Liverpool FC routed Crystal Palace 4-0 at Anfield, making their return to home a memory to cherish for. With this win, Liverpool are just 2 points away from the Premier League title. If Chelsea makes City drop points, Liverpool will be the champions of England. Here is our exclusive Liverpool vs Palace Match Review.
Team Line-Ups
Our Liverpool vs Palace Match Review also includes the starting lineups of both teams.
Liverpool
Formation: 4-3-3
Crystal Palace
Formation: 4-5-1
Overview
Coming back to today’s match. Liverpool showed their intent from the very beginning of the game. Compared to the lacklustre performance against Everton, Liverpool meant business from the starting whistle.
From the beginning Palace went all defensive with a 4-5-1 formation, Hennessey got a Premier League appearance after a long time as Guaita was injured, it proved to be a hard time for him on the pitch. With Cahill and Sakho at the back, they tried to defend as much as possible. Liverpool came very close to scoring the first goal as Wijnaldum failed to convert the chance presented to him by a Townsend miss-kick inside the box. Mane looked the dangerous man on the left giving passes to Wijnaldum and Robertson in small packets of spaces.
Crystal Palace got a big setback after Zaha left the field just after 11 minutes after sustaining an injury. Meyer replaced Zaha. In the 20th minute, Ayew made a costly error by fouling Van Dijk just in front of the box from a very advantageous position. Trent Alexander Arnold, the Souse boy in the team made the most of it, scoring an excellent goal from the free-kick with an inswinging curler in the right corner. This was Liverpool’s first goal after the lockdown break.
Palace became more defensive after that, barring few attempts of playing long balls which failed miserably and attempts of playing out the ball wide also become unsuccessful due to the pacy fullbacks of the Reds, Fabinho was sweeping the deeper midfield areas with his defensive skills.
Fabinho then on the verge of 42nd minute with his line-breaking long ball found Salah who marked his return with a goal from that excellent pass. Salah showed the composure while finishing with chesting down the ball and scoring the goal with precision. Fabinho’s pass was also praiseworthy. Except for Meyer’s shot in the 41st minute, Palace did not have enough threat.
2nd half followed the same script from the first half, Salah failed to convert the cross from Robertson when Sakho misjudged the ball. Robertson came close to scoring in the 53rd minute with a shot from the range. Just a minute later, Fabinho scored a world-class goal from almost 30 metres wide with a banger that disturbed the net’s right top corner.
Fabinho and Henderson was great throughout the match as they maintained the pressing intensity which hampered Palace’s hopes of building from the back. Gini missed out an easy chance from Mane’s pass as he hit straight to the keeper. Liverpool caught Palace in the 68th minute as Firmino finds Salah in the break who made an exquisite pass to Mane who was making his run. Mane calmly finished the opportunity by putting the ball into the right bottom corner with ease. Meanwhile, Oxlade Chamberlain substituted Henderson.
On the 73rd minute Trent and Firmino were substituted with Neco Williams and Minamino making their entries. The Liverpool side shifted to a 4-4-2 formation with Mane and Salah up-front. Mane and Robertson were also taken off in the 81st minute for Harvey Elliot and Naby Keita.
Williams looked lively during his time on the pitch, he made a splitting pass to Salah who cut in and tried to pass the ball to Minamino for a tap in but Hennessey came on their way. Eagles substitute Milivojevic, Riedwald and Pierick couldn’t make much of a difference with them playing so deep and hardly making any forward-thinking move.
With Atkinson’s final whistle match came to an end with Alisson no need to make a single save throughout the match, signalling towards the emphatic way Liverpool won this match. Liverpool are now 23 points ahead of City with playing a match extra. Now all the Reds will look at today’s match between City and Chelsea. Will Liverpool’s 30 years wait comes to an end tonight? We do have to wait till the City game.
What is your opinion on our Liverpool vs Palace Match Review? Will Liverpool clinch the Premier League tonight? Let us know in the comment section below.
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