Two goals from Fernando Llorente and Gylfi Sigurdsson’s late winner helped their team Swansea City pick up all three points at Anfield Road after a thrilling 3-2 victory on Saturday. The visitors escaped the bottom of the Premier League table. For the hosts, this result is a huge blow to their title challenge this season, as they can go down the table, if Arsenal and Manchester City win today’s games.
Jurgen Klopp decided to choose a strong starting eleven with Adam Lallana, Roberto Firmino, and Phillipe Coutinho starting for the first time since picking up an injury in November. In the defensive formation the German manager picked Simone Mignolet, Dejan Lovren, James Milner, Nathaniel Clyne, and Klavan.
Huge victory for Swansea
There weren’t a lot of clear chances in the first half, as both teams tried to dominate the middle of the pitch, but after the break the visitors managed to finally open the scoring. Dejan Lovren gave away a corner in an easy situation, and Swansea took advantage of his mistake.
The set-piece found Federico Fernandez in the box, who gave the ball to Llorente just two metres away from goal. The Spanish striker made no mistake and put the ball into the net through the legs of Lovren.
Two minutes later is was already 2-0 for the visitors, as Fernando Llorente doubled his scoring. A perfect cross from Tom Carrol was met by the former Sevilla star, who finished with a strong header past Simone Mignolet. However, Liverpool managed to score their first goal just a few seconds later, thanks to another great header produced by Roberto Firmino.
Is it the end of Liverpool's title dreams?
Jurgen Klopp decided to bring on Daniel Sturridge, to put more pressure on Swansea’s defensive formation.
His team managed to level the scoring in the 69th minute, when Brazilian forward Roberto Firmino took advantage of Fernandez’s mistake and fired a beautiful half-volley into the bottom corner to beat Łukasz Fabiański once again.
When everybody thought that the Reds would find a way to score another goal to finally take the lead, their rivals made another counterattack. Llorente delivered a great pass to Tom Carroll, whose shot was deflected, but the ball found Gylfi Sigurdsson in the box, who lifted the ball over Simone Mignolet to give his team an important victory.