Former Everton striker, Ademola Lookman came from the bench to score the winner, as Liverpool go 6 points adrift of Man City
By Kehinde Okeowo
Liverpool missed the opportunity to reduce the deficit at the top of the Premier League table, as Leicester beat the Reds 1-0 to leave them six points adrift of league leader, Man City.
Ademola Lookman scored the only goal of the match in the 59th minute after coming off the bench to a scintillating pass from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
Liverpools’ biggest chance fell to Mohamed Salah in the 15th-minute, after he was brought down in the penalty box, but he missed the resultant spot-kick, which was saved by Kasper Schmeichel.
Sadio Mane then missed a series of opportunities, with the most glaring miss being the second half effort he booted over the bar after coming one on one with the goalkeeper.
Ademola Lookman then punished Liverpools’ misses with only his fourth touch after coming on, as he beat Joel Matip, before putting a shot past Alisson to make it 1-0 to Leicester.
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Leicester had just one shot on target in the match but they hung on to secure a precious win, despite late and relentless pressure from the visitors.
The win came just six days after they blew a 3-1 lead to lose on penalties against the same opposition in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.
With just their second defeat of the season, Liverpool are now six points adrift of leaders Man City, while Leicester – who have won just two games of the last seven – move up to a top ten position for the first time in weeks.
Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers, praised his side’s resilience and recovery rate after they clashed with Man City over the weekend.
He said: “The players put in a heroic effort when you think of the recovery time against a team with so much power and athleticism. You don’t keep a clean sheet against Liverpool if everyone isn’t working. But it was the context of it after playing against Manchester City.
“We played a diamond for an hour to keep the threat in the side and then switched to 4-3-3 and showed resilience. [Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s] energy is remarkable and we needed that in the team. He and Hamza [Choudhury] had to put in so much work.
“I just thought, you know, let’s go back to basics [with our set-piece defending]. An old school structure. Let’s defend properly. We did that tonight. The centre-halves were amazing but they all played their part. Collectively, we did really well.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, after the game said they lost because they couldn’t play at the level they usually play. He also said they missed a lot of opportunities to take the maximum point.
In his words: “We were just not really ourselves tonight. I think we started OK. I didn’t like 100 per cent the intensity even at the beginning.
“We forced it a little bit too early, we crossed it a bit too early instead of taking the extra pass. For some reason, it did not click tonight. We were pushing but did not use the chances, missed free headers, all these things. In the end, I thought they deserved it.
“I know it is easy to say but if we had won the game 2-1 I would not have liked the game anyway. Tonight, I did not like a lot in our football game. That is not cool. We have to do better, improve and go again.”
