FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP FINAL ON KLOPP OF THE WORLD
Haag task for Pards Firmino extra-time goal secures trophy for Reds
ALAN PARDEW is back in football – as manager of Dutch Eredivisie strugglers Den Haag.
Pardew, 58, will be unveiled as the club’s new boss today ahead of the game against champions Ajax following the decision to sack Alfons Groenendijk.
Pardew takes over a team that is second bottom of the table, having won just three times in 17 games.
He has been looking to break back into the game after being sacked by West Brom in April 2018.
Pardew has been told he will only have a £1million budget for new players.
The club has a plastic pitch and their fans have a reputation for violence.
ROBERTO FIRMINO ripped off his shirt, wheeled away in delight and celebrated a new chapter in Liverpool’s proud history.
Finally, the six-time European Cup winners can proudly call themselves the best team on the planet after winning the Club World Cup for the first time.
Firmino deserved it for a wonderful, ice-cool finish in extra time and it seemed fitting that a Brazilian should settle a tense, gruelling and damaging final in the Khalifa Stadium.
It is often said that this competition is more important to the South Americans than European teams, but the way Firmino’s team-mates rushed to celebrate with him told its own story.
Groove
This means everything to boss Jurgen Klopp and his players, a team now in the groove of winning trophies as they finish 2019 with another piece of silverware after lifting the Champions League in June and the European Super Cup in August.
They want to win trophy after trophy to push the club into a new golden era to make Klopp’s reign as glorious as the best teams of the late 1970s and 80s.
But the difference for Liverpool now is they have won the final missing piece of the jigsaw. Now no one can dispute they are the best. They sit proudly clear at the top of the Premier League, they rule Europe and now the world and the regrets of losing this final in 1981 and 2005 are eased.
It was a difficult final, with VAR controversy and a nastylooking injury for Alex Oxladechamberlain, but Liverpool always have the wonderful knack to dig deep.
They deserved it. They were the better team but missed chances and you began to wonder whether another opportunity would pass them by.
Firmino crashed a shot against the post while Mo Salah and
Trent Alexander-arnold sent efforts whistling just wide as the clock ticked down and the game went into extra time and towards penalties.
But the sight of Klopp screaming at his players, filling them with determination and instructions with his team talk at the end of a gruelling match before halftime gave them extra energy.
That was the key as Klopp’s energy and winning habit has breathed new life into Liverpool and they go from strength to strength.
And do not let anyone tell you that this trophy does not mean everything because Klopp, despite a mounting fixture schedule, fielded his strongest line-up with Virgil van Dijk back in defence and the first choice front three.
Firmino blazed over within the first minute, Naby Keita was unlucky, Alexander-arnold went close and Flamengo looked second best for much of the first half before finishing well and the outstanding Joe Gomez made a timely block to thwart Bruno Henrique.
Firmino went even closer in the second half, his shot crashing against the inside of the post, before Oxlade-chamberlain suffered more injury heartbreak.
He hobbled off after needing lengthy treatment after falling awkwardly on his right leg.
It was an injury to his right knee which kept him out for a year until April this year and his bad luck is truly heartbreaking.
Jordan Henderson then saw a wonderful shot tipped over by Flamengo keeper Diego Alves as they chased a winner and then Liverpool’s frustrations reached boiling point thanks to VAR controversy in injury time.
Trigger
Sadio Mane went through, was about to pull the trigger and shoot when Rafinha made a lastditch challenge.
Referee Al Jassim pointed to the spot, but then consulted the video screen on the side of the pitch and overturned his original decision.
Inexplicably he did not even give a foul when it looked like it was a free-kick, but the challenge was outside the box.
It was definitely not a penalty and therein surely lies a lesson for the Premier League to start encouraging referees to consult their touchline monitors.
But, just as Liverpool looked dead on their feet, they summoned one last, deep breath in the 99th minute for a precious winner.
Henderson’s through-ball sent Mane racing through, his reverse pass put in Firmino and the Brazilian kept his nerve to turn inside and supply an ice-cool finish.