Stoke 1 - 2 LiverpoolRoberto Firmino caps Liverpool’s rapid turnaround against Stoke City
Home team scorersJonathan Walters 44
Away team scorersPhillippe Coutinho 70
Roberto Firmino 72
In the end everything came together for Liverpool but this was a curious way to win three points, as Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino came off the bench to breathe fresh life into a team that had been sleepwalking towards defeat. On another day they would be called inspired substitutions and Jürgen Klopp would take the credit, although on this occasion it seemed more pertinent to ask why two players who were fit enough to be in the match-day squad were unable to make the starting XI.
From Liverpool’s point of view, they will come away having won an awkward game, showing character to come from behind and punish a team that are in danger of being dragged into a relegation scrap.
Coutinho hauled Liverpool level after Jonathan Walters had put Stoke ahead in the first half and Firmino completed the turnaround two minutes later with a goal of the highest quality.
It was just the response that Klopp was looking for after Wednesday’s draw at home against Bournemouth. The Liverpool manager picked a callow team here, giving the 17-year-old Ben Woodburn his first Premier League start and including Trent Alexander-Arnold, another teenager, yet both were withdrawn at the interval to make way for the two game-changers.
As for Stoke, they have now lost their past four league matches and have two critical games to come, at home to Hull and away to Swansea. They had only themselves to blame here with Charlie Adam and Saido Berahino guilty of failing to convert excellent second-half chances.
With Coutinho and Firmino on the bench, and Sadio Mané, Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson injured, it was hardly surprising that Liverpool looked disjointed in a scrappy first half that was riddled with mistakes from both teams. It was a game that was desperate for a goal and neither side looked like providing one for much of that opening 45 minutes.
Stoke stole the initiative just before the interval with a goal that left Klopp furious. The Liverpool manager felt that his side should have been awarded a penalty moments earlier when Erik Pieters, rather clumsily, caught Woodburn’s heels from behind. Mike Dean waved play on and the next time a Liverpool player touched the ball was when Simon Mignolet was picking it out of the back of his net.
Xherdan Shaqiri did the damage for Stoke, playing a simple give-and-go with Glen Johnson that allowed him to run in behind Nathaniel Clyne, who was slow to turn and track his man.
Shaqiri still had much to do but Ragnar Klavan, playing on the left of a three-man Liverpool defence, made life easy for his opponent by diving in and committing himself . Running towards the byline, Shaqiri had the presence of mind to look up and pick out Walters with a perfectly flighted cross that implored the striker to head home. From three yards out, the Republic of Ireland international made no mistake, leaving Liverpool to lament a perceived injustice and some terrible defending.
There had been little to get excited about up until that point. Marko Arnautovic drilled a low shot into Mignolet’s arms and volleyed another chance into the side-netting.
Liverpool created next to nothing in the first half. There was a brief moment when Woodburn looked like he could break through the middle as he shrugged off Joe Allen, who later pulled up with a hamstring injury, but the forward never had the pace.
Klopp’s changes at the interval were designed to reinvigorate Liverpool, yet his side were fortunate not to concede a second early in the second half. Georginio Wijnaldum’s wayward header from a Stoke corner gave Charlie Adam a golden chance to score but from six yards out the former Liverpool player shot straight at Mignolet.
Finally, the game started to open up as Liverpool began to attack with more conviction. Lee Grant, the Stoke goalkeeper, denied Firmino and Coutinho in the space of a few minutes before Dejan Lovren headed against the crossbar. In that sense the warnings were there for Stoke, yet they went unheeded.
Coutinho swept the ball home from 12 yards to level after a poor defensive header by Pieters and two minutes later Firmino, running on to Wijnaldum’s long pass, thumped a spectacular 20-yard shot over the head of Grant.
Stoke should have equalised immediately but Mignolet got across his line to make a superb save to keep out Berahino’s effort.
Guardian