Salah has a MIGHTY MO’S PENALTY WOE AS G Weak spot REAT DANE TAKES TOP BILLING
BILLING 28
MO SALAH looked as powerless and uncomfortable as a senior BBC executive as the tide flowing Liverpool towards European football next season was dramatically turned.
The Egyptian hung his head in disbelief after missing a secondhalf penalty, while the relegation waters threatening Bournemouth’s survival ebbed enough to lift them off the bottom of the table.
Ebb and flow. Ups and downs. One of the competitive strengths – and joys – of the Premier League is that a team can lose 9-0 in one fixture, as Bournemouth did at Anfield, and then reverse that outcome later in the same campaign.
Or, that a side busily humiliating Manchester United with seven goals six days before – as Liverpool were at Anfield – can be felled by the lowest of the low.
The hosts deserved their victory, earned through hard work, organisation and the creation of sufficient first-half chances that the odds were on one of them going in.
After that, it was just a case of whether their tenacity and willpower would be enough to nudge and shove Liverpool out of their recent smooth rhythms.
They were, just, although few would have foreseen Salah curling that 69th-minute penalty way over the junction of post and bar.
It was Liverpool’s first penalty of the season in the league, a rare gift spurned.
A goal from Dane Phil Billing just before the half hour was enough for the hosts to cling to, like a precious raft in heavy seas.
It was created by the livewire Dango Ouattara, the 21-year-old recent £20million signing from Lorient, who was a constant menace to Liverpool with his ability to run in behind the Reds’ defence.
Boss Jurgen Klopp was frustrated more than angry with a defeat that he believes will stall
By Graham Thom
AT THE VITALITY STADIU
momentum gathered for four bid, rather than kill altogether.
“This game was a m knock, but you know ho with knocks,” said Klopp.
“You have to see how b scars are and go from there
“The game was the oppo what we wanted and we p for 95 minutes the Bournemouth wanted to pl
“We had our moment scored a goal that was offsid we had plenty of opportu from set pieces.
“Bournemouth began fi spaces, finding chances, a didn’t cover well enough.”
Virgil van Dijk had one h cleared off the line from a c and then another he allow skim off his hairline.
A shot from substitute Jota was well saved by Ch keeper Neto, before the pr Liverpool built from aroun hour mark eventually paid
James Milner’s cross was Jota, but the header was di by the trailing arm of def
Adam Smith – giving Salah his chance from the spot.
As it curled upwards towards the fans behind the goal, Klopp looked at his feet – a dark outline, wrapped up in his own thoughts.
Gary O’Neil’s decision to hit Liverpool on the counter, through deep-laying winger Ouattara regularly paid dividends and hit the jackpot with Billing’s goal.
Burkina Faso international Ouattara – who had already carved out and missed one good chance – drove deep into Reds territory and found Billing who scored with a crisp, low shot.
For Bournemouth boss O’Neil the results was reward not just for this game, but for performances he felt deserved more – particularly their dramatic late loss at Arsenal a week before.
He said: “We deserved it and I’m just pleased for the boys. That’s no fluke today. Performances have been really good in recent games against top opposition.
“We needed to find a way today to make sure the fine margins go our way. With the stuff that’s gone our way today, we deserved something.
“I’m sure we’ll win again and I’m sure will lose again but it’s a big three points for us. To suffer the late goal against Arsenal and then show everybody what they’re made of is fantastic.”
O’Neil also put
Wales international
David Brooks on the bench – more than 500 days since he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma.
“I felt privileged to even be able to tell him. I was desperate to get him on but unfortunately the game didn’t go that way,” he said.