Collective sigh of relief at Anfield Road: Liverpool FC can still win national games. On Saturday evening, the Reds earned a well-deserved and convincing 2-0 home win against Aston Villa.
Liverpool FC went into their evening game against Aston Villa on the back of six defeats in their last seven competitive games. So the Reds were not brimming with confidence, but at least most of the starting eleven were well rested. After the 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace in the League Cup, Arne Slot had made a total of nine changes, with only Robertson and Mac Allister remaining in the starting line-up. National player Wirtz initially sat on the bench.
For the Villans, coach Unai Emery was keen to build on their recent 1-0 win over Manchester City. And the start at Anfield Road was promising: in the 5th minute, they came within inches of taking the lead, but Rogers’ shot hit the right post. Liverpool then stepped up their game, but once again the Villa fans had a goal to cheer. However, Mamardashvili denied Cash’s deflected shot (19′).
Szoboszlai miserable – Ekitiké offside
Shortly afterwards, Szoboszlai, who repeatedly dropped back from the ten between the center backs in the style of a quarterback, found himself alone in front of Martinez, but the Hungarian miserably pushed the ball into the Argentine’s arms (23′). At the end of the first half hour, Liverpool took complete control. And suddenly, Anfield went wild for the first time, but Ekitiké’s header from Szoboszlai’s cross was disallowed by VAR for offside (43′).
The fact that Liverpool still led 1-0 at the break was thanks to Villa’s keeper: Martinez rushed forward and pushed the ball into the feet of Salah, who coolly slotted it home (45+1). It was his 250th competitive goal for the Reds.
After the break, the first good combination came from the home side again, but Martinez denied Bradley the goal before the flag went up anyway (53′).
Before the hour mark, however, Liverpool took the lead: A ball won back through pressing landed in front of the penalty area at Gravenberch, whose powerful left-footed shot was deflected unstoppably by Pau (58′). At the other end, substitute Malen once again provided a rare foray for the visitors, but his shot whizzed past the right-hand post (70′).
Wirtz comes on late
Wirtz also got involved in the final quarter of an hour, but failed to make an impact. With Villa lacking ideas of their own, Liverpool were able to cleverly secure their first Premier League win since September 20 (2-1 in the derby against Everton).
LFC has a real highlight game coming up on Tuesday (9 p.m.): Real Madrid is the guest in the Champions League. Aston Villa will then play Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League on Thursday (9 p.m.).
