Liverpool FC suffered their only competitive defeat of the season in the English Super Cup against FA Cup winners Crystal Palace. That was until LFC were beaten again by Oliver Glasner’s team on Saturday.
Liverpool were looking for revenge against Palace after their defeat in the Community Shield, but the Reds did not get off to a good start. Oliver Glasner’s team took the lead with their first chance, with Sarr scoring from a corner (8′). Shortly afterwards, Alisson prevented the score from becoming 2-0 with a save against Yeremy (11th minute) – it would not be his last strong action.
Shortly afterwards, the game was interrupted for a few minutes due to a medical incident in the stands. It resumed with a free kick for Liverpool, which resulted in Gravenberch hitting the post (19th minute). However, this did not give LFC any security; on the contrary, Munoz and Mateta should have increased the lead, but found their master in Alisson (23′, 24′).
Liverpool was then able to calm the game down with longer periods of possession, but only created another chance from a set piece, with Konaté heading just wide to the right (38′). In the ten minutes of added time in the first half, Liverpool tried their luck once more: first, Mateta hit the inside post with a fine curling shot, then the Frenchman fired a volley just over the bar (45+7). So the score remained 1-0 at half-time.
Arne Slot brought Gakpo on for Bradley at the start of the second half, with Szoboszlai moving back to right-back. LFC showed a completely different face in the second half, and Wirtz almost celebrated his first goal after just under an hour, but the German failed to beat Henderson from close range after a cross from Szoboszlai (59′). Six minutes later, Isak missed another great chance to equalize.
Chiesa equalizes
Liverpool kept up the pressure, but Palace defended very well for the most part and could have sealed the game in the 79th minute when substitute Nketiah headed Mateta’s cross just wide of the right post. This would come back to haunt them: LFC substitute Chiesa, who had already narrowly missed the goal earlier, was inadvertently set up by Richards and scored from close range to equalize (87′).
The first league defeat seemed to have been avoided, but Liverpool failed to clear a long throw-in in the seventh minute of stoppage time. In the end, Nketiah was in the right place at the right time, and his shot after a nice chest control was unstoppable for Alisson. The game ended immediately afterwards, with Palace once again managing to beat the previously dominant LFC.
The defeat allows the competition to close in on the Reds again. With a win at Newcastle on Sunday (5:30 p.m.), Arsenal could reduce the gap to two points.
