CRYSTAL PALACE 2 – 1 LIVERPOOL
Crystal Palace – Sarr 9’, Nketiah 90+7’
Liverpool – Chiesa 88’
Pre-Match
Can they go six for six? Liverpool have traveled down to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace in their first Saturday 3PM game in what feels like three years. We’ll see Alexander Isak starting in his first match as a Red up front. Florian Wirtz is on the left with Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai alongside him to support Isak.
First Half
The match starts of scrappy, and Liverpool pay for it early. They fail to clear an early Crystal
Palace corner and are punished by the hosts scoring first through Ismaila Sarr. They nearly make it two a few minutes later, but Alisson comes up big to save Daichi Kamada’s shot.
Finally, Liverpool get some good play together and earn a free kick in a very good area. The game is postponed by several minutes while they set up, because there is a medical emergency in the crowd. In the mean time, Arne Slot gets a yellow card for leaving the technical area as they all wait. The fan appears safe, and the game resumes.
The wall blocks the free kick, and Ryan Gravenberch’s follow up show is blocked by Dean Henderson. That was Liverpool’s best chance of the game so far, almost 20 minutes in.
Alisson is relied on again, this time to keep out Jean-Philippe Mateta’s effort when the attacker beat Ibrahima Konaté.
I don’t know if I’m being very subtle right now, but Liverpool are playing poorly. Maybe they shouldn’t actually ever play in the normal Saturday 3PM slot. Maybe that’s the issue.
Isak charges up the wing and circumvents the goalkeeper, but the angle is far too narrow, and his shot is well wide of the net.
Liverpool are very off defensively. They look a step behind everything Crystal Palace sends at them. There’s 10 minutes off added time due to the delay in the game, and this can only benefit Palace. The Reds need to get in the locker room and sort themselves out.
Mateta slams a rocket towards the goal, which thankfully ricochets off the far post. There wasn’t a soul in that stadium who didn’t think that had made it in.
Second Half
The second half starts with Conor Bradley going off for Cody Gakpo. Liverpool look much more focused and dangerous, even early on in the half. Gakpo fires wide, an ambitious effort, but the build up by Wirtz in the midfield was improved.
Liverpool then pick up a corner when Milo Kerkez’s cross is headed out. The corner comes to naught, but this has a been a strong few minutes back.
Wirtz misses from about two yards out. He tries to redirect the ball over Henderson, but it’s easy work for the goalkeeper. This is starting to look like my Liverpool, but they have less than half an hour to salvage this match.
Isak nearly overtakes three defenders in the 18-yard box, but his shot is wide once again. Looked pretty though.
Curtis Jones replaces Alexis Mac Allister in the midfield.
Almost a quarter of a hour left, and Konaté and Wirtz have come off for Jeremie Frimpong and Federico Chiesa. Now’s your time, boys! We are entering the last 10 minutes aka prime Liverpool scoring time, so hopefully we see some results.
Slot really said, “If the defense isn’t going to work anyway, might as well just load up the attack and hope for the best.”
Salah goes wide, quite un-Salahly. How many shots have they even gotten on goal in this game? I just checked, the answer is three, but it if feels like -100.
I’m trying not to think about the fact that this would be the perfect game for Diogo Jota, but it’s hard to deny it.
At 84 minutes, Isak makes way for Rio Ngumoha to finish off the match.
Finally, Chiesa evens the score. It takes until the 88th minute, but it’s there! Palace fail to clear their lines, and Chiesa pounces, poking the ball past Henderson. There’s a VAR check on a possible handball against Gakpo, but the goal stands!
On the other end, Palace engineer their second corner of the game. They scored off of the first one. Thankfully, Liverpool don’t suffer the same fate twice.
Six minutes of added time go up on the clock.
Unfortunately the time helps Palace find a winner at the death, through Nketiah.
Final Thoughts
Despite that final bit of hope at the end, it’s hard to say that Liverpool didn’t deserve the loss. Still sucks though.
