BOURNEMOUTH 3 VS 2 LIVERPOOL
Bournemouth – Evanilson 25’, Jimenez 33’, Adli 90+3’
Liverpool – Van Dijk 45’, Szoboszlai 79’
Pre-Match
Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo both start as Liverpool head to a rainy, gloomy Bournemouth to try and build on their midweek victory.
First Half
A good start from Liverpool. Salah curls an early effort over the crossbar in the first minutes. It would be great to see the Reds keep up this intensity for the whole match. However, the weather and slippery grass is making things tricky.
Alexis Mac Allister
has a good pass strewn off course by the wind, which frustrates Salah, who was supposed to be on the receiving end of it.
Florian Wirtz earns a corner, and Dominik Szoboszlai nearly scores when Wirtz again cuts back and gets the ball to him. Unfortunately, the attempt is blocked by a Bournemouth defender.
Despite Liverpool being on top for the most of the early part of the first half, it’s Bournemouth who gets first blood. Virgil van Dijk flubs a clearance, allowing a Bournemouth player to retrieve the ball. Smith sends it to Evanilson, who scores. That was a tough watch. Yikes.
Bournemouth get their second about five minutes later. Jimenez beats Kerkez and slots past Alisson. There’s a check for offside, but the goal stands.
Poor, fragile Joe Gomez comes off for Wataru Endo.
Then just before halftime, Liverpool start to fight back. They actually score from a corner. It’s captain van Dijk who heads in Szoboszlai’s delivery to halve the deficit before the whistle.
Second Half
A change is made at halftime, and Andy Robertson comes on for Kerkez.
With Bournemouth ahead, they will be content to sit back and defend their lead. Liverpool will have to do the work of finding a way through for one, or hopefully, two more goals in this half.
Hugo Ekitike and Curtis Jones come in for Mac Allister and Frimpong.
Gravenberch tries one of his long range efforts, but the result sails wide of the far corner.
Ngumoha comes on for Gakpo.
It’s finally in almost the 80th minute that Liverpool find an equalizer. It’s off of a free kick. Salah nudges the ball on ahead to Szoboszlai, changing the goalkeeper’s angles just so. Szoboszlai then slams it in the bottom far corner with his right foot.
The question now is if there’s any more goals for either team here in the last 10 minutes or so. Both sets of players look miserable playing in the cold, wet, gloomy weather. I’m pretty sure they’d all just be happy to hear the final whistle go off so that they can all get dry.
The Bournemouth goalkeeper puts in a big save to unfortunately deny Wirtz the winner.
In the end, it’s Bournemouth who come away victorious. Liverpool get befuddled by a long throw, and after a scramble in front of their goal, Adli gets it in.
Final Thoughts
Liverpool’s 12 game unbeaten run comes to an end. That was a dismal defeat in a game that Liverpool, at least, put up a good fight in once they had gone two goal down. But once again, it’s a last minute goal that dooms the Reds to losing all three points.
