Andre’s stoppage-time winner gave Wolves a 2-1 victory over Liverpool as the Underground Boys defeated the reigning champions at Molineux.
Rodrygo Gomez scored a fine counter-attacking goal in the second half and Mohamed Salah quickly equalized for Liverpool, but it wasn’t Arne Slott’s side who scored the dramatic goal, but the side that looked to be heading for the Championship.
It was a wild finale to a game that started slowly, and no wonder how much Slott will lament his team’s performance. With a big win, Liverpool could move up to third place. Instead, Wolves, who had just one win all season until Friday, secured two wins in five days, leaving them in fifth place.
Liverpool lost again in the final stages
Friday’s win against Aston Villa seemed to give Wolves momentum, but Liverpool arguably should have started more aggressively than they did. Instead they wasted a first half and a series of corners, with Joao Gomez being a dominant presence.
Slot’s side pushed from the start of the second half, but substitute Curtis Jones was unable to score from a yard out as Kodi Gakpo inexplicably deflected his shot over the line. And Liverpool paid the price during the break when Tolu Arokodare outplayed the muscular Virgil van Dijk.
The Liverpool captain was under pressure but needed to be stronger. Nigeria’s big striker fed Rodrygo Gomez, who lofted the ball over Alisson under pressure from Ibrahima Konate.
Salah’s equalizer seemed to put Liverpool out of the hole.
But his first Premier League goal in 122 days was wasted in the 94th minute when Andre’s speculative shot hit Joe Gomez and deflected into goal. Unfortunately for Gomez, Liverpool completely lost control of the contest and this is becoming a habit.
It was the fifth time this season that Slott’s team conceded the winning goal after 90 minutes, the most by any team in a single season. Those missteps had long ago derailed their title defense. It could also cost Champions League football.
Same old story, says Slott.
Liverpool manager Arne Slott said at a press conference:
“How do I sum this up? It’s a similar story. Lately we’ve been able to score a lot from set-pieces, so we’ve been winning points. But what hasn’t changed in the last five, six, seven games is that we’re struggling because it’s very difficult to score from the open play chances that we create. We don’t have as much possession as I would like, but we have enough and a lot more than the opposition.”
“But in the end, we scored one goal, they scored two goals, and then in overtime we scored another goal, and this game summed up our season again.
“We have a lot more possession than other teams. We have created more open plays and more general chances than other teams, but we have struggled to score from open play. Lately we have scored a lot from set pieces. We had a lot of set pieces today as well. In the first half, our taking was very poor. It’s a bit like the way we played. I don’t think we played very well in the first half.”
“We were better in the second half. Still not great, but better. We created more. And I think we came close to scoring (and making it 2-1) a couple of times in overtime or right before overtime.”
“Mo had the ball with two guys open on the dribble, but the ball was intercepted by a defender and Virgil took a header. So those chances and the goals we conceded weren’t even chances. And that’s what happened to us so many times this season.”
“It’s probably a coincidence that it happens in extra time. As it happens many times, we give very few chances. Today we gave one chance and conceded two.”
He added: “I expected more from us than what we had right now. It was another setback and this result didn’t help us, but we still have nine games left so we’re getting close to the end and we’re dropping points when we absolutely don’t need them.”
“If we play this game 10 times, I don’t think we’ll lose 10 times. I’m far from certain that we’ll win every time. We don’t want to rely on missed shots. We have to play better. But I want to give credit to the Wolves. They fought from the first minute to the end and deservedly deserved the good fortune given how much they focused on the game.”
Edwards: It’s not as bad as people think!
Wolves manager Rob Edwards said in a press conference.
“We wanted to play and felt we could improve. The pressure increased on the opponent and they started to open up space.”
When asked about areas for improvement, he said: “It’s a matter of workload. It takes time to understand how hard you have to work to win games at this level. There’s a clear difference now. We obviously have fewer people in the team and everyone feels like we’re not that far away.”
“This group is fighting for each other, working hard and showing that it’s not as bad as people think. It’s not playing as well as it would like, but it’s showing character. We’ve got to find a way.”
Liverpool return to Molineux on Friday night for an FA Cup fifth round draw once under the Molineux lights. “You’ve probably pissed them off pretty bad by now, so let’s see!”
When asked if supporters would want to win cup competitions given Wolves’ plight in the Premier League, Edwards replied: “Does it have to be one or the other? I’ll try to win both.”
