City seal Haaland signing ‹˜‡”’‘‘Ž ‰‘ Ž‡˜‡Ž ™‹–Š ‹–›

A. Villa .............. 1

Liverpool .......... 2

IRMINGHAM – Liverpool drew level in first place with Manchester City on 86 points in the Premier League after beating Aston Villa 2-1 at Villa Park last night.

Early first-half goals from Douglas Luiz and Joel Matip left the match level at the break, with Sadio Mane netting a crucial winner in the 65th minute to hand Liverpool the three points and keep their hopes of beating City, who have a game in hand and a superior goal differential, to the title.

In front of a boisterous home crowd, Villa flew out of the blocks and took a third-minute lead when Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson spilled a header from Douglas Luiz straight back into the path of the Brazilian forward who fired in from close range.

Matip put Klopp’s side back on level terms minutes later, pouncing on a shot from Virgil van Dijk that was blocked into his path and reaching out to poke home to make it 1-1.

BSaves

Mane, who has a torrid record against Aston Villa with nine goals in 10 games against them, popped up in the second half to turn home an assist from Luis Diaz to give Liverpool a lead they would keep. Villa striker Danny Ings forced some good saves from Alisson in the latter stages and had a goal ruled out for offside with less than five minutes remaining. However, Liverpool held firm to move level on 86 points with City.

They must hope that City’s game in hand against Wolverhampton Wanderers today produces an upset.

Liverpool, who can still win the Quadruple, have a busy end to an already packed campaign, playing Chelsea in the FA Cup final this Saturday, May 14 and Real Madrid in the Champions League final on May 28 along with their remaining Premier League matches against Southampton and Wolves on May 17 and 22, respectively, in between.

Steven Gerrard’s Villa remain in 11th place on 43 points with three games left to play.