REDS HIT SWEET SPOT
Heat is turned up on City in heavyweight title fight
THE title race is not just back on – we now have the potential for the third clash in an epic heavyweight trilogy to match Ali v Frazier.
In beating Leeds so fluently on an emotional night here at Anfield, Liverpool not only narrowed the gap at the top of the Premier League to three points, but they posted notice of a real intent to push the champions all the way.
If the greatest title fight of all time came three seasons ago when City edged Liverpool out by a single point, and the rematch was a Red triumph a year later, then this is now shaping up to be the showdown to settle the argument.
Perhaps it most resembles the first three Rocky films if you’re that way inclined, and take the third fight with Apollo Creed to be the best of all. Liverpool certainly have a touch of the Balboa about them, because they never know when to quit.
Who could have predicted when the gap was 12 points at the end of December, they would be in touching distance before the end of February, even after a month without Mo Salah and Sadio Mane?
Like their impressive team, both are back and both are in imperious form. Salah scored two from the spot here to take his season’s tally to 27, and added another assist into the bargain, while Mane created a penalty for Salah and finished two himself late on as the contest became a procession.
But perhaps the most memorable moment of the night came midway through the first half, after Salah had given his side an important early lead.
Joel Matip of all people strode forward from the halfway line, exchanged passes with Salah and sent the Kop into raptures.
His goal was extraordinary in its own right, for the manner in which he continued his run after feeding Salah on the right, to lose Pascal Struijk, glide into the box and then finish like Robbie Fowler in his prime.
But in adding the second, he became the 17th different scorer for Liverpool this season, which equals an all-time club record. Salah was provider on that occasion, but his second penalty before the break also happened to be the Reds’ 50th goal at Anfield this season. In 19 matches, with Mane and Virgil Van Dijk taking it to 53 by the end of the night.
With Van Dijk back to fitness and now back to his imperious best, the famous old stadium has become a fortress once more. They have dropped just six
points here – four of those to the two sides closest to them in the table, which makes their threat to City very real now, their home form a buffer for the tougher away trips to come.
Salah seems unstoppable, and Leeds had no idea how to do it, much to the dismay of visiting boss Marcelo Bielsa, right. Salah scored from the spot after the impressive Luis Diaz fed Andy Robertson, only for the cross to be stopped by a Stuart Dallas arm, and after Matip added the second on 30 minutes, Salah again converted from the spot after Mane was tripped by Luke Ayling.
The fourth came in the closing seconds as substitute Jordan Henderson brilliantly burst through to feed Mane, and he capped a night that almost became an Anfield festival with a tap-in fifth. Van Dijk scored from a corner, to set up perhaps
the greatest title fight ever.