Liverpool close the gap on Manchester City with a 2-0 home win over Leicester City. Diogo Jota and the Foxes’ leading wolf took centre stage.
LFC coach Jürgen Klopp changed half his starting eleven after the 3-1 cup win against Cardiff City: Alisson, Matip, Robertson, Fabinho, Thiago and new signing Luis Diaz started for Kelleher, Konaté, Tsimikas, Henderson, Keita and Minamino.
Brendan Rodgers, coach of the Foxes, also went for the principle of rotation compared to the surprising 4-1 defeat in the FA Cup at Nottingham Forest and swapped in five positions: Schmeichel, Soumaré, Dewsbury-Hall, Albrighton and Daka started for Ward, Söyüncü, Tielemans, Barnes and Iheanacho.
Reds pressing but lacking penetration
With a retread of personnel, the home side were more comfortable from the start of the game. From kick-off, Liverpool took control of the ball and ran the opposition extremely high. Again and again, the intensive pressing succeeded in preventing a controlled build-up of the visitors and in winning the ball. However, the first good chance of the match came from Maddison, who forced Alisson into a strong reflex from an acute angle after a switch situation (7th). The league’s best attack (58 goals in 22 games before the matchday) again struggled to seriously challenge Schmeichel in the away side’s box.
So it took until the 19th minute before Alexander-Arnold was somewhat fortunate to get on the ball and register the first dangerous finish for the favourites. After that, however, the game flattened out somewhat. Although LFC kept the intensity very high, especially against the ball, there was always a lack of solutions after winning the ball and out of possession against a very compact defence. As the break approached, however, Jürgen Klopp’s team did manage to summon up a real period of pressure, which immediately paid off with Diogo Jota’s opening goal after just over half an hour (34th), before Thiago narrowly missed a potential goal of the month (42nd) and Firmino was able to record two more useful finishes (43rd, 45th).
Foxes completely toothless
After the break, the hosts were the better team and had the first chance after the restart through the scorer, who failed to beat Schmeichel (48.). In the following, a similar picture developed as in the first half. Liverpool showed dominance, Leicester did not come up offensively at all, but the attacking efforts of the Reds lacked the final consistency again and again. Until the substitution of Salah in the final quarter of an hour marked the start of the second major period of pressure for the league runners-up.
Schmeichel wins private duel against Salah
In this one, the Egyptian was immediately present and missed three great opportunities for the preliminary decision within five minutes, when twice Schmeichel saved strongly (74th, 75th), before the aluminium got in the way (78th), after which Luis Diaz once again failed to beat the brilliantly performing Schmeichel (75th). Nevertheless, the decision was becoming more and more apparent and would probably have been made much earlier without the captain in the Foxes’ goal. Due to his performance, however, it took until shortly before the end, after another save against Luis Diaz (82nd), for Diogo Jota to seal the treble with his brace in the 87th minute.
Liverpool can close the gap on league leaders Manchester City and travel to bottom side Burnley on Sunday (3pm) as clear favourites, while Leicester then host West Ham at 5.30pm.
