That'll do for tonight!
Thanks for all your many emails, tweets, contributions and your excellent humour – sorry I didn’t get to all of it. And thanks for reading! We’ve seen Liverpool do exactly what champions do; they are a machine, and a mighty fine one at that. Catch you again soon – take care!
Klopp speaks!
“It was a big [test], the toughest you could get for today but for different reasons. Wolves with Nuno are doing really well but they are pretty different to all the other teams. They use the width of the pitch with Coady’s long balls and when Traore gets the ball he’s pretty much unplayable. [The goal] was a counterattack which makes not too much sense when you’re one goal up, another five or 10 minutes it was Wolves but then the game calmed down a bit.
“The chances we had were incredible. We were four or five times in front of the goalie. We won the game, incredibly difficult, but who cares? We didn’t panic but it is not that we were completely in the mood I wanted at 1-1.
“It’s over when it’s over. Not before. So why should we really think about that? If I hear the message ‘you can lose six games’ [and win title] I could vomit to be honest.”
“Just to point out, Liverpool are now guaranteed safe from relegation,” writes David Grey. They’ll be partying on the streets on Merseyside!
Nuno speaks: “Very good performance. I think we performed well, defensively well organised, created a lot of chances and the momentum was there. We were facing a very good team but I was very happy with the boys. Small margins, details.
“[Traore] is unique, he has things nobody else has and he is trying to improve because I still think he has a lot of space to grow.”
You won’t want to miss Paul Doyle’s match report of *that*:
Jordan Henderson: “We had some chances to put the game to bed which is something we want to improve on and kill the game earlier. But we showed the mentality to keep going.
“It’s just about the next game, keep going, every game is the biggest game of the season as the manager keeps saying to us.”
Virgil van Dijk: “You need to give them credit, they played good, they have good players. They’re difficult to break down, created moments of danger and we had to dig deep. We’re not happy about the goal we conceded but how we reacted is a good thing and we know we’re always going to have chances.
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Full-time: Wolves 1-2 Liverpool
Liverpool go SIXTEEN points clear with a game in hand. But that’s not half the story! They were pushed harder than they have been all season here – but they found a way through with Firmino’s fine later winner!
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90+4 min: One last bite for Wolves but a Doherty throw is cleared. And then ...
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90+2 min: Sky give man of the match to Traore and would anyone disagree? He has been immense. The best team in the world has found him virtually impossible to deal with. Now he goes on another run as we speak ... and oh, my!! His cross is yet again right on point and nudged back by Jimenez for Jota .. who screws over from in front of goal! Both managers go berserk for very different reasons.
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90+1 min: Four added minutes for Wolves to turn this again ...
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90 min: Do Wolves have one more push in them? This must be so deflating now. Liverpool are playing the ball around in their half and, not before time, now seem to be well in control.
87 min: Moutinho is replaced by Gibbs-White. My word, how well Wolves have played here. But Liverpool are incredible.
Goal! Wolves 1-2 Liverpool (Firmino 84)
Un. Be. Lievable. Liverpool are going to win the league at an absolute canter and this is exactly why. They always come up with something and this time Firmino gets it right after Salah, with some beautiful control and footwork, lays off to Henderson. The skipper promptly plays Firmino in just like that and, after cutting inside, he blasts it high into the net! Nothing can stop this team.
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82 min: And now Liverpool get their big chance! Firmino dances beautifully past Coady and probably scores if he lifts the ball over Patricio. Instead he goes low and it’s a vital save. That would have been against the run of virtually this entire half.
81 min: Jota is presented with the ball by – gasp! – a sloppy Van Dijk header. If he sees Traore sprinting beyond Wijnaldum to his right, Traore is clean through! He looks the other way and makes the wrong choice!
80 min: Gomez and Jota engage in a 50/50 grapple that ends, I think, in a booking for Gomez. More importantly Moutinho can deliver another dangerous free-kick ... from which Alisson is crowded out and fouled.
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77 min: A game like this is good for Liverpool, no? They’ve been properly extended; in a right royal tussle; not necessarily the better side. In fact definitely not the better side. That’s football, right? Wolves roll the dice with Jota making his return, replacing the watchable Neto.
74 min: Traore goes part of the way past Van Dijk but then seems to lose confidence, weirdly, even though with one more step he’d be virtually clear. He shoots too early, from 22 yards, and drags it wide.
73 min: Coady stops Firminho latching onto a Robertson ball at the near post. Have Liverpool sorted this out now? The evidence is not that compelling given the unconvincing way in which, right down the other end, they panickily crowd a Neto run out as he makes for the area.
70 min: But there’s a reminder that Salah is still here, and thus so are Liverpool. He slaloms across the 18-yard line and shoots just wide of the near post. Oxlade-Chamberlain’s dynamism is thereafter sacrificed for Fabinho’s diligence.
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68 min: Alisson bails out Liverpool again after the unplayable Traore slips through the almost unplayable Jimenez, who is onside but at enough of a tight angle to make the chance tricky. The keeper spreads himself and saves. Liverpool are in trouble and Klopp is prowling that technical area like there’s no tomorrow.
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66 min: Now a Neves ball arcs across the six-yard line and I have not seen Liverpool given this much trouble all season – seriously.
65 min: What a save from Alisson! Traore has room again and is thwarted by a low one-handed stop as he looks to rake one into the bottom corner!
64 min: Neto has looked trickily useful at times without quite getting away down that left flank. He does pretty well again but then Wolves are forced back. They sensibly build again from the back; they are controlling this game just now.
62 min: Peter Oh requests a managerial change –
“With all due respect to Jürgen Klopp, it’s time Liverpool went Nigel Pearson on these pesky Wolves.”
Klopp OUT! Pearson IN!
60 min: Minamino does get a shooting chance after good work from Salah but his weighted shot from the edge of the box is blocked – and Firmino blasts the rebound at Patricio.
59 min: Minus Mane, Liverpool just don’t have one of their most potent attacking outlets and are finding it hard to get back up the pitch. They need to get a foothold again here. They always find a way ... don’t they?
57 min: Moutinho’s free-kick is punched away by Alisson. Wolves are all over this!
56 min: And Traore is away again ... and Robertson is booked for scything him down *just* outside the area ...
55 min: Traore rips down that right flank again and Liverpool just aren’t handling him. They haven’t met an opponent like this all season. Jimenez can’t quite master his latest cross in a deep position.
54 min: They chant Traore’s name from the stands, and what a delivery that was. Liverpool are on the rack now! It’s game on!
Goal! Wolves 1-1 Liverpool (Jimenez 51)
They deserve that!! It’s a brilliant, trademark, powerful header from the striker, and what a one-two! It’s Jimenez who marauds into the Liverpool half and feeds Traore into space before continuing his run into the box. Traore delivers expertly and directs his finish wonderfully into the corner on the run! How do Liverpool respond now?
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50 min: Rattling early tempo here, again, and Wolves have come out full of intent.
48 min: Then Neto is sent away by a lucky ricochet, but lacks conviction and Gomez blocks! That, too, was a chance and Wolves may regret not taking it.
47 min: Traore messes around just outside his own area and is *very* lucky that Salah, picking his pocket, can’t beat Patricio with an arrowed left-footer. It’s batted around the left post and the corner is defender desperately after Henderson – again – wins the header.
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Peeeeeep! We are back underway!
Wolves kick us off!
@NickAmes82 when does TAA become worthy of a first-team number? Or maybe he'll just stick with 66 for the rest of his career because it's kind of funny
— Bryan Tisinger (@BryTyHokie) January 23, 2020
I reckon he’s got that for life now.
@NickAmes82 I don't give two figs about GOATs or GLOATs. All good things in life - love and laughs, children's smiles and sunny days - bring their purest joy in the Now. This is the greatest Liverpool team of its time. Embrace that and smile.
— Hubert O'Hearn (@BTBReviews) January 23, 2020
It is a very, very fair point.
Half-time: Wolves 0-1 Liverpool
Salah weaves clear and takes aim, but is thwarted by a brave sliding block from Doherty. Could yet be a crucial moment. And that, there, is the half! That early Henderson header/shoulderer is the difference in a half that has otherwise been pretty even. It started at one heck of a pace and Doherty really should have equalised for Wolves. From the midway point it became a little more nip and tuck but Wolves are well in this, still. For Liverpool there is the worry of Mane’s early departure.
43 min: Jimenez thinks he’s got a clear crack at goal after fine work by Saiss but Van Dijk, giant among men that he is, tracks him all the way and blocks. But Wolves keep the ball alive and do win a left-sided corner ... which is well defended by the otherwise quiet Firmino.
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42 min: “Did you know your name is an anagram of “Mané sick”?” asks Peter Oh of me, your unassuming MBM-er.
“Oh dear me, please don’t let it be a bad injury.”
Hands up, I’ve always known this day would come.
40 min: Whisper it, but Liverpool have not really created a lot since scoring.
38 min: Nice control from Jimenez, who takes possession on the left of the area, takes a couple of touches inside, and then drags wide of Alisson’s near post.
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36 min: Minamino has started brightly, his exploits including one implausible spin on halfway that may or may not have been the result of a miscontrol.
@NickAmes82
— krish (@vkmagus) January 23, 2020
A half time score of 0-1 Will make Wolves complacent and the final score of 1-4 will be an equivalent of an ice bucket challenge
This pool team is GLOAT (as per Jonathan Wilson and I totally agree)
Big call! From Krish and from Wilson.
33 min: Yep, it’s the end of Mane. On comes Minamino. I’m sure we will find out what the issue was there soon enough. Mane made his own “substitute me” sign; hopefully it is more precautionary than anything.
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32 min: Neto twists into left-sided space but Gomez heads his cross away. It looks as if Mane is injured and may have to come off ... he’s gone down ...
30 min: The game has definitely tightened up a bit, but Wolves have done really well not to let that early goal get to them and at this point it’s still hard to pick a winner. OK, it’s probably going to be Liverpool. But still, there are two very good sides out here.
28 min: I guess this is, at last, what we in the MBM trade might call “a lull”.
26 min: Neves gets up gingerly, he should be OK.
“How could he miss?” laments Mary Waltz of Doherty. “Teams playing Liverpool know they might only get one or two chances to score. This adds to the pressure. He would have scored against any other team.”
24 min: A snappy midfield spell now, with challenges won and balls turned over by both sides. Neves goes down under one of the former, a fair one from Mane I think, and will need treatment ...
21 min: Dendoncker makes a vital challenge to stop Mane running through onto an Oxlade-Chamberlain ball. Cracking game this, so far.
20 min: Traore bounces four of five Liverpool players off him in midfield and works space; it’s a quite awesome display of strength and soloism. Then he goes and spoils it all with a wayward pass!
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22 - Since the start of last season, Trent Alexander-Arnold has assisted 22 @premierleague goals - at least five more than any other player - with 10 of those coming from dead balls, also a league-high. Delivery. #WOLLIV pic.twitter.com/dnQtY8UwQT
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 23, 2020
Errr ... wow.
18 min: Liverpool break, though, and Salah works a good shooting chance inside the box only for Jonny to block heroically.
17 min: Now Traore beats Robertson on the other side and, from his centre, Van Dijk has to chaperone Jimenez carefully away from goal.
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16 min: Apart from the goal (I know, I know) Wolves will be very happy with this start.
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14 min: More jitters from Liverpool as another free-kick is aimed at Doherty, who can’t win a header this time but watches as the ball loops up and Alisson jumps to claim under a challenge. He totally misses it first time around and is lucky to grab it after it bounces.
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13 min: That miss gets worse and worse every time you see it. Doherty had the entire box to himself! A sign, though, that Liverpool’s back line might not be in full working order tonight?
11 min: Traore, on the left, goes outside Alexander-Arnold and now wins Wolves a corner. Encouraging sign for him, winning that particular one-on-one. The corner is played short, chipped over from deep ... and what a miss from Doherty! Liverpool push up for offside but, on the far side of the box, Doherty has timed his run perfectly. The away defence has got it wrong and he’s all alone, but heads across goal and wide!
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9 min: We had a totally unnecessary VAR check for that, delaying the restart and the full celebration. Why? Because football has been taken over by appalling pedants, spoilt brats and questionable agendas.
Goal! Wolves 0-1 Liverpool (Henderson 8)
Nobody’s stopping them, are they? Alexander-Arnold whips over the corner he won, bending it the the edge of the six-yard box via that almost 90-degree run-up. Henderson charges onto it and, probably with his shoulder as it turns out, converts!
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7 min: An end-to-end start, and Liverpool now win a free-kick in excellent shooting range just outside the box and to the right of the D. It is taking a *long* time to set up but here’s Alexander-Arnold ... whose effort clips the wall, Saiss I think, and goes out for a corner.
5 min: ... And it causes no little consternation! Moutinho whips a devilish low ball across and it evades everyone inside the six-yard box before being smuggled away. That was begging to be converted!
4 min: Michael Oliver waves play on after Gomez seems to foul Traore, and Neto can’t take advantage of the ... err ... advantage, undercooking a centre from the left. But now Wolves do win themselves a free-kick just outside that left edge ...
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2 min: Liverpool control the ball early on, Alexander-Arnold starting an attack with a switch to Robertson. Ultimately, though, a long pass sails over the byline.
Peeeeeep! Off we go!
This one ought to be good!
The teams are walking out on a fizzing, crackling, see-your-breath night at Molineux.
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I have a feeling ... just a feeling ... Wolves are going to give Liverpool a proper examination tonight. We could be in for something here. Even if that something is not, in any eventuality, a title race.
“There’s always one huge question to be asked when Wolves play. Not formation or strategy per se but is Robert Plant in the building?” asks Jason Graff.
Excellent question. I certainly saw he was at one of their games pre-Christmas.
Gary Byrne ponders: “Will Nuno Espírito Santo seek to be a Portuguese man o’ war tonight, or turn to jelly against the might of Liverpool?”
That is much closer to the level I’m at tonight.
Evan writes on the ol’ Twitter:
“As a Reds supporter who has never seen Liverpool win the league since I’ve been alive, I’m hoping this will really do it. I don’t see them dropping points to many other teams this season. I also do really enjoy these late games, great viewing time in the US, the game goes great for lunchtime viewing.”
Hope you enjoy it! 8pm is definitely better than the new-fangled 8.15pm for most of us over here so everyone seems to be a winner.
Graeme Thorn has a correction with a caveat:
“Rather than mixing Latin with Portugese, D. Cameron should have
written: ‘Em nome do Pai, do Filho e do Nuno Espírito Santo’, though I
had to trust Google Translate for that.”
It’s been too long a day for this.
Willy Boly, who has been out since October, and Diogo Jota (just the three weeks out) are back on the bench for Wolves tonight. They’re amassing some decent depth. Good to see those two on the scene again, they’d usually be nailed-on starters for Nuno.
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“Thoughts and prayers with Wolves tonight: ‘In nomine Patris et Filii et Nuno Espirito Santo (Amen)‘”, intones D Cameron.
Any more invocations, musings, jokes, score predictions, tell-alls ... send them my way!
Not going too well for Liverpool’s old chums, and most recent opponents, Manchester United. John Brewin’s excellent piece hits on a particularly hot topic:
Teams!
Wolves: Rui Patricio, Dendoncker, Coady, Saiss, Doherty, Joao Moutinho, Neves, Jonny, Pedro Neto, Jimenez, Traore. Subs: Boly, Gibbs-White, Jota, Ruddy, Giles, Kilman, Ashley-Seal.
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, van Dijk, Robertson, Oxlade Chamberlain, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Salah, Firmino, Mane. Subs: Fabinho, Adrian, Minamino, Origi, Matip, Jones, Williams.
Referee: Michael Oliver
Hello
Is this the night? Could it be? Are we going to be asking this question every five or six days until May?
Probably not; probably not; probably. But you’d sense this might be one of Liverpool’s closer calls on their inexorable march to Premier League domination and that Wolves, flagging a touch but still outstanding when at full tilt, have it in them to give them an almighty run for their money. And, hell with it, even knock off their “invincible” crown!
Liverpool edged past Nuno Espirito Santo’s team at Anfield a mere four weeks ago thanks to Sadio Mane’s goal. They’d take an identical outcome tonight; it’d be a huge hurdle cleared and I would say that, of their remaining fixtures, Man City (a) on 4 April is the only tougher gig than this.
A win for Wolves would put them three points off the Champions League spots; a draw would still lift them to fifth. Make no mistake, this is a heavyweight clash and we’ll have it especially for *you* at 8pm UK time.
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