TITLE-TIPPING MOMENT
IT’S EARLY IN THE RACE FOR GLORY BUT MILNER’S PENALTY CONVERSION FELT LIKE A . . .
JURGEN KLOPP folded his arms tightly and spun to face the Kop. Forwards and backwards he paced, trying to harness his emotions.
A few yards away, Adrian San Miguel, Liverpool’s goalkeeper, was similarly fidgety. The action was unfolding at the other end of the pitch but he prowled around his penalty area and looked towards the scoreboard in the corner of a stadium that was crackling with tension.
It showed the score was Liverpool 1 Leicester City 1 but here they were in the 93rd minute with a moment that, potentially, had ramifications for the entire season. Such was the importance, the first Saturday in October suddenly felt like the final Saturday in April.
Marc Albrighton had panicked and kicked Sadio Mane. The Senegal forward, who had scored Liverpool’s opening goal, accepted the contact and ‘won’ a penalty. This was a reprieve, an opportunity and a blessing rolled into one.
Missing from 12 yards would have been received like the end of the world. Muffled groans had become audible as passes went astray following James Maddison’s 80thminute equaliser. Liverpool were faced with dropping points for the first time since March 3. Then up stepped James Milner.
‘ He is very cool and calm,’ Brendan Rodgers, Leicester’s manager, said through gritted teeth. ‘He doesn’t miss.’
And he didn’t miss. Milner ignored the commotion, puffed out his checks and zipped his spotkick into the Anfield Road net to spark bedlam. Klopp set off like an Olympic sprinter, waving his arms and screaming: ‘Come on!’; Mane, meanwhile, fell to the floor and looked to the heavens.
The scene needs this detail to give an idea of what was at stake.
Of course, all this was before City were ransacked at the Etihad Stadium by Wolves yesterday. The penalty extended Liverpool’s lead to eight points. But a missed spotkick and it would have been six with all expectation that it would have been cut to three by last night. Very much nip and tuck.
A week previously at Goodison Park, Manchester City celebrated with similar gusto to Liverpool on Saturday when they chiselled out a late win. Such is the quality of this title race, these sides have redefined what constitutes a good result.
In normal circumstances, a point against Leicester would be acceptable. Rodgers is building a progressive and attractive side, one that will finish in the top six. But this is the face- off in which neither rival is expected to blink, so a Liverpool draw would have felt like a calamity. We are watching football — or results — like never before. When Manchester United and Arsenal were going head-to-head around the turn of the millennium, they would always have a sticky spell in a season that lasted three or four games.
Liverpool and City have been operating at such levels that you notice when they have a sticky 45 minutes. That’s why City’s defeat yesterday must have felt so huge at Anfield. The implications of false steps are huge.
‘It is true,’ Klopp responded, when asked if it felt more like the title run-in than the beginning of autumn. ‘It is our life. I saw Middlesbrough v Birmingham on Friday, a Championship game, and it was like it was the last game of the season and they were fighting against relegation.
‘End to end football, all the players in one box and then all in the other box. That’s how it is. All or nothing. I was really pleased about our performance. Their goal was a nice one. We had to stay in the game and we did that.’
Leicester, with good reason, went home seething. Most players darted for the team coach and Jamie Vardy articulated the emotion in the dressing room when saying: ‘I’ll get myself into trouble’ if he stopped to discuss the award of Liverpool’s penalty and a melee at the final whistle.
It was, in some ways, a throwback to a different era. Modern football can be sanitised but this was a contest that teetered on the edge, so much so that Liverpool left back Andy Robertson was prepared to settle his differences with Leicester substitute Ayoze Perez in the tunnel.
Klopp needs to ensure that Liverpool’s fight does not boil over but what is noticeable about this squad this year is the singleminded way they are approaching every fixture: tick one off, move on to the next one.
For the past 18 months, they have been praised for the way in which they have blitzed opponents but Liverpool know style alone won’t get them what they want.
You could not help but feel that the 93rd minute of this fixture with Leicester — and the resulting noise and the subsequent result at the Etihad — will end up being factors in the final reckoning.
‘We fight hard to win,’ said midfielder Gini Wijnaldum. ‘This was difficult until the end.’