Bella Michaels
Tensions peaked at this top-four Premier League meeting between Liverpool and Leicester City at Anfield. The Reds reached their 17th consecutive league win with a last-minute penalty by James Milner to mark a dramatic 2-1 victory over Leicester City.
This fixture was the highlight of the Premier League weekend. Former Liverpool Manager Brendan Rodgers made his return to Anfield for the first time since leaving Liverpool in 2015, and the fans had a great, nostalgic reception for his return.
Leicester played a 4-1-4-1 formation with Ndidi as the defensive screen, while Liverpool went into this match unbeaten in their last 43 league games at home with their usual 4-3-3.
The first significantly missed opportunity for Liverpool came after Trent Alexander-Arnold’s brilliant nut-meg as he got away from Ben Chilwell to cross it over to find Milner’s foot, but he struck it too high over the net.
But Milner was brilliant throughout the game, as he later made a beautiful assist to Sadio Mane’s 50th premier league goal just five minutes before half time.
Liverpool maintained about 51 percent of the possession throughout the game, and took 18 shots, making only two of them. The score should have been higher for them, at least 3 goals, but they missed too many opportunities.
Around the 80th minute, Leicester’s James Maddison found space from Ayoze Perez’s pass and netted one in right underneath Adrian from about 15 yards out.
Leicester took only two shots throughout the game and scored one, when Liverpool keeper Adrian made an error, putting Leicester at a 50 percent shooting accuracy.
In the 89th minute of the game, Hamza Choudhury harshly took down Mohamed Salah in a late challenge to book himself a yellow card. Salah couldn’t fully recover from the challenge, and later got substituted for Adam Lallana to replace him before the penalty.
Klopp called the dirty challenge “dangerous as hell” during the post-game press conference. He added that Choudhury is a “super player” but “has to calm down.”
Tensions were summiting towards the final minutes of the match, especially during the four minutes of stoppage time, when Mane drew a penalty by Marc Albrighton that VAR awarded to Liverpool.
This was the turning point of the clash between two of the league’s top-four teams.
Who other than Milner, who has netted-in 17 of his 19 penalty kicks taken, would score the stoppage-time penalty goal?
To top off the dramatic tension, Ayoze lashes out at Liverpool’s Lallana while his teammates run to hold him back. He was heated even as he was walking back into the locker room.
What a game.
Liverpool still remain at the top of the table with 24 points as they carry on their undefeated streak while Leicester stands at third place with 14 points.
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