Liverpool, with one man less for seventy minutes due to the expulsion of Andy Robertson, survived Fulham’s insistence with an exercise in resilience that allowed them to respond twice to their rival thanks to the successes of Cody Gapko and Diogo Jota, who rescued a point for the Premier League leader (2-2).
Fulham were not an affordable rival for Arne Slot’s men. He caresses the European zone and has already proven to be capable of causing problems for the greats of the Premier League. In fact, they managed to draw with Arsenal (1-1) and Tottenham (1-1). And it caused a lot of problems for Manchester City, who ended up scoring an agonizing victory (3-2).
The movie of grief
Liverpool played with 10 for 70 minutes and was behind twice on the scoreboard
These precedents did not invite a calm duel for Liverpool, who also came to the event with a small doubt after their defeat against Newcastle (3-3) after a winning streak. And the prophecy of the most cautious of Anfield was fulfilled. Fulham lived up to expectations and was a headache for their rival.
To begin with, Issa Diop began marking ground with a kick to Andy Robertson’s knee that could have been more than just a yellow card. But there he left his mark. The centre-back, this time accompanied by Jorge Cuenca – a good opportunity for the Spaniard due to the absences of Calvin Bassey and Joachim Andersen – once again showed himself in exceptional form.
And the rest of his teammates also accompanied Diop. They jumped onto the Anfield grass electric, wanting to surprise Liverpool, totally groggy due to the explosive start of their rivals and which got complicated very quickly, in the ninth minute with Andreas Pereira’s goal that opened the scoring.
Fulham put together a perfect, fast and annihilating play that began with a quick pass from Diop to Harry Wilson, who from the midfield, and with the first touch, sent the ball to Alex Iwobi, who quickly gave it to Antonee Robinson. The Fulham full-back crossed to the far post from the left wing and Andreas Pereira, with a volley and a tremendous foreshortening, made it 0-1.
The Fulham goal was followed by another key play, the sending off of Robertson in the 17th minute for a tackle on Wilson when he was the last man. He got himself into a huge mess after losing the ball with terrible control that left Wilson facing Alisson Becker. He had no choice but to drop his leg and bring down the skilled Fulham winger.
Curiously, with one man less, Liverpool woke up and although they did not create any chances, they set the stage for the start of a possible reaction after passing through the locker room. And the beginning of the second 45 minutes was hopeful for the ‘Reds’, who without complexes, despite being with a man less, stood up to Fulham and very soon tied the game with a header from Cody Gakpo after a pass from Mohamed Salah.
The tie woke up the Anfield crowd, which pushed its players into a street-running duel in which either of the two teams could extract oil. Liverpool had their moment, with a shot from Salah that went just wide. He wasted it and Fulham responded with theirs with a difference: they did not fail.
In a counterattack, again at full speed, he sealed the 1-2. Iwobi started the operation on the left wing. He gave the ball to Robinson, who reached the baseline to knock it back. Rodrigo Muniz appeared in the heart of the area and his shot ended up in the net of the goal defended by Alison.
Liverpool had just over a quarter of an hour left to find an equalizer. He didn’t shrink. He warned with a very tight shot from Harvey Elliott and got his reward five minutes from time with the appearance of Diogo Jota, who made no mistake with a shot from the edge of the area.
Arne Slot’s team insisted to try to complete an epic victory. He had nine minutes of added time to make the comeback. He caressed it with a shot from Diogo Jota that was saved by the best of the game, Robinson, who stood in the way of the ball towards the goal with his body. It was the occasion of the epic that did not come to fruition.
Liverpool, in the end, did not win, but they left with a good taste in their mouths because they resisted with one man less for almost the entire match. Of course, it will give their pursuers an opportunity to cut two points in the fight for the title.
Technical sheet
2.- Liverpool: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Diogo Jota, min. 79), Joe Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Szoboszlai (Elliott, min. 79), Gravenberch, Jones (Quansah, min. 70); Salah, Luis Díaz and Gakpo (Darwin Núñez, min. 79).
2.- Fulham: Leno; Tete (Castagne, min. 55), Diop, Cuenca, Robinson; Berge, Lukic; Iwobi, Andreas Pereira (Smith Rowe, min. 69), Wilson (Adama, min. 87); and Raúl Jiménez (Rodrigo Muniz, min. 76).
Goals: 0-1, min. 11: Andreas Pereira; 1-1, min. 47: Gakpo; 1-2, min. 76: Rodrigo Muniz; 2-2, min. 85: Diogo Jota.
Referee: Tony Harrington. He showed yellow card to Diop (min. 2), Andreas Pereira (min. 9), Robinson (min. 27) and Berge (min. 83) for Fulham, and Luis Díaz (min. 7), Jones (min. 57) and Darwin Núñez (min. 88) for Liverpool. Liverpool player Robertson was sent off with a direct red card (min. 17).
Incidents: match corresponding to the sixteenth day of the Premier League played at the Anfield stadium in front of around 58,000 spectators.
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