal: Benteke goes to the sideline to celebrate with Sakho, who is currently on loan from Liverpool. Sakho seems happy enough to join in the festivities too.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-1 Palace (Benteke 42)
Inevitably, Benteke scores against his former team - and in front of the Kop. Cabaye’s cross skids across the six-yard area where Benteke charges in to nudge the ball past Mignolet.
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42 min: Origi is down with an injury but after a brief trot to the sideline is fit to continue.
40 min: Ummmm ... Wijnaldum taps the ball to Can, who is eight yards out and unmarked. Can does make contact but seems to be trying to win Palace a throw-in. Although he doesn’t even manage that.
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38 min: Clyne has been excellent in attack this afternoon. I’ve no idea how he would have coped defensively against Palace as he hasn’t had to defend. “‘So that’s our squad and everything is fine’. Dripping with bathos, those words from Jurgen Klopp perfectly sum up what it is to be a Liverpool fan,” chuckles Matt Dony.
35 min: Palace’s first corner of the game and their first shot on target, if we’re considering 4mph headers straight at the keeper as shots on target. We are? Then Palace have a shot on target!
32 min: Very muted calls for a Liverpool penalty (mostly from the crowd) but everyone else it happy to amble on towards halftime.
29 min: Palace have a jaunt up the pitch but Cabaye’s cross is cut out easily enough. Palace are still letting Liverpool hog the ball and it’s not a terrible tactic this early on - it took a brilliant effort from Liverpool to take the lead.
26 min: Hennessey was perhaps too far to the left when the free-kick was taken but it would be unfair to blame him too much for the goal - Countinho’s shot was excellent.
GOAL!! Liverpool 1-0 Crystal Palace (24 min)
Free-kick to Liverpool after Coutinho is taken down around 30 yards from goal in the middle of the pitch. Hennessey has to cope with the sun in his eyes but even in ideal conditions he wouldn’t have stopped a brilliant free-kick from Coutinho - it was curled round the wall and into the far corner.
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21 min: There are four teenagers on the Liverpool bench today and not one of them is on their phone. Excellent discipline. Meanwhile, Benteke slaloms and hustles his way through the Liverpool defence before sending a skidding shot just wide. That’s the closest we’ve had to a goal.
17 min: Firmino has another surging run for Liverpool and lays it off to Coutinho, who backheels to Milner. But the pass may have been a little too clever for Milner who is slow to react and gives the ball back to Palace.
15 min: Liverpool have 70% of the possession so far, not that Palace have been chasing the ball too much. Both teams appear happy enough to maintain that state of affairs: while Liverpool have a lot of the ball, Palace have contained them easily enough.
12 min: It’s a lovely turn from Wijnaldum on the edge of the area and it buys him some room for a shot or pass, but he doesn’t really do either and Palace clear.
10 min: Better from Palace, in that they’re not pinned in their own half. Mignolet gets his first touch of the game after a pinged pass goes out for a goal kick.
7 min: Firmino bombs down the right - Liverpool are having plenty of joy there - but his cross is a little off.
5 min: Corner to Liverpool, taken by Coutinho but it’s hit too hard and Palace can clear. Peter Oh, who I am beginning to suspect works for World Book Day, has emailed in his favorite quote from a football biography. Big Sam’s off all people: “I squeezed into some very tight black pants and nailed the Moonwalk. I’ve even dressed up as Cheryl Cole.”
1 min: And we’re off. Clyne makes a early foray down the right before spreading it out to Lucas and Countinho but the resulting shot is blocked by Palace legs.
“Hi Tom,” writes Peter Oh. “Sakho is on loan like a library book, which reminds me. Happy World Book Day! It would be great if you could pepper your commentary with the occasional literary reference.” Luckily we have a whole gallery dedicated to footballers’ favourite books:
Adam Lallana likes The Gruffalo but who doesn’t?
Man Utd’s win against Burnley earlier puts them within three points of Liverpool, you can see the full Premier League table here. The teams are out on the pitch now, under clear blue skies in Liverpool.
Just one change for Palace, with Sakho unable to play against Liverpool seeing as he is on loan from Anfield. Tomkins takes his place “[Tomkins] has other qualities and is a good communicator,” says Sam Allardyce with a nice bit of faint praise. They should have got Tomkins to do the pre-match interview - apparently, he’s a good communicator. And he has other qualities too.
Rhian Brewster is on the bench today for Liverpool, should they need a ridiculously talented 17-year-old to come on later to add some attacking threat. It would be his Premier League debut if he does come on, although it sounds like Jurgen Klopp has stamped Save For A Later Date on Brewster’s forehead: “Rhian Brewster did really well last week and he is a natural striker, if we need it,” he told the Liverpool website. “It is not sure that we will bring him [on] because Marko Grujic can play this position also, but we don’t have a lot of options so that’s our squad and everything is fine.” Joel Matip and Lucas Leiva have both passed fitness tests and will start.
Brewster could today become the first player born after the year 2000 to make a Premier League appearance.
— Scouted Football (@ScoutedFtbl) April 23, 2017
Let's hope he does! pic.twitter.com/quLRScZIEj
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Team news
Liverpool: Mignolet, Clyne, Matip, Lovren, Milner, Wijnaldum, Lucas, Can, Firmino, Origi, Coutinho. Subs: Karius, Gomez, Grujic, Moreno, Woodburn, Alexander-Arnold, Brewster.
Crystal Palace: Hennessey, Ward, Tomkins, Kelly, Schlupp, Cabaye, Milivojevic, Townsend, Puncheon, Zaha, Christian Benteke. Subs: Speroni, Van Aanholt, Flamini, Campbell, McArthur, Sako, Delaney.
Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands)
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Tom will be here shortly, in the meantime why not read Dominic Fifeld’s excellent interview with Mamadou Sakho:
For Mamadou Sakho, there is no satisfaction to be had in vindication. He has known for over a year he had done nothing wrong, and that the fat burner containing higenamine, for which he tested positive after helping Liverpool to Europa League progress beyond Manchester United, was not included on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list. Uefa had admitted as much last July before, in the first section of a 104-page dossier released this weekby its control, ethics and disciplinary body, the blame game over the player’s ban degenerated into petty finger-pointing between the governing body and Wada.
The real victim, the man who had been denied involvement in a cup final and a place in the host nation’s squad at Euro 2016, can only watch as the bickering shames the authorities. “I worked so hard to prepare myself for the European Championship, to help my country, to wear the France shirt in a tournament on home soil,” says Sakho. “Now I’ll never do that. Whatever they say or do, they cannot replace what they took away from me. My lawyer can see what happens next but, for me, I focus on other things. I have learned in life you should never look back over your shoulder, wondering what might have been. That is the past. Always look forward, at the next challenge. It’s life. Good and bad things happen, but my mentality is always to try and find a positive. It is the only way to be and, today, I am really happy.”
You can read the full story here:
