Full time: Southampton 0-2 Liverpool
Peep peep! Liverpool move above Spurs into third place after the easiest of victories over a disappointing Southampton. Roberto Firmino and Mo Salah - he could be one to watch - made goals for each other, and the returning Virgil van Dijk played in his slippers. Not much more to say really. Thanks for your company, goodnight.
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90 min There will be four minutes of added nothingness.
89 min One last change for Liverpool: Dejan Lovren replaces the inevitable Mo Salah.
85 min Another great chance goes begging for Liverpool. Lallana, cutting in from the right, plays a one-two with Salah before curling a left-footed shot just wide of the far post. Salah’s return pass was lovely.
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84 min Robertson has again been impressive for Liverpool. He hasn’t really been tested defensively but he is so clean and incisive going forward.
82 min “Not only is Mane badly out of form, but he seems to be trying too hard,” says Kelvin. “He also seems to be trying to outdo Salah and be the main man again.”
It’s human nature I suppose. Liverpool will be bloody dangerous in Europe if he finds his form, though. I have a feeling we might get a strange winner (ie not Barcelona, Real or Bayern) this season.
81 min The worry for Southampton is that this second-half performance will undo some of their excellent work in the past month. They gave up at half-time, pretty much.
80 min Another Southampton substitution. Oriol Romeu, who has had a decent game, is replaced by Steven Davis.
79 min Adam Lallana replaces the outstanding Roberto Firmino.
78 min It’s a funny old game, part 3242423. The first half was even yet ended 2-0 to Liverpool. The second half has been all Liverpool and the score is 0-0.
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76 min Firmino’s brilliant through pass is misjudged by Wijnaldum but runs to Mane, who screws it wide on the turn. He is badly out of form at the moment.
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74 min Van Dijk dispossesses Carrillo with disdainful ease and stabs the ball forward for Mane to lead a counter-attack. He runs 70 yards without challenge before his shot is blocked, and Robertson’s fierce follow-up also hits a defender.
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71 min Shane Long replaces James Ward-Prowse.
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71 min A double chance for Liverpool to make it 3-0. After a good run from Mane, Firmino’s fierce low shot is kicked away by McCarthy. The rebound comes to Salah, who sweeps it into the side netting. He might have had a hat-trick today.
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68 min Southampton need a goal, and they’re about to bring on Shane Long. I’ll let you do the rest.
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65 min Hojbjerg’s dangerous ball towards Ward-Prowse is smartly intercepted by van Dijk. He’s had a good game.
63 min Wijnaldum, found by Salah, spanks one high over the bar from 25 yards.
62 min Romeu is booked for a foul on Milner.
61 min Southampton were good in the first half but have been very flat since that second goal. The crowd are barely even bothering to boo van Dijk.
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60 min A Liverpool change: James Milner replaces Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
59 min An inswinging free-kick from the left by Ward-Prowse is stabbed wide on the volley by Hoedt at the near post. It was a tricky chance, for which he needed a softer touch.
58 min I’m not sure van Dijk has broken sweat.
57 min Boufal replaces the unwell Mario Lemina.
56 min Southampton are preparing to bring on Sofiane Boufal. They need to do something because they are going nowhere.
52 min Southampton have started the second half poorly and look resigned to defeat. It’s been a really bad day for them, with both Huddersfield and Newcastle winning.
50 min Mane’s spectacular scissor kick from the edge of the box is blocked by Lemina. The ball rebounds to Salah, who sweeps an excellent chance over the bar from 15 yards.
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49 min Lemina has gone down off the ball. On Sky Sports, Martin Tyler tells us he has an illness rather than an injury. He looks pretty spaced out but he wants to continue.
47 min Can is booked for a foul on Romeu.
46 min Peep peep! Liverpool begin the second half.
Half-time chit-chat
“I have the same confusion over Salah,” says Matt Dony. . He’s scored a truckload, which kind of makes people forget about just how many chances he’s missed. He could quite comfortably have scored an extra 9 or 10 goals this season. At his best, his dribbling and movement is Messi-esque. His second goal last week had more than a whiff of Argentinian magic about it. And he’s got a cool head, as shown by his last-minute heroics for Egypt. But at times, he’s very Steve McManaman. Thrilling run, beat 4 players, scuffed finish. I lean more towards ‘world class’, though. No doubt he’ll be at Barca in the next couple of years...”
“What makes that goal start is Salah’s incredible touch,” says Rick McGahey. “Hard pass into him in traffic and it just sticks to his foot. Then there’s the layoff and great backheel but what ball control in the first place from Salah.”
Half time: Southampton 0-2 Liverpool
That was a tight, even 45 minutes - apart from the two moments when Firmino and Salah sliced Southampton apart with clinical attacking play. See you in 10 minutes for the second half.
45 min The score flatters Liverpool, though both goals were superbly created and finished.
42 min That flick from Firmino was quite brilliant. On reflection I’m not sure it was a flick. It was a pass, perfectly weighted and dragged precisely into the space behind the defence.
It was a superb one-two between Salah and Firmino that led to the goal. The move started when Matip played a crisp pass into Salah, who took it on the half turn 25 yards from goal and flicked it to Firmino. He produced an ingenious, elaborate backflick to put Salah through on goal, and Salah passed it confidently into the net.
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GOAL! Southampton 0-2 Liverpool (Salah 42)
What a goal!
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40 min Bertrand plays a one-two with Tadic and crosses deep to Ward-Prowse, who plants a tame header straight at Karius from 10 yards. He would have been better off trying to bring that down or backpedalling to hit a volley.
37 min Tadic does well to roll Matip, who wrestles him to the floor and is booked.
33 min This is a good spell for Liverpool, perhaps their best of the match. Robertson plays a give-and-go with Firmino and flashes a terrific ball right across the face of goal.
32 min Mane misses a chance to make it 2-0. He was played through by Wijnaldum and stabbed the ball well wide with his left foot from 15 yards. In his defence he was under a lot of pressure from Cedric, who did really well to get round and make a challenge as Mane was about to shoot.
31 min “What’s the consensus on Salah?” says Matt Loten. “Is he a very good player in the form of his life, or is he a world-class player in the mould of De Bruyne who needed a run of games at the right club (i.e. not Chelsea) to demonstrate his true potential? I go back and forth every time I watch him. He’s got the pace, the movement and the goalscoring record that the top players in his position have, but he still scuffs some easy chances and his touch doesn’t seem as silky or consistent as someone like Robben or Hazard.”
I think he’s world-class. I agree his finishing is oddly erratic, but overall he’s dynamite.
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29 min Ward-Prowse smacks an excellent cross towards the penalty spot, where Carrillo towers over Alexander-Arnold and thumps a header that is too close to Karius. Moments later, Ward-Prowse’s far-post header is flicked over by the leaping Karius. That was a good save, though Ward-Prowse might have done better.
25 min Firmino goes over in the Southampton box after a tussle with Stephens. He wants a penalty; nobody else seems interested. Stephens did put hands on Firmino. Moments later, Mane chokes a shot well wide from 25 yards.
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24 min Matip shanks a clearance straight out of play. Liverpool aren’t playing particularly well at the moment.
20 min Southampton are playing with a lot of confidence in possession. Liverpool have been fairly quiet with the exception of that clinically taken goal.
18 min Karius makes an excellent save! Romeu clipped a long, angled pass over the head of Robertson that was pulled down at the far post by Hojbjerg. Once he got his bearings he sidefooted the ball towards goal on the half-volley and the outrushing Karius made a fine block.
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15 min Stephens, the goalscoring centre-half, drags a long-range shot well wide. Southampton having more of the ball, though that comes with the threat of a Liverpool counter-attack.
13 min “Hi Rob,” says Hubert O’Hearn. “I love Liverpool, but dear Lord over the years we have had the worst third kits. Hated the green ones but peach sorbet? The lads look like cabana boys running margarita trays to dowagers and lizards lounging on Dead Turtle Beach at the Hotel Hello.”
11 min Van Dijk is being booed, though he doesn’t seem remotely perturbed about it.
8 min Oxlade-Chamberlain’s deflected shot from 20 yards is comfortably held by the sprawling McCarthy.
GOAL! Southampton 0-1 Liverpool (Firmino 6)
This is clinical from Liverpool. Oxlade-Chamberlain’s ball forward went straight through Hoedt, a poor piece of defending that left Cedric all alone against two Liverpool attackers. Salah drew Cedric across and eased the ball square to Firmino, who finished ruthlessly from 15 yards with his left foot.
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3 min The last man Hoedt can’t control Lemina’s sloppy pass, and the ball rebounds for Firmino. He goes over just outside the box after a recovery challenge from Hoedt, and Martin Atkinson waves play on. It was the right decision. Had he given a foul he would have had to send Hoedt off.
1 min Peep peep! Southampton kick off from right to left. They are in red and white; Liverpool are wearing their orange change strip.
An email! “It’s a few years late, but Shelvey may have just turned in his best performance for Liverpool,” says Matt Dony. “How typical would it be to throw it away with a limp defeat to Southampton. Yesterday’s TMO nonsense (we woz robbed!) hasn’t put me in a great mood for this weekend’s sport. Looking for some late redemption. Lallana to come on, score the winner, and celebrate with Mane, VVD et al like absolute madmen.”
‘Remember when is the lowest form of conversation’
It has finished Newcastle 1-0 Manchester United. Bad news for Southampton; great news for Liverpool.
Southampton could start this match in the relegation places. Newcastle are beating Manchester United 1-0 with 20 minutes to go, and if it stays that way they will move above Southampton.
Team news
Southampton (4-2-3-1) McCarthy; Cedric, Stephens, Hoedt, Bertrand; Romeu, Lemina; Ward-Prowse; Hojbjerg, Tadic; Carrillo.
Substitutes: Forster, Yoshida, Davis, Boufal, Redmond, Long, Gabbiadini.
Liverpool (4-3-3) Karius; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, van Dijk, Robertson; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Can, Wijnaldum; Salah, Firmino, Mane.
Substitutes: Mignolet, Lovren, Milner, Moreno, Lallana, Ings, Solanke.
Referee Martin Atkinson.
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Preamble
Hello. The table says this match is fourth bottom against fourth top, but it doesn’t feel like a formality. Southampton, though still knee deep in the relegation mud, have had a strong start to 2018. And we know all about Liverpool’s polygamous relationship with the sublime and the ridiculous.
There is likely to be a heightened atmosphere at St Mary’s. Virgil van Dijk, one of five ex-Southampton players in the Liverpool squad, will be booed for his part in helping the club make a £55m profit. That’s assuming he plays: Jurgen Klopp must be tempted to make a few changes with Wednesday’s Champions League match against Porto in mind.
Kick off is at 4.30pm.
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