Magical night for Marsch as Leeds shock Liverpool
MANY thought that Leeds would sack their manager, Jesse Marsch, last week after the home defeat to Fulham. Instead, they chose to spare him. Or at least give him a stay of execution. And last night at Anfield, the people who kept their manager in a job, even though his team had not won for eight league games when yesterday dawned, got their reward.
It was not just the three points that Leeds earned at Liverpool with a superb last-gasp 2-1 victory that was their reward. It was the way they earned those points. Even before Crysencio Summerville poked in the winner on the stroke of full-time to send the visiting fans behind the goal into raptures, Leeds had done enough to deserve the win. One point off the bottom of the league when the game began, they had played with the spirit of champions.
And most worryingly for Jurgen Klopp, the evidence of this match showed that Leeds played as if they were hungrier than Liverpool. This is a Liverpool side built on hunger, a team that runs on hunger, a team that has won a title on hunger and a Champions League on hunger. Last night, they just looked tired.
The match crackled and fizzed from the start. Liam Cooper and Ilhan Meslier made a hash of clearing a long ball from Alisson and Mo Salah raced on to the loose ball. Salah hooked the ball goalwards from a tight angle and Pascal Struijk headed it over.
Two minutes later, Leeds took full advantage of their escape. This time, it was Liverpool’s turn to get themselves into a dreadful mess in defence. Joe Gomez appeared to be tidying up an innocuous Leeds attack on the Liverpool right and clipped a pass back to Alisson.
The pass wrong-footed the Liverpool goalkeeper, though, and as he slipped, the ball rolled across the area and into the path of Rodrigo, who tapped the ball gleefully into the empty net.
But the lead only lasted ten minutes. A cross from Alexander-Arnold from the right bounced across the Leeds box and found Andy Robertson, feeding off the scraps on the left. Robertson curled the ball back into the box and Salah, who scored a hat-trick in that 4-3 game here, stroked it home it at the back post.
Brenden Aaronson volleyed a cross from Rasmus Kristensen against the bar and a minute later, Harrison found himself one-on-one with Alisson only for the Brazil keeper to block.
Nunez should have put Liverpool ahead when he tried to take the ball round Meslier, who kicked the ball clear.
After the break, Leeds attacked, Liverpool attacked, Alisson saved, Meslier saved. It was relentless still. Meslier produced a brilliant one-handed save 12 minutes from time to keep out Nunez effort, then second-half substitute Patrick Bamford miscontrolled when a fine team move had freed him on the edge of the area.
Then, as the match entered the 89th minute, Summerville combined with Bamford in the area and prodded an instinctive, improvised finish past the despairing dive of Alisson.