Full-time: Liverpool 1-2 Crystal Palace
PEEP! And that’s it. Liverpool’s threatened storm never comes. Their final attack is headed away and Klopp’s unbeaten record with Liverpool is over. Liverpool dominated possession and chances but it’s hard to fault Palace, who played their part to perfection. They weathered the pressure and exploited two errors from Liverpool. Zaha in particular was great, causing Liverpool problems all afternoon. The only surprise was that he didn’t score the winner.
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90 min +3: Benteke pushes his marker away and Palace have another free-kick. More slow set-piece action ensues.
90 min +2: Foul in midfield and Palace win a free-kick. They may take this slowly.
90 min +1: Some midfield scrappiness and another minutes ticks away.
90 min: Lallana attempts to jag it back into the box and Liverpool win their 13th corner of the day. Followed by their 14th after Hennessey scrambles away a Moreno cross-shot. Clyne’s thrash over the bar wastes more time for Palace.
89 min: Four minutes of added time.
87 min: Firmino stands over the ball as he attempts to deliver a corner of craft and skill. Or a corner that doesn’t make it past the first defender. Liverpool sub Origi in for Ibe, who has been dangerous if a little indecisive at times.
85 min: Liverpool may well pay for their failure to exploit their dominance at the end of the first-half more fully. They do have a corner after a thumping shot from the excellent Coutinho. Mutch is on for Cabaye.
83 min: Two loose balls Liverpool have failed to deal with in the box have resulted in two Palace goals. It’s the simple things in life ...
GOAL! Liverpool 1-2 Palace (Dann 82)
Corner to Palace, and the players trundle into the area to variously defend, attack and ... SCORE! It’s the Scouser Dann who gets it, closing on a loose ball and heading home. Sucker punch duly delivered.
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81 min: Coutinho slips the ball to Ibe, who whips a cross into the six-yard area and Lallana can’t get to it. He should have though.
79 min: Liverpool have had 19 shots to Palace’s six. And 11 on target to Palace’s three. But I wouldn’t be amazed if Palace nicked this game, Zaha looks capable to sucker punching the life out of them. Puncheon is off for Ledley.
77 min: Zaha makes a fool out of Clyne, who is booked for his attempts to bring down his opponent and Palace have a free-kick on the edge of the area to the left of goal. Cabaye’s swinging cross isn’t quite swinging enough to trouble Liverpool though. “Watching Telly and Moving Quite Slowly seems a pretty valid holiday activity to me in any case. The highlight of a recent trip to Versailles was finding BBC4 on the hotel TV so I could watch Detectorists,” says Tom Hopkins. “I received mixed feedback on this decision.”
74 min: Mignolet gathers the corner, and throws to Benteke who races up the pitch. Ibe gets the ball but takes his time about a shot and Palace can clear. Firmino then dribbles another shot wide.
73 min: Ooof. Great effort from Puncheon around 25 yards out that forces Mignolet into a sprawling save, although he had plenty of time to dive to his right. Palace have a corner though.
70 min: Great passing from Palace to clear their lines. Or great passing until they give the ball away and Coutinho is able to bring the ball forward. Benteke gets the ball on the edge of the area, and can turn and shoot or tap the ball back to Firmino. He opts for the latter and the shot sails over.
67 min: Souare is now changing his shorts after his earlier forehead injury. Not sure the two are linked but I just type what I see. “Re: Australia breaking your foot,” says Robin Hazlehurst. “It may not be called Fatal Shore for nothing, though I’m presuming your accident wasn’t actually fatal? At least to you? In which case ‘Mildly Discomfiting Shore’ or ‘Bloody Painful Shore’ or just ‘Ouch Shore’ might be more appropriate as a name.” Good point. Let’s call it The Shore That Meant I Had To Spend My Holiday Watching Telly And Moving Quite Slowly.
65 min: Lallana’s cross is cut out by Delaney for a corner. Sakho’s reward for missing that chance is being subbed for Delaney. Can comes off for Firmino. We also have that corner to deal with. It’s dealt with. Nothing happened. Move on.
62 min: This game is incredibly open now. The ball zings up the pitch and Moreno plops the ball on to Benteke’s forehead but the striker heads over (under a little pressure, in his defence).
61 min: Palace clear the corner but the noise is lifted in Anfield and Liverpool have recaptured some of the momentum they showed at the end of the first half. Another corner (and Soare is back on with a bandaged head). The corner is cleared but Palace is clear on a counter and Sakho prods the ball wide.
59 min: Souare collides with the advertising hoardings. Ouch. He may well have mangled some ribs there, and he’s bleeding from the forehead. Apart from that, he’s fine. The physio is looking after him for now. In the meantime, Zaha zigs and zags into the area before Liverpool counterattack and win a corner.
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56 min: Ibe ghosts in from the right and plays a short ball to Benteke, who goes down under a challenge from Dann on the edge of the area. There are some speculative calls for a foul but they’re waved away. Liverpool don’t seem too outraged.
54 min: Half-time seems to have killed Liverpool’s buzz a little bit and Palace start to poke a little. Puncheon slashes at the ball from around 20 yards out but it’s as non-threatening a shot as you can imagine.
51 min: Lovely crossfield ball from Lucas to Ibe wins a throw in, which goes to Ibe but he can’t quite trick his way into the area. “Sorry you didn’t get an upgrade but they’re not all that,” says business class’s Taj Ali. “Sure, you get treated like a real human being and you get a choice of drinks and food but I watched Jurassic World and it was no better in business class than it was in economy class. I know because I asked my girlfriend who had to sit back in economy while I enjoyed myself.” Did anyone else think Chris Pratt was wearing eyeliner in Jurassic World? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I just found it interesting.
48 min: Benteke nearly gets the go ahead goal. He swishes into the area but Soare does enough to put him off as he takes his shot. “Re: Kelly. I wouldn’t necessarily degree with Tim Woods’s assessment but, without mentioning M*nquillo, it does beg the question as to why there was a need to bring in another right-back (not forgetting we also have Andre Wisdom although he became, apparently, another forgotten man),” says Lou Roper.
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46 min: And we’re off again. “Re: your broken foot in Australia. Good to see that you had been giving the Aussies a good kicking at least!,” writes Rob C. Well, I broke it after jumping off a small cliff so technically it was Australia that gave me kicking. They don’t call it the Fatal Shore for nothing.
Half-time email: “Re Lou Roper’s comment - I think Jack Robinson is still at QPR but was injured last season. And he could possibly have googled that him/herself to save me the bother,” says Tim Woods. “As for Kelly, he had a few chances at Anfield but was very unlucky with injuries, and if I remember correctly, when fit he would make 2-3 Moreno-esque defensive errors each game. Palace is pretty much his level (i.e. about the same as us).
“We don’t talk about Manquillo.”
Half time: Liverpool batter Palace on to the ropes but they put their defences up to end the danger. And with that substandard boxing metaphor the half ends. A great start from Palace who came out attacking but Liverpool have dominated since and if the second-half is anything like the end of the first, Klopp should be celebrating a win on 90 minutes.
45 min +2: Liverpool press for another before they go in for their half-time snacks. But Palace counterattack for the first time in 20 minutes or so and win a throw in deep in the Liverpool half. An overhit ends that little episode though.
45 min: Three minutes of injury time.
44 min: Plenty of good stuff coming from the right-wing from Liverpool. This time it’s a corner and Lovren gets his head to the ball. There’s a slight deflection that takes the pace off the ball and Hennessey is able to gather.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-1 Palace (Coutinho 41)
A great finish from Coutinho, calm and controlled. The ball is played across the box by Lallana and Benteke to the onrushing (is that a word?) Coutinho. He’s been great today, Coutinho and the goal was coming for a while.
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40 min: Palace haven’t had a chance since they scored and Liverpool win another corner. Lallana cuts in to the area a minute later and attempts to curl the ball into the top right-hand corner but doesn’t quite get it right and the threat passes. Sakho has now decided he can’t continue and Lovren replaces him. Hope that hasn’t done Sakho more damage.
37 min: Sakho limps off to be replaced by Lovr... Hang on, now he’s saying he’s OK and Lovren has had to sit down. Watch Sakho head the winner now. “I have a PhD in history and am always waiting for the crew to cry ‘Is there a doctor on the plane?’ so that I can say ‘Yes...’ until I reach the patient and then blurt ‘...but not THAT kind of doctor...’ to rousing choruses of lolz from my fellow passengers,” says Dr Cian McMahon. But you could tell the heart attack victim about Napoleon while he gasped away in agony, right Dr McMahon?
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33 min: Oh, nearly a wonderful goal from Liverpool. Four or five razor sharp passes from Liverpool end in a shot from around five yards out (this is my way of fudging the fact that I didn’t see who had the shot) but it’s wide and blocked. Benteke then heads over 30 seconds or so later after a fine cross from Clyne.
30 min: Hennessey comes up with a great save from Benteke header. The keeper was unsighted and saw the ball very late but palms the chance away at the last microsecond. Liverpool’s best chance so far.
28 min: Liverpool have had 60% of the possession but, by my calculations, 0% of the goals. Moreno stands over the ball around 35 yards out for a thunderbolt of a shot. But he slips it to his right and the ball ends up at the feet of Ibe who, after a wee dance, messes up his shot. “Disgraceful that you were not awarded an upgrade but had you remembered your trousers as well as your shirt when you checked in?,” says Lou Roper. A fair point, Lou. The trousers were a glaring omission.
25 min: Liverpool have a meander up the pitch with Ibe and Coutinho both having shots. The first is blocked, the second ends up in the arms of Hennessey.
23 min: There were three or four examples of sloppy defending for Palace’s opener and Klopp looked pretty aggravated on the sidelines. There was a few missed tackles before Zaha even delivered the cross.
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GOAL! Liverpool 0-1 Palace (Bolasie 20)
Cabaye sees Mignolet off his line and attempts a chip from, oooh, 44.64 yards or so. It misses but gets a whole lot better 30 seconds later. Zaha’s cross isn’t cleared and Bolasie pounces on the loose ball to smash it home.
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16 min: Coutinho thrashes it high and wide from distance. “You had a broken foot on a flight from Australia and they didn’t give you an upgrade?” cries Pete Heath. I know, disgraceful. I did ask. And wore a shirt to check in to impress them. And pretended I was a doctor when I bought the ticket. That’s supposed to help. Although if there had been a medical emergency on board I would have been effed. Not as effed as the person I had to perform an emergency appendectomy on though.
13 min: The pace has slowed and it’s Liverpool who look in control of the game now, if in less dynamic fashion than Palace, who were making all kinds og runs into the box. But Liverpool have their first corner after some good work from Moreno. Souare takes care of it though. Here’s Lou Roper: “The presence of Kelly in the Palace XI (as well as that of Lucas in the Liverpool team) points to the crux of ‘BR’s’ (TM BR) self-generated difficulties as manager: why did he drop (and sell) good players who are completely devoted to the club and bring in rubbish such as Manquillo? Or must we blame the ‘transfer committee’ for these unaccountable doings? And whatever happened to young Robinson the left-back shunted off to QPR?”
10 min: That little flash from Liverpool was important after a dominant start from Palace and the crowd (and players) look a little more comfortable now. Liverpool stroke the ball about in midfield and catch their breath.
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7 min: Another corner to Palace. It’s driven into the near post but cleared, and Liverpool counterattack. Ibe’s run ends in a little shovel to Lallana, whose shot flashes across goal. Here’s Gary Naylor:
@tom_lutz Inside Out is great isn't it? Did you think the Dad looks a bit like Jurgen Klopp?
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) November 8, 2015
He did. As, oddly, did the old man in Up. Maybe all Pixar films contain secret references to the great man. The Inside Out dad was also voiced by Kyle McLachlan which adds even more zing to the tale..
4 min: Jason Puncheon thought he had won a corner - and he’s right. Good start from Palace here. Puncheon is described by the commentator as a “bundle of trouble from south London” which makes him sound like a journeyman boxer. As does his name, I suppose.
1 min: And we’re off. And now that LA Galaxy are out of the MLS playoffs, Steven Gerrard has decided to leave life on the west coast behind for a few weeks and is in attendance today. Because where would you rather be on a Sunday in November? Early attack for Palace as a Zaha dart into the box wins a corner, which is overhit horribly.
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Liverpool will of course be mildly jetlagged after their long trip back from Russia in midweek. But I flew back from Australia on Tuesday and am fine despite recovering from upset both physical (broken foot) and emotional (the sad bits in Inside Out on the plane’s telly).
So, Liverpool are unbeaten under Klopp so far although recent history suggests Palace could be a toughy today. Palace won the last meeting between these two 3-1 and Liverpool will be without James Milner, who picked up a hamstring injury against Rubin Kazan in the week. Palace appear to be without an out-and-out striker too - although that seems to be down to advanced tactical thinking rather than any hamstrings being twanged.
Teams
Liverpool: Mignolet, Clyne, Skrtel, Sakho, Moreno, Can, Lucas, Ibe, Coutinho, Lallana, Benteke.
Subs: Lovren, Firmino, Allen, Origi, Brannagan, Bogdan, Teixeira.
Crystal Palace: Hennessey, Kelly, Dann, Delaney, Souare, Cabaye, McArthur, Zaha, Puncheon, Bolasie, Sako.
Subs: Speroni, Ward, Hangeland, Bamford, Wickham, Mutch, Ledley.
Referee: Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire)
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Tom will be here shortly, in the meantime here is Andy Hunter on Jürgen Klopp’s start at Anfield.
It is one month on Sunday since Jürgen Klopp was appointed Liverpool manager but he has found no time to reflect on an unbeaten, unrelenting introduction to English football. “We are in the middle of the race,” he explains. “It is very intensive, seven games in four weeks. It feels longer than four weeks.” Comprehending how referees interpret the laws of the game, Klopp admits, has been a key part of his crash-course introduction to the Premier League.
José Mourinho was driven to distraction by Klopp’s animated discussions with the fourth official, Lee Mason, during Liverpool’s 3-1 win at Chelsea last Saturday. The Chelsea manager claimed he would have been sent off for approaching Mason in a confrontational manner. Klopp insists his demeanour belied the fact he spoke to the fourth official with respect. “Most of the time I speak in this way but sometimes my face doesn’t show it,” he said. “There’s a big difference between my face and what I say.”
Klopp has also discovered a big difference between Premier League and Bundesliga referees since accepting Liverpool’s offer to replace Brendan Rodgers a month ago. His performance at Stamford Bridge, the 48-year-old explains, was merely a response to Mark Clattenburg’s display and part of a process that will continue when Crystal Palace arrive at Anfield on Sunday.
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