“Why do you always wait until the last day?” Ulla Klopp asked her husband, Jürgen Klopp, before his match with Wolverhampton. But the Liverpool manager had no answer and his team fell short of winning the Premier League. Neither the goals of Mané, Salah and Robertson; that turned around Pedro Neto’s opening goal, served to clinch the title, the first that eludes the Reds this season, in the absence of the long-awaited Champions League final in Paris on May 28. A final in which Thiago could be low…
Thus, the first to surprise at Anfield was Wolverhampton, who took advantage of a placement error by Konaté and took the lead in just three minutes. Raúl Jiménez ran unopposed to the baseline and crossed the ball for Pedro Neto to make it 0-1 on the scoreboard and leave Klopp looking bleak. But this Liverpool should not put him in a bad mood…
Rebounded, the locals raised their pressure line to the José Sá area, although they continued to suffer behind their backs. Without Van Dijk, Liverpool’s defense faltered, and if it had been Konaté who had failed first, in minute 17 it was Matip who left Pedro Neto alone, very close to serving the 0-2 for the Wolves.
When Liverpol was having the worst time, Thiago appeared, who must have thought that “the best defense is a good attack” and dropped his heel to leave Mané alone. The Senegalese didn’t get nervous, he faced the goal and looked for the near post with enough precision to make it 1-1. A goal that opened the Reds’ box of thunder, launched by Aston Villa’s goal at the Etihad that left them closer to the title.
But not everything was going to be so easy and then Hee-Chan pulled another opportunity for the Wolves out of the hat behind the erratic Matip, who was saved by Alisson in heads-up just before the break. A bad moment for Liverpool, whose problems were piling up: Thiago left injured and had to give way to Milner in the second half.
The loss of the Spanish midfielder six days before the Champions League final left Liverpool cold, who had to wait for Salah’s entry to loosen up. It was the Egyptian, who was coming back from injury, who scored the 2-1 for the Reds, who would make it 3-1 in the 89th minute thanks to a rise from Roberton and would stay just outside the lead. The radios were then ringing at Anfield waiting for Aston Villa and Gerrard to win against City, but Guardiola’s team ended up coming back and took the Premier.