LIVER COOL
No panic as Klopp goes back on top
JURGEN KLOPP praised his Liverpool side’s steel after they survived a scare at Fulham to return to the summit.
The Reds now sit two points ahead of Manchester City, who have a game in hand, but it took an 81stminute penalty from James Milner to get them home.
Boss Klopp said: “I didn’t see us panic. I liked how we reacted. It was a sensational result. Top is the best position to be in.
“City don’t look as if they drop a lot of points, so we have to win, to win and to win.
“We knew they didn’t play today, but now they have a game in hand. It was important we won today. We
JAMES MILNER was anything but boring as he shook off his nickname to fire Liverpool back to the top of the table.
Jurgen Klopp’s side were cruising after Sadio Mane’s first-half opener, his seventh goal in five games and 20th of the season.
But nerves were jangling when substitute Milner made a horrible mistake to gift Reds old boy Ryan Babel a 74th-minute equaliser.
So Milner was breathing a big sigh of relief when he redeemed himself by tucking away the winning penalty after goalkeeper Sergio Rico’s daft foul on man-of-the-moment Mane.
Liverpool have now won on their last three visits to Fulham, who lost for the seventh game in a row and are staring relegation in the face.
But this was their most significant win at Craven Cottage in a while as it took them back above Manchester City, who have a game in hand.
Struggled
Liverpool took care of business in style in Germany, knocking Bayern Munich out of the Champions League to march into the quarter-finals.
But they struggled to get going here – until Mane finally broke the deadlock in the 26th minute with a goal Fulham will want back.
Andrew Robertson fed him down the left and he traded passes with Roberto Firmino before slotting home.
But it was criminal from the home side, no-one tracking his run to allow the striker an uncontested shot on the edge of the six-yard box.
It made Mane a record breaker as he overtook Demba Ba to become the Senegal star with the most goals in a single Premier League season.
Fulham caretaker boss Scott Parker surprisingly made four changes and put his faith in Claudio Ranieri stalwarts Jean Michael Seri and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa.
He also left rising star Ryan Sessegnon on the bench – another move popular with his predecessor – and handed Timothy Fosu-Mensah his first start since November and Floyd Ayite his first of the season.
It didn’t work in a first half where Fulham failed to have a single shot on target against a strangely slow and lethargic-looking Liverpool team.
However, the visitors looked more menacing after the break.
Virgil van Dijk helped win a corner by pinging a brilliant long ball to Trent AlexanderArnold, whose cross was blocked.
Rico stopped a Van
Dijk header at full stretch from the resulting corner and
Mo Salah, who had snatched at a couple of early chances, was then robbed by Tim Ream on a fast break.
Liverpool had been held to a draw on their previous three league games on the road, and the longer it stayed 1-0, the more there was to fear.
Anguissa forced Alisson into his first save with a volley, but Mane hit the bar with a header at the other end.
So it was still a shock when Fulham equalised. Milner absolutely shanked a clearance with his first touch after coming on, and from there the errors continued.
Van Dijk’s header back to Alisson left the keeper in trouble and his attempted challenge was weak, allowing Babel in for a tap-in.
But minutes later Rico made a clanger, dropping a cross from Salah and then pulling down Mane for Milner to step up and make amends from the spot.