Reaction and analysis
That’s all from me. Thanks for reading and emailing. Night!
Jurgen Klopp speaks! “Frustrating? I’m not sure. It’s a football game against a strong side. When we came out snow was on the pitch and we could’t do anything against that. We had most of the possession. We controlled the game until we gave one or two balls away. The only proper situation was the free-kick they got and then they can score. Well done by Chilwell. We scored a nice goal. We couldn’t speed up in the final third. Partly it was because we couldn’t do it, but also because it was difficult. One-nil at half-time would have been great. Second half we tried again but Leicester were more confident. There were spaces we didn’t see, feel or use. That’s how it is. I really don’t understand why you ask me about Harry Maguire. I’m not the referee. Is it smart what he’s doing? I would say it’s a 100% chance at least. Not only Sadio is through, but Mo is through on the other side. But Martin Atkinson thought it was a yellow card. I don’t think you need VAR for that [the Keita penalty incident]. The ref is in the best position for it. I think we agree it was a penalty.”
Another replay of the Naby Keita penalty appeal shows Leicester got away with one. But the simple truth is that Liverpool didn’t play well enough tonight.
Here’s Daniel Taylor’s match report from Anfield.
Harry Maguire speaks! “It was a great tea,m performance after the first five minutes. We’ve started sloppy and gave them a goal. It was a good reaction. We had spells where we probably should have scored two. We knew they were tough so we couldn’t really open as much as we’d like. When we were on top maybe we should have capitalised on it. But we take a good point and move on. We were solid as a defensive unit. We worked on set plays all week. They don’t give many goals away and we thought we could capitalise on that.
Should he have been sent off for bringing down Sadio Mane? I stood on the back of his heel, to be fair, but I didn’t mean to bring him down. I thought it was the right decision.”
Claude Puel: hard to analyse.
Leicester. Losing against Wolves, Southampton, Newport and Cardiff. Winning against Chelsea and Man City. Drawing against Liverpool. #lcfc
— Kristof Terreur 📰🎥 (@HLNinEngeland) January 30, 2019
This, by the way, is the first time Liverpool have dropped points to a team outside the Big Six. Which goes to show how impressive they’ve been. This isn’t a disastrous result - it’s just fallen a bit flat.
The home fans applaud but it’s been a disappointing night for Liverpool. They’ve missed a chance to extend their lead over Manchester City to seven points. It was an anxious performance and although they’ve gone five points clear of the champions, Liverpool might end up looking back at this as a missed opportunity. That said, Leicester were worth a point, rallying after Sadio Mane’s early goal and equalising through Harry Maguire. They kept their composure, played some good football and defended well in the second half.
Full-time: Liverpool 1-1 Leicester
That’s your lot!
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90 min+4: Mane heads Lallana’s corner over. That should be that. Chilwell’s booked for timewasting.
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90 min+3: Robertson’s cross, Chilwell’s clearance. From one left-back to another. Liverpool win another corner, though.
90 min+1: We’ll have four minutes of stoppage time. Liverpool are stepping it up. Lallana breaks down the right, reaching the byline, but Evans clears his cutback.
90 min: Leicester make their final change, Kelechi Iheanacho replacing Jamie Vardy, who mooches off without much urgency.
87 min: Mane speeds through the middle and looks poised to shoot on the edge of the area, only for Choudhury to deny him with a great tackle. The ball runs to Sturridge, who finds Row Z.
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86 min: Momentarily Sturridge looks like he has a free run at the Leicester defence, with Salah free to his left, but he miscontrols it and ends up handling the ball.
84 min: Shinji Okazaki replaces Demarai Gray.
82 min: Salah slams the free-kick into the wall. The ball’s lifted in to Mane, who’s incorrectly flagged offside. That’s the cue for Liverpool to replace Firmino with Daniel Sturridge.
81 min: Ricardo bundles Salah over to the left of the D. A silly foul gives Liverpool a free-kick in a promising position. A hush falls over Anfield. Salah fancies it.
79 min: Liverpool are very short on ideas. Just wait till they play West Ham on Monday. They won’t know what to do against Pellegrini’s catenaccio.
76 min: Robertson blooters a volley into the Kop from 25 yards.
75 min: Matip heads wide from the resulting corner. The anxiety builds. Leicester make their first change, Hamza Choudhury replacing James Maddison.
74 min: Henderson hoicks a cross into the middle, the ball flying all the way to Firmino on the left. The striker works space for a shot with neat footwork, but Schmeichel parries his sharp effort. Liverpool settle for a corner.
73 min: Leicester break from a Liverpool free-kick, Vardy speeding forward with Gray to his left. Vardy plays Gray in but the winger shoots too soon and Alisson makes an easy save. He could have slid it across to the unmarked Maddison, who was in a better position.
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70 min: This half has rather drifted away. Liverpool aren’t threatening much. Leicester’s tactics have been spot on so far.
66 min: Liverpool make a double change, Fabinho and Adam Lallana on for Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri.
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65 min: The resulting free-kick from Keita’s a waste of time.
64 min: Firmino heads Maddison’s corner away. The ball’s flung back into the area, but Vardy’s offside. Moments later Chilwell chops down Wijnaldum.
63 min: Gray wins a corner for Leicester on the left. They really want a second.
60 min: Vardy tries to reach a long ball over the top, but it’s too awkward for him to control.
57 min: Keita, who’s not done much tonight, suddenly stirs, driving forward, playing a lovely one-two with Firmino and storming into the area. Yet he takes an age to sort out his feet and scuffs wide as he goes down under pressure from Ricardo. Liverpool scream for a penalty, but Martin Atkinson waves their appeals away. Ricardo stood on Keita’s left foot.
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55 min: Liverpool lack intensity to their play. This is rather laboured.
52 min: Ricardo wins a free-kick off Keita on the right. Maddison sends a deep delivery to the far post, where Maguire’s peeled away again. The flag stays down, Maguire heads it down into the six-yard box and Firmino almost turns the ball into his own net, only for Alisson to make a wonderful pointblank save! The ball breaks loose and Liverpool somehow scramble it clear.
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51 min: Ricardo’s booked for stopping a Liverpool counterattack.
50 min: Leicester are looking to play on the tension at Anfield. And, more than anything, attack down the left. Chilwell goes on a very strange run, skipping into the area, reaching the byline, then turning around and doing a 360 spin. It seems the moment’s passed. Instead Chilwell surprises everyone with an astute pass inside to Maddison. The angle’s tight and although he only has Alisson to beat, Maddison tries to poke the ball into the middle. It’s headed away.
49 min: A scrappy start to the half. Liverpool remain edgy.
47 min: “I know what film Jürgen Klopp won’t be watching tonight!” Peter Oh parps. “Jerry MAGUIRE!”
46 min: The second half begins. The groundstaff have cleared one penalty area of snow. You won’t be surprised to hear it’s the end Liverpool are attacking. How sporting of them.
Half-time: Liverpool 1-1 Leicester
Peep! Peep! Liverpool had an early lead thanks to Sadio Mane but it’s been wiped out by Harry Maguire. As it stands Liverpool are going five points clear of Manchester City, but they have a lot of work to do. They’ve not convinced.
This is such a soft goal. Maddison’s free-kick isn’t cleared properly. The ball falls to Ndidi, who sees his shot blocked. The ball loops to Chilwell, who heads it back into the area. Some Leicester players are offside. Not Maguire, though. Matip lets the ball drop over his head, allowing Maguire to steal in and sweep past Alisson to give Leicester a deserved equaliser and Manchester City one hell of a boost!
GOAL! Liverpool 1-1 Leicester (Maguire, 45 min+2)
It’s sort of been coming - and now it’s arrived!
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45 min+1: Robertson brings down Ricardo on the right. One more chance for Leicester.
45 min: There will be one minute of added time.
41 min: Robertson sprays a glorious pass through to Mane, who’s clipped by Maguire midway through Leicester’s half. Mane would have been through on goal, but Maguire only receives a booking despite being the last man.
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38 min: Salah runs into Maguire in the area and falls over. He clutches his face. Nothing doing.
36 min: Mane injects some urgency into the Liverpool attack with a burst through the middle. He lays it off to Salah, who tries to bend one into the far corner. Chilwell diverts the shot with an outstretched leg. The Liverpool fans scream for handball.
34 min: “John Wayne?!” Peter Oh says. “I think a better choice to portray Jürgen on the big screen would be Jürgen himself. Jürgen Prochnow, that is. The guy who played the submarine captain in Das Boot. In any case, hopefully Liverpool’s title charge won’t take on any water tonight.”
33 min: Leicester fancy themselves. They’re not hesitating to send a few crosses into the Liverpool area. However, Vardy’s yet to get close to beating Van Dijk.
31 min: Ndidi pinches the ball off Wijnaldum in the middle and makes off towards the Liverpool area. He slips a pass through to Gray, who looks for Vardy in the middle. Who’s there, though? Van Dijk.
29 min: Maddison hoofs a free-kick into the Kop. Awful. Especially with the big men up from the back.
27 min: Breaking: Liverpool are nervous.
25 min: Another poor clearance from Alisson, who doesn’t look comfortable with the ball at his feet this evening, lands Liverpool in more bother. Albrighton whips a cross into the middle from the right and Maddison is completely unmarked six yards from goal. Incredibly, though, he manages to cushion his header wide of the far post! What a miss! He had to score.
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23 min: Salah spins brilliantly and tries to release Shaqiri, but Ricardo reads the danger and covers well.
21 min: “I think Kloppo watched a John Wayne movie last night,” Josh Bains says. “Jurgen was asked once to pick an actor to play him in a film, and he chose John Wayne. I don’t think the Duke would’ve been able to play him, though.”
18 min: This is a decent spell for Leicester. Ricardo drives inside from the right and finds Maddison, who’s tackled by Maddison. Then Gray skips round Robertson and fizzes in a low cross. It’s too close to Alisson, though.
16 min: Matip upends Vardy on the halfway line and earns a booking.
15 min: A short spell of Leicester passing ends with Mendy drifting a pass out for a throw. The visitors haven’t offered much.
14 min: A lull.
11 min: A raking pass from Van Dijk from deep releases Cafu Jordan Henderson, who wins a Liverpool corner, which comes to nothing.
10 min: “I wonder what movie Klopp & his missus watched last night?” Justin Kavanagh says. “Mission Impossible 4 maybe. Let’s hope it wasn’t Titanic. That ship was registered in Liverpool, you know, and it was about mid-April that it hit the… ah, I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen this film before.”
9 min: A replay shows that Henderson’s challenge on Maddison was outside the area. It was, however, surely a foul by the Liverpool player.
7 min: A poor pass from Alisson puts Henderson in trouble and the makeshift right-back tangles with Maddison, who goes down looking for a penalty. Martin Atkinson waves the Leicester man’s appeals away.
6 min: Gray scoots down the right flank and tries to release Albrighton. Matip steps in to win the ball and Liverpool set off again. Salah drives down the right flank, cuts inside and floats a ball to the far post for Firmino. The Brazilian takes it on his chest, dips past Ricardo and tries to fire past Schmeichel. This time the Leicester goalkeeper makes a stunning save. From the resulting corner Mane should score, only to head wide at the near post. Leicester are rocking.
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5 min: Leicester have barely had a sniff yet. It also looked like the snow helped Mane make that chance. The Leicester defenders looked very uncertain on their feet.
Liverpool probe down the left, looking to make a fast start. Robertson slips a pass inside, Firmino dummies it and nobody’s more alert than Mane. He throws off Gray with a lovely body swerve and makes the space to send a low shot past Schmeichel and inside the bottom-left post! A seven-point lead beckons.
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GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Leicester (Mane, 3 min)
What a start for Liverpool!
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2 min: The snow that fell on the pitch before kick-off has made the surface a bit slow. Passes might hold up. But...
Peep! Leicester, all in blue, get the game underway on a snowy Anfield pitch. It looks cold tonight. But there’s a piping hot atmosphere at Anfield. They know how much this one means. It’s Leicester attacking the Kop in the first half. Jordan Henderson, meanwhile, is definitely at right-back.
After a rousing rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone, there is a minute’s silence for Emiliano Sala and Dave Ibbotson. It’s impeccably observed.
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Here come the teams! “Liverpool! Liverpool!” chant the Liverpool fans. “Leicester! Leicester! Leicester!” chant the Leicester fans. Other chants are available.
“The question behind many Liverpool fan’s thousand yard stare is what cruel form of deflation fate is serving up for us if the lead does build, expectation does grow and a title looms into view,” Ian Copestake says. “So for now let’s just win some games and enjoy the ride!”
Ah, the torment of being a fan. Is it possible to be optimistic? The default setting is pessimism for most. Easier that way.
Jurgen Klopp is asked about Manchester City’s defeat last night. “I had a long working day and came home late. I went to my missus and we didn’t watch the game, we watched a movie. When the final whistle happened and Newcastle won, my smart phone was buzz buzz buzz ... and I really hate that. If they would have won we would have played tonight. If they lost we would have played tonight. We want to play football and if there is something to celebrate you will see it in my face then.”
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Liverpool’s shortage of right-backs means Jordan Henderson is pushed back into defence. In the James Milner role. Milner is suspended after being sent off against Crystal Palace, so Georginio Wijnaldum comes in, while Xherdan Shaqiri replaces Fabinho.
Claude Puel makes three changes after Leicester’s 4-3 defeat to Wolves. Out go Danny Simpson, Wes Morgan and Harvey Barnes. In come Jonny Evans, Marc Albrighton and Demarai Gray.
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Team news
Liverpool: Alisson; Henderson, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Wijnaldum, Keita, Shaqiri; Salah, Firmino, Mane. Subs: Mignolet, Fabinho, Lovren, Lallana, Camacho, Origi, Sturridge.
Leicester: Schmeichel; Ricardo, Evans, Maguire, Chilwell; Albrighton, Mendy, Ndidi, Gray; Maddison; Vardy. Subs: Ward, Morgan, Simpson, Choudhury, Barnes, Okazaki, Iheanacho.
Referee: Martin Atkinson.
Pre-match reading
Preamble
First Roy Hodgson, now Rafa Benitez; at this rate Liverpool will have the title sewn up in no time at all if they can persuade Manchester City’s next few opponents to hire Gerard Houllier, Roy Evans and Graeme Souness. All it takes, it seems, to turn the race into a procession is for former Liverpool managers to stand in Pep Guardiola’s way and come to Jurgen Klopp’s aid. Hodgson’s Crystal Palace managed it last month and Benitez did his old side a huge favour last night, with Newcastle’s shock win over City opening the door for Liverpool to establish a seven-point lead over the champions. All hail Rafa! Still a Kopite after all those years.
Presumably the locals be singing the Spaniard’s name lustily at Anfield this evening. After all, what an opportunity this is for Liverpool. They still have 15 games left and know there’s plenty of football to play – but a seven-point lead over City as they head into February is the stuff of dreams for a team who have only lost once in 23 matches. If they can handle Leicester tonight, they’ll be entitled to think that 29-year itch is going to be scratched in May.
Mind you, the question is whether they can keep a lid on all that bubbling emotion. We’ve been here before with Liverpool. We’ve seen what can happen. We know Klopp shouldn’t go asking Brendan Rodgers for any tips on keeping the pitch nice and slick. Instead Liverpool’s task here is not to get too far ahead of themselves; they need to maintain the calm, cold and ruthless mentality that has taken them this far, not to mention keep in mind that Leicester are a very good counterattacking side who have already beaten Chelsea and City this season. It isn’t over yet.
Kick-off: 8pm GMT.
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