Liverpool 3-1 Everton: Premier League – as it happened via The Guardian
Sadio Mane scored a fine goal before going off injured as Liverpool’s recent domination of the Merseyside derby continued.
2.24pm BST
Liverpool do the double over their Merseyside rivals! They’re deserved winners of a game which threatened to boil over once or twice, but in the end didn’t. It’s three wins out of three in the derby for Jurgen Klopp, who will be happy with his team’s performance, but worried about Sadio Mane’s fitness. And so Everton’s barren run at Anfield goes on. Still no win here since 1999.
2.21pm BST
90 min +3: Everton have the ball, but Liverpool are sitting back, and there’s no way through.
2.20pm BST
90 min +2: Mirallas dribbles with purpose down the left, but eventually runs out of room.
2.18pm BST
90 min +1: There will be four added minutes. Most of the first is used up by Williams, as he slowly walks to the touchline after his medical moment.
2.17pm BST
90 min: Williams is down in his own area. While he’s getting treatment, Firmino is replaced by Klavan.
2.16pm BST
88 min: Lukaku works a little space down the inside-right channel, but his cross into the area – populated by more blue shirts than red – floats harmlessly out to the left of goal. Frustration furrows his brow.
2.15pm BST
87 min: Mirallas turns Milner easily in the midfield, glides past a static Matip, and drifts out to the right. For a second, it looks like he’s going to score a goal not unlike Mane’s early opener, but upon reaching the right-hand side of the Liverpool D, he blasts wildly over the bar.
2.13pm BST
85 min: Alexander-Arnold is not short of confidence. Wijnaldum finds him on the edge of the Everton area, and the young man attempts a curler into the top right. Robles claims it easily enough.
2.13pm BST
2.11pm BST
83 min: Wijnaldum makes good down the left and crosses low. Barkley intercepts with Alexander-Arnold and Origi in attendance. He opts to dribble across his own box, and is dispossessed by a Peter Beardsleyesque tackle from behind. Pocket picked. Origi can’t subsequently work the space to shoot, mind, but that was impressive persistence.
2.09pm BST
82 min: Calvert-Lewin is replaced by Mirallas.
2.08pm BST
80 min: Can should send the ambitious Alexander-Arnold clean through on goal, but his misplaced pass allows Williams to intercept. Then Clyne goes on a romp down the right, but his decent low cross, trundling along the corridor of uncertainty, is snaffled well by Robles with Origi lurking.
2.07pm BST
79 min: A hesitant Matip opts to leave a long ball sent down the middle, and very nearly lets Lukaku in on goal. Fortunately for the Liverpool defender, Lovren is on hand to hack away from trouble.
2.05pm BST
77 min: Can turns into space down the right, reaches the byline and pulls a ball back for Alexander-Arnold. The pass is a little behind the marauding full back, but he digs out a shot anyway, scooping a strange effort across Robles and towards the top left. The keeper claws it out of the air, a fine save, even if the whole thing was played out in trippy slow-mo.
2.03pm BST
76 min: Wijnaldum romps down the left into acres, and sets up Origi on the edge of the Everton D. The striker should belt one goalwards, but hesitates and the chance is gone.
2.01pm BST
74 min: The free kick is cleared by Matip. And then a slightly surprising substitution by Klopp, who removes Coutinho in favour of Alexander-Arnold. Recognition that Everton have been on the front foot for a while.
2.00pm BST
72 min: Barkley is bossing the midfield right now. He sprays a pass wide right towards Holgate, whose fierce cross is deliberately top-armed by Milner, to the right of the Liverpool area. Free kick in a dangerous position. No booking, strangely. The referee is all over the shop today.
1.58pm BST
69 min: Everton come very close to halving the deficit. Holgate has a blast from distance on the right. Mignolet, having gone down early, somehow manages to claw it away from danger. Baines recycles the ball on the left, and sends in a cross which Barry somehow heads over from close range. This is far from over.
1.57pm BST
68 min: Can is booked for a studs-up lunge on Gueye. He’s saved a red card by pulling out of the challenge at the very last second. This game should never have got so ugly.
1.54pm BST
67 min: Everton make a double change. Davies is replaced by Valencia, while Barry comes on for the goalscorer Pennington.
1.52pm BST
65 min: A lengthy stoppage, but Can’s finally up and about, and looks like he’ll be able to continue.
1.51pm BST
62 min: Williams faffs about in the midfield. He takes a heavy touch and chases after the ball, studs up. He clatters into Can, and that’s a booking. Can looks in real agony here, with stud marks across his knee.
1.49pm BST
This was way too simple. Coutinho shimmies in from the left, draws Williams and slips the ball inside for Origi. The sub takes a stride towards the box and lashes a shot into the top left. Robles had charged out to the edge of the area, which was a strange decision. Everton have not defended well today.
1.46pm BST
59 min: Origi dribbles in from the left wing and looks to curl an ambitious one into the top right. Nope.
1.46pm BST
58 min: Liverpool look a bit rattled by the Mane injury, and Everton are enjoying the lion’s share right now. Barkley Gazzas his way from left to right across the front of the Liverpool box. He slips the ball wide right to Holgate, who should find Lukaku free in the middle, six yards out. But the cross isn’t any good.
1.44pm BST
56 min: Liverpool will hope that’s not too serious, but that could be an ankle-ligament job. Mane limps off down the tunnel. Origi will come on. In the meantime, Barkley has a whack from distance; his shot balloons off a red shirt and threatens to squirm into the top right, but Mignolet is behind it and able to gather.
1.42pm BST
54 min: A worry for Liverpool here as Mane twists his ankle while challenging with the innocent Baines. He goes down and receives lengthy treatment. He tries to limp off, with a view to playing on, but falls again before he can leave the pitch. He’ll not continue.
1.40pm BST
51 min: Barkley slips over in the midfield, but earns a free kick because Can plants a boot on his arm. Like Williams earlier on, that was daft and asking for trouble, but it’s nothing more than a free kick that goes nowhere. The referee’s been a bit laissez-faire today.
1.37pm BST
50 min: A pleasing end-to-end start to this second half. Everton force a corner down the right. Barkley’s delivery is cleared by Milner. Good luck guessing which team scores next.
1.36pm BST
49 min: But Everton are still looking shaky at the back themselves. Can dribbles in from the left and gets a shot away from the edge of the area. It’s blocked by Williams. On another day, Coutinho is slapping the rebound home from six yards, but it sticks under his feet. Everton clear.
1.35pm BST
48 min: A free kick for Everton down the left. Barkley floats it to the far post. Williams tries to guide it back across the face of goal with a telescopic leg, but the ball’s too near Mignolet, who smothers. Liverpool’s defenders are still in the dressing room, I think.
1.34pm BST
46 min: Davies, deep inside his own half on the right, sets Everton on the attack with a glorious first-time crossfield rake. Lukaku is sent striding down the right, and crosses for Calvert-Lewin, but Matip smacks clear. Everton showing early intent, though. A big few minutes coming up.
1.32pm BST
Here we go again, then! Liverpool get the ball rolling and they’re kicking towards the Kop in the second half, which is just how they like it. Then again, Everton are kicking towards the end at which this happened …
1.24pm BST
Half-time reading: Can Everton get back into the derby? Sure they can, with Romelu Lukaku leading their line, a player of power and poise who fits into a grand tradition stretching all the way back to Dixie Dean. Jonathan Wilson ran the rule over him earlier in the week.
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Everton’s Romelu Lukaku is a traditional No9 who could play in any era
1.19pm BST
Can tries to beat Jagiekla in a foot race down the right. Neither man being the fastest, it’s a faintly comical sight, and both of them have the good grace to smile wryly as Can is penalised for running into the back of the Everton man. And that’s that for an engrossing first half. With this game still thoroughly in the balance, you’ll not be going anywhere, I’ll be bound.
1.16pm BST
45 min: Coutinho embarks on another hectic ramble down the inside-left channel. He very nearly makes space to shoot again, but Gueye nips in from behind to steal the ball, a wonderful challenge with his team in danger.
1.15pm BST
44 min: A much-needed period of calm. The referee could do with half-time coming round quickly.
1.14pm BST
42 min: Lucas comes clattering into Holgate, face to face, momentum knocking the young man down like a skittle. On the touchline, Koeman goes into meltdown, demanding a yellow card and then engaging Klopp in philosophical debate. There wasn’t much in that, but tempers are fraying now.
1.11pm BST
40 min: Coutinho has a look from the edge of the box, but the ball drifts well wide left.
1.11pm BST
39 min: This is beginning to heat up now. Lukaku wins a towering header to set up Barkley, 30 yards from goal. But Barkley overruns the ball, and in trying to retrieve it, plants his studs on Lovren’s shin. That’s a leg-breaker of a challenge, and he should be sent off. Luckily it doesn’t seem to have done Lovren any serious damage. Barkley is booked, preposterously for repeated transgressions, if Anthony Taylor’s mime is anything to go by.
1.08pm BST
36 min: Williams plants his boot in the small of Can’s back, after the Liverpool player fell forward while laying a ball off to a team-mate. There wasn’t much meat in the stamp, more of a gentle prod really, but it was a deliberate motion, and daft too, because if the officials had spotted it, he could have been in serious trouble. Strange, because while this game has been contested at a high tempo, and there have been a few crunching challenges, it’s been played in the right spirit.
1.05pm BST
34 min: Coutinho, so impressive for Brazil during the week, is back on his game it would seem. He very nearly breaks clear down the left channel, latching onto a Firmino backheel. Williams is forced into a panicked clearance into the stand behind the goal. Mane is penalised for pushing at the corner, some much-needed relief for Everton who, after hauling themselves level, were beginning to rock again.
1.02pm BST
Pennington was the hero a minute ago, but he’s at fault here. He allows Coutinho to run at him down the inside-left channel. Run and run and run. He doesn’t get tight enough. Coutinho enters the box, drops a shoulder to the right, and curls one into the top right! Some game we’ve got here.
1.01pm BST
31 min: Liverpool try to respond immediately, Firminho sending a header goalwards. Jagielka blocks. The rebound falls to Can, scampering in from the right. He belts the ball. It’s blocked again. Everton clear. But in vain, because…
1.00pm BST
The ball’s fired at head height towards the near post. Jagielka eyebrows it on. Williams can’t connect as it drops to the ground, but the ball sits up, six yards from goal, and Pennington, making his first start of the season, can’t miss! He smashes it into the net and celebrates in front of the Kop!
12.58pm BST
28 min: Calvert-Lewin works his way down the left and earns another Everton corner. From which…
12.57pm BST
26 min: The first yellow card of the match, as young Tom Davies slides in recklessly on Mane. From the side, but very late, flipping the player high into the air. In fairness to the referee, that was the most obvious of all the potential bookings, and he has no choice but to flash his card.
12.56pm BST
25 min: Barkley dribbles in the Gazzaesque style down the inside-right channel, and is unceremoniously upended by Can. That could have been a booking too, but it’s just a free kick, to the right of the D. A dangerous position, but Baines clatters it straight into the wall.
12.54pm BST
24 min: Liverpool ping it around in the pretty fashion, Mane cutting in from the right, laying off for Coutinho, who in turn finds Milner down the left. Milner should send Wijnaldum away, but shanks his pass down the flank into the stand. Milner puffs his cheeks out hard, knowing full well he let backtracking Everton off the hook.
12.52pm BST
22 min: The first corner of an open match, as the ever-dangerous Baines curls one in from the left. It’s intended for Lukaku, but Matip slashes it into the Kop. Jagielka gets his head onto the resulting set piece, but flies that one into the famous old stand too.
12.51pm BST
19 min: Coutinho scampers clear down the left, after a Firmino pass. He enters the box, drops a shoulder, and works plenty of space to shoot. He curls one towards the top right, and it’s parried well by Robles. Nevertheless, the ball flies into the sky, and would loop into the top right were it not for Jagielka, heading clear off the line. Coutinho should probably have given Robles no chance, but take nothing away from the save.
12.49pm BST
18 min: Mane has the opportunity to feed Clyne into an awful lot of space down the right, but chooses to go inside himself, and eventually loses possession with a loose pass.
12.48pm BST
16 min: Lukaku brushes Lucas off with contemptuous ease, holding the ball and setting Everton on the attack. Baines, out on the left, scoops a fine cross into the Liverpool box. The ball evades Lovren, who mistimes his jump, and falls at the feet of Calvert-Lewin, on the right-hand corner of the six-yard box. But the young Evertonian takes his eye off the ball and lets it roll under his boot. What a chance he’d have had, were he able to trap it then.
12.45pm BST
14 min: But they’re still a bit frantic and panicked in the middle of the park. A loose Davies ball is pounced on by Coutinho, who should break into a lot of space with Everton light at the back but takes a heavy touch.
12.44pm BST
13 min: Everton enjoy a little possession in the midfield, taking the opportunity to take the heat out of the game. Liverpool were looking for the quick second goal there, so it’s a wise tactic.
12.42pm BST
11 min: Can has a belt from distance. His shot is deflected wide left and lands at the feet of Firmino, who very nearly opens Everton up after an exchange with the busy Can. Wijnaldum was hovering around too, but Holgate keeps his head to intercept and clear.
12.40pm BST
10 min: Everton are rocking. Coutinho attempts to replicate Mane’s moment of brilliance with a dribble of his own, sliding right to left and very nearly bustling into the box. But he tries one hip-swivelling shimmy too many, and Williams slides in to block before he can shoot. For a second, though, it looked like a second might be on the cards.
12.39pm BST
So much for everyone calming down! Mane turns deep on the right. He exchanges passes with Firminho and drifts inside. He could slip Coutinho into the box, but continues drifting to the left. When he reaches the left-hand edge of the D, he swivels and threads a shot into the bottom right, past a stranded, planted Robles! What a solo effort that is! Anfield erupts.
12.37pm BST
6 min: The first brouhaha of the afternoon as Barkley clatters into Can in the centre circle. Lucas wants the yellow card flourished, much to Lukaku’s irritation, and this should be a booking too, as Barkley had landed his studs flush on the top of Can’s boot. But again the ref plays it cool. He does get Jagielka and Milner together for a lecture, though. Calm down, everyone.
12.35pm BST
4 min: Everton’s young team seem to have settled well enough. Davies, Barkley and Holgate are all involved in some pretty triangulation down the right, though the move comes to nothing. Then Baines steals a yard from Clyne down the left, and he’s pulled back. Only a free kick; by rights, that should have been a booking for the Liverpool right back. But the referee, Anthony Taylor, decides to keep his powder dry for now.
12.32pm BST
2 min: All a bit scrappy in the early exchanges. Barkley snaps at Matip’s heels on the edge of the Liverpool box, but a cheeky drag-back by the defender gets him out of trouble.
12.31pm BST
And we’re off! Everton get the ball rolling, and kick towards the Kop in this first half. It’s launched long. Lucas miskicks, and nearly gifts possession to Lukaku on the edge of the box. But Lucas gathers himself and clears at the second attempt. Some atmosphere at Anfield, but that goes without saying on days like these.
12.29pm BST
No pre-match chat with Jurgen Klopp. A pre-record, but nothing said this morning. If there was, I missed him, so apologies for that. Anyway, amid the usual derby-day bedlam, the teams come out. Liverpool in red, Everton in blue, the classic aesthetic of Merseyside. But before the game starts, there’s a heartfelt rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone and a minute’s applause for Ronnie Moran, Mr Liverpool, who passed away last week. One way or another, he was involved in 13 League titles, four European Cups, five FA Cups, five League Cups and two Uefa Cups. He celebrated one of those titles by plonking a cardboard box full of winners medals on the dressing room table and telling the team to take one “if you think you deserve it”. Seems he also used to refer to Jamie Redknapp in training as “Harry”. Wonderful. RIP Bugsy.
Related:
Ronnie Moran, Liverpool captain and boot room legend, dies aged 83
12.05pm BST
Ronald Koeman speaks! “We have not adjusted a lot. The game plan for today is not changed. Of course the position of Seamus Coleman has changed, and Mason Holgate is starting. And the same thing has happened with Ramiro Funes Mori and Matthew Pennington. The rest is the same. Of course they are two young players, but I am totally confident in them. It is a big day for everybody, but Pennington is doing really well, I am not afraid to start him in this match.”
11.51am BST
Pre-match reading. In lieu of having a programme to idly flick through, here’s a classic Joy of Six from the pen of Peerless Paul Doyle.
Related:
The Joy of Six: classic Merseyside derbies
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The Joy of Six: Merseyside derby moments | Scott Murray
11.42am BST
Neither club is able to name the starting line-up they’d rather. Damn those internationals. Liverpool are missing Adam Lallana, who picked up a thigh strain with England. Lucas comes in to replace him; bang goes plenty of creativity. Still no Jordan Henderson, but Dejan Lovren is back in the centre of the defence, replacing Ragnar Klavan.
Everton suffered more than most during the break. Ramiro Funes Mori picked up a knee injury with Argentina, while Republic of Ireland pair James McCarthy and the desperately unlucky Seamus Coleman are also out. Morgan Schneiderlin meanwhile still hasn’t recovered from his calf problem. Matthew Pennington, Mason Holgate and Dominic Calvert-Lewin give the Toffees a very fresh-faced look.
11.32am BST
Liverpool: Mignolet, Clyne, Matip, Lovren, Milner, Can, Lucas, Wijnaldum, Mane, Firmino, Coutinho.
Subs: Karius, Grujic, Klavan, Moreno, Origi, Woodburn, Alexander-Arnold.
Everton: Robles, Jagielka, Williams, Holgate, Pennington, Davies, Gueye, Baines, Barkley, Lukaku, Calvert-Lewin.
Subs: Kone, Mirallas, Barry, Valencia, Stekelenburg, Lookman, Kenny.
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Joel Robles confident Everton will end Liverpool’s Anfield derby dominance
12.51am BST
Evertonians using recent history as their guide won’t fancy this one at all. The most recent Merseyside derby, played just before Christmas, was settled by a late Sadio Mané smash and grab. Everton’s last visit to Anfield was a four-goal humiliation in which they hardly touched the ball. They’ve not beaten Liverpool since Roy Hodgson was wedged in the away dugout at Goodison with a confused grin spread across his face: that was seven years ago. And they’ve not won on their arch rivals’ turf since the slap-happy days of Sander Westerveld and Franny Jeffers: Kevin Campbell’s winner was 18 years ago.
Eighteen years!
And yet despite all that, there will be plenty of Evertonians who fancy this one very much. See, there’s a feelgood vibe emanating from Everton right now. Since defeat in the derby in December, they’ve lost just one league fixture in a dozen, and there’s no shame in getting beaten away at Spurs. They’re looking sharp up front: 17 goals in their last six matches. They’re keeping it tight at the back: four clean sheets in the last five. Romelu Lukaku is the Premier League’s hottest striker, while Ronald Koeman effortlessly exudes the sort of confidence and gravitas beyond Roberto Martinez’s wildest dreams. The kids look highly promising, Ross Barkley’s back on song, there’s money in the bank, and a fancy new £300m stadium in the pipeline. Best of all, the thing about long winless streaks … well, winless streaks have to end sometime, don’t they?
Related:
Everton’s momentum gives Liverpool’s Jürgen Klopp his most testing derby yet | Andy Hunter
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