Aston Villa gave title-chasing Liverpool a scare at Villa Park, but it was Liverpool who kept their quadruple aspirations alive with a 1-2 victory.
Douglas Luiz opened the scoring after 3 minutes to electrify a charged atmosphere inside Villa Park, only for Joel Matip to dampen the volume with an equaliser 3-minutes later.
Villa continued to show belief in their play and backed by the Villa faithful continued to make life difficult for the visitors, but a Sadio Mane strike on the 65th minute sealed the 3 points for Jurgen Klopp’s quadruple chasing Liverpool.
Despite the defeat, Villa can take plenty of positives heading into back-to-back home fixtures against Crystal Palace and Burnley.
Steven Gerrard once again unitised his squad to rotate personnel; Philippe Coutinho and Marvelous Nakamba returned to Aston Villaβs starting line-up in place of Saturday’s Man of the Match Emiliano BuendΓa, and Calum Chambers.
It was a lively start from Aston Villa in front of the 41.919 fans in attendance. Ollie Watkins stung the hands of Liverpool goalkeeper Allison; similar fashion to the goal he scored in our 7-2 victory last season before the deadlock was broken by Douglas Luiz, slamming home after his initial header was saved from Digneβs cross.
The red-hot atmosphere was cooled minutes later, Villa failing to deal with Trent Alexander-Arnoldβs free-kick into the area and Joel Matip punished the hesitant Villa defending. 1-1.
It was end-to-end action, Mane glancing a header just wide of Martinez’s post, Allison almost gifting Ollie Watkins the opportunity of an open goal; the striker failing to gather the loose pass, Coutinho then showed his world-class ability with a sublime flick over Trent Alexander-Arnold and firing a curling effort just wide.
Both teams then arguably had their best chances to take the lead, Ings heading over from 6 yards after a terrific ball by McGinn, and Keita for Liverpool, who, unmarked from 6-yard out, fluffed his effort. Half-time 1-1.
The intensity of the first half continued into the second, as both Ollie Watkins and then Phillippe Coutinho were thwarted by last-ditch van Dijk tackles.
But it was Liverpool who found the cutting edge to take the lead, Sadio Mane, as he so often does against Villa, heading home from a Luis Diaz cross.
Gerrard sent on Chukwuemeka, Buendia and TraorΓ© in search of an equaliser, but that was matched by Liverpool’s introduction of Thiago and Salah.
Danny Ings did have the ball in the net late on but was clearly flagged offside. Full-time 1-2.
Despite the defeat, it was a positive performance from Aston Villa, there was a belief in the philosophy of their play; something Gerrard had previously commented on us lacking against the top sides, and the team is beginning to find cohesion in our tactical shape.
Yes, the goals could have been defended better, but Liverpool are a class act and very slick in the final third, and after all, it was 11 vs 12 – Jon Moss displaying one of the worst referring performances in recent history. Onto Sunday. UTV.
AUTHOR | RYAN MCKEOWN
Author’s UTV PODCAST archive Ryan Mckeown
PLAYER RATINGS | ASTON VILLA 1-2 LIVERPOOL
PLAYER RATINGS | Aston Villa 1-2 Liverpool (utvpodcast.co.uk)
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