Super Reds march on!
Wolves 1 Liverpool 2
ROBERTO FIRMINO scored a late winner to send Liverpool roaring 16 points clear at the top of the Premier League last night.
It leaves the Reds ever closer to ending their 30-year title drought as they made it 40 league games unbeaten.
But Jurgen Klopp’s side were made to sweat by Wolves and the visitors lost Sadio Mane to injury.
LIVERPOOL’S ruthless march to the Premier League crown continues.
Wolves gave as good as they got but were floored by a late punch.
Roberto Firmino struck with a brilliant finish in the 84th minute to extend Liverpool’s unbeaten Premier League run to 40 and stretch their lead at the top to 16 points.
But they knew they had been in a scrap – Raul Jimenez’s 51st-minute equaliser ended 12 hours without conceding for Jurgen Klopp’s men.
Just before Firmino struck the killer blow Liverpool had been thanking keeper Alisson for a couple of cracking saves to deny Adama Traore and then Jimenez.
But Firmino, who had just had a shot superbly blocked by Rui Patricio, made no mistake second time around.
Jordan Henderson’s sublime pass set him up and he rifled a left-foot shot into the top corner. This was always going to be a tricky fixture for Klopp’s men but they got just what they needed when skipper Henderson headed them ahead after just eight minutes.
The move revolved around a canny piece of work by Mo Salah, who flung himself through the air under Conor Coady’s challenge to win a dubious free-kick.
Salah’s set-piece flew off the wall and away for a corner, which Trent Alexander-Arnold slung towards the front post. Henderson ghosted in six yards out to head the ball into the top corner and steal the lead.
Wolves could easily have been level just three minutes later when Ruben Neves found Matt Doherty unmarked on the angle of the six-yard box but he could not trouble keeper Alisson with his header.
Then Sadio Mane threatened when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain put him
clear but he was stopped in his tracks by a brilliant sliding tackle from Leander Dendoncker.
It was to be Mane’s last piece of serious action as he limped off a few minutes later, to be replaced by Takumi Minamino, the £7.25million signing from Red Bull Salzburg.
Jimenez tried to get Wolves back on level terms, working his way past a couple of challenges, but his shot lacked power and direction.
Liverpool could have doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time when Salah’s jinking run was halted by Doherty’s crucial block just as he was about to get his shot away.
Liverpool almost had a dream start to the second half when Adama Traore was robbed by Salah on the edge of the Wolves box. Traore was relieved to see his keeper, Patricio, palming away Salah’s goalbound shot at full stretch.
Minutes later, Traore wiped out memories of that when Jimenez sent him racing away down the right and made his own run into the box.
Traore clipped over a perfectlyweighted cross to allow his Mexican team-mate to steer a wonderful header beyond Alisson and into the far corner of the net to equalise. WOLVES (3-5-2): Patricio 8; Dendoncker 8, Coady 7, Saiss 7; Doherty 7, Neves 7, Moutinho 7 (Gibbs-White 90), Jonny 7, Traore 8; Neto 7 (Jota 77), Jimenez 8. Goal: Jimenez 51.
LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson 8; Alexander-Arnold 7, Van Dijk 7, Gomez 8, Robertson 7; Oxlade-Chamberlain 7 (Fabinho 70, 6), Henderson 8, Wijnaldum 7; Salah 7 (Origi 87) Firmino 7, Mane 6 (Minamino 33, 6). Goals: Henderson 8, Firmino 84.