Liverpool defeated Chelsea in the next round of the English Championship

In the next round of the English Championship, Liverpool at home defeated Chelsea – 4:1. This result allowed Jurgen Klopp’s team to continue the title race with Manchester City, which, with a match in hand, is five points behind the Liverpool team. Chelsea can take revenge on Liverpool at Wembley at the end of February, but in the English League Cup final.

Despite Jurgen Klopp’s announcement that he will step down as head coach at the end of the season, the team continues to fight for all possible trophies. Liverpool is the sole leader in the national championship, having lost only once in the entire championship – at the end of September it lost to Tottenham. In the Europa League, Liverpool also claims to win the tournament, and the situation in national cups is good: in the FA Cup, Jurgen Klopp’s team knocked out Norwich the other day, having previously managed to stop London’s Arsenal, and they can become winners of the League Cup already at the end of February if they beat Chelsea at Wembley.

Despite the mediocre performance of the Merseysiders last season (5th place in the championship), the results of the current one were able to rehabilitate the team in the eyes of the fans, which cannot be said about the situation in which the opponents from London found themselves. Chelsea has been in the middle of the table for the second season, having spent more than €1 billion on transfers during this period of time. In the national championship, the Londoners complete the top ten, and in the cup there will be a replay of the match with Aston Villa after a goalless draw in the first game. The only consolation this season may be the already mentioned match against Liverpool at the end of February.

However, even taking into account the League Cup final being held at the Londoners’ home stadium, their chances are not great. The meeting of these teams with each other in the 22nd round of the English Premier League (EPL) is further confirmation of this

Liverpool went on the attack from the very first minutes, creating one after another chances in the Chelsea penalty area.

And this despite the absence on the field of the team’s main firepower in the person of Mohamed Salah, who returned from playing for the national team at the African Cup with an injury. London goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic had no time to rest; in the first half alone, 15 shots were fired at his goal, 6 of which were on target. The Serbian goalkeeper helped out for the time being, but in the 23rd minute Diogo Jota went through two central defenders and managed to open the scoring in the match from a lethal position.

And after 16 minutes, Petrovich was forced to take the second ball out of the net. Having already given an assist to Jota, young Northern Irish defender Conor Bradley, for whom this match in the Premier League was only the second in his career, after a sprint into someone else’s penalty area, was able to beat the goalkeeper, hitting the far corner. The first shot towards the Liverpool goal happened only in added time to the first half, but a minute before that, Darwin Nunez from the penalty spot could have made the score devastating, but the Uruguayan sent the ball into the post, failing to convert a penalty for the first time in his career. And in general, Nunez was very unlucky: the Uruguayan became the first Premier League player in the last 20 years to hit the woodwork four times in a match.

During the break, in the hope of changing the situation, Mauricio Pochettino, who in 13 matches was only able to defeat his German counterpart once, made a triple substitution. Just five minutes later, Ukrainian striker Mikhail Mudrik, who came off the bench, fired a shot high above the goal from a lethal position. In the middle of the second half, questions about the winner of the match were closed by Dominik Szoboszlai, who headed home the same Bradley’s serve. Although the defender was replaced almost immediately after the goal, the young footballer was guaranteed the best player of the match award.

Chelsea forward Christopher Nkunku, who came off the bench after the break, was able to break the score in the 71st minute, but the final scorer was Colombian Luis Diaz, who returned the devastating difference to the scoreboard with Darwin Nunez’s cross.

For the first time since March 2021, a match between Liverpool and Chelsea ended in victory for one of the teams in normal time.

For the German coach, the victory was the 200th in the English Premier League; six other coaches can boast of such an achievement. It took Klopp 318 matches to achieve this; only Pep Guardiola could win 200 games faster, for whom 269 matches were enough.

Manchester City, led by the Spaniard, beat Burnley 3-1 in the other match of the tour thanks to the efforts of Julián Alvarez and Rodri, who scored two goals, and remain five points behind Liverpool with a game in hand.

Ivan Kopenkin