Can earns vital win for Reds in race for top 4
liverpool — Liverpool kept their push for a top-four finish on course as Emre Can thundered home a second-half winner to complete a hard earned 2-1 Premier League comeback win over Burnley at a relieved Anfield on Sunday.
Juergen Klopp’s side were again out of sorts but earned their first back-to-back league wins this year to keep up the pressure on the league’s leading trio.
While nowhere near their scintillating best, typifying their uneven form of 2017, they displayed character to strike back after going behind to an Ashley Barnes goal after seven minutes. With the league’s worst travellers Burnley dreaming of their first away win of the season, the out-of-sorts Reds were grateful to equalise just before halftime through their first shot on target from Georginio Wijnaldum.
Liverpool looked short of ideas before German international Can produced a blow from seemingly nowhere just after the hour mark, bending his low 25-metre strike into the bottom corner past a despairing Tom Heaton. Liverpool were fortunate to go into the halftime interval level with Burnley after Georginio Wijnaldum scored an equaliser deep in injury-time.
Can’s goal ultimately kept Liverpool ahead of both Arsenal and Manchester United in the chase for fourth place and, while Klopp felt the Germany midfielder should have done more to prevent Matt Lowton crossing for Burnley’s goal, he was pleased to see that his star has finally recovered from persistent injury troubles.
The victory gives Liverpool 55 points, putting them a point behind second-placed Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City and 11 adrift of leaders Chelsea. The top three, though, also have a game in hand over the Reds.
Burnley manager Sean Dyche now faces two more consecutive away games, halfway through a run of four in a row, with his team visiting bottom-of-the-table Sunderland on Saturday. “It’s another ‘nearly’ for us and we have had too many ‘nearlys’ on the road,” said Dyche. “The main thing is to keep performing, and if we keep performing like that things will come our way over time.” — Agencies