The scoreline may have only been 1-0 in Liverpool’s favour, but the numbers were impressive as Liverpool largely dominated a Sunderland side that hadn’t lost a game this season at The Stadium of Light
and avoided falling prey to their typical nerves to hold on to a massive three points.
It was a big performance and an even bigger result for a side in desperate need of one following the disappointing defeat from a winning position against Manchester City at Anfield over the weekend and a side that has struggled to keep pace in this season’s Champions League qualification race.
“It was a really good performance and it’s not easy to win here,” was Florian Wirtz’ take after the match, with the attacking midfielder once again the focal point for the Reds. “We had to fight really hard to get chances and to score with a set-piece so that shows how difficult it can be here.
“But we are very happy we got the three points. Of course we also didn’t concede and that’s always good, but we have to score to win games so we had to say at half-time that we have to give more in the second half and until we scored we made good attacks and after we had to really defend.”
The win isn’t enough to get the Reds out of sixth, with the top five near certain to qualify for Champions League next season, but it helped to close the gap to three taking goal differential into account. Now, as so often has been the case for them this season, the focus turns to consistency.
Liverpool are sixth not because they can never win, but because they can’t turn individual wins and good performances into consistent results. After an FA Cup tie against Brighton, they get to show if they can do that in games against Nottingham and West Ham to end the month.
