Darwin Nunez scored a goal and won a penalty for another after surviving a Var Red Card summary while Liverpool came from behind to defeat Southampton 3-1 in Anfield and extend their superiority at the top of the table at 16 points.
Nunez aimed at a kick in Kyle Walker-Peters at the time of the first half injury, but only a yellow card was shown by Judge Lewis Smith, referring only to his sixth Premier League game, before Derek Eaton decides that there was no clear and visible mistake.
Southampton was excellent during the first 45 minutes and were found forward at the time of Nunez’s indexation, as Will Smallbone had shocked Anfield’s moments earlier by entering one step after a mixture between Alisson and Virgil Van Dijk.
Anydo’s complaint that Southampton may have had in the interval on the constant involvement of Nunez would have been complicated when he withdrew the Reds level six minutes in the second half, entering the house after Luis Diaz had isolated Kyle Walker-Peters outside.
Liverpool had flown from the blocks from the interval after the semi -presentation of Andrew Robertson, Alexis Mac Allister and Harvey Elliott.
But Southampton were as much masters of their fall, and less than two minutes later gave the Reds the opportunity to turn the game into her head when smalbone cramply crashed the nunes in his box.
Mo Salah did not need a second invitation to net his 26th goal in 29 Premier League matches this season, before making it 27 with another from the country late, following Yukinari Sugawara’s handball.
This put the shine in a victory that sent Liverpool 16 clear points to the top of the table – with Southampton let them ask what could have been Nunez to have walked.
Dean: Nunez Yellow the right decision
Former Premier League judge Mike Dean on Saturday of football:
“I think the right decision is yellow. You see it from another angle and it’s knee in the knee.
“From the normal TV corner, it seems he has completely started it – and he doesn’t.”
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Mike Dean discusses why he believes Southampton’s intention against Liverpool was offside and if Darwin Nunez would be fortunate to escape a red.
Slot: The performance of the first half was a warning sign for PSG in the second match
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Liverpool coach chief Arne Slot was disappointed with his team’s performance, but was nevertheless pleased that they took all three points with an unconvincing 3-1 victory over Lower Southampton.
Liverpool head Slot:
“It was a very poor performance in the first half. Maybe if you see the highlights, you might think we had three or four chances, but we weren’t in the game at all and it was not a surprise that we accepted a goal.
“The first half was a warning sign. We hope. We have already experienced, in Paris, that the intensity, the way they play – it was too high for us that night. If I compare it to the intensity we played with today, it is not one, two, four, four steps, is probably six, seven or eight towards PSG intensity.
“We found a way to win it in the second half. I tried everything before the match, in the media, in my meetings to make it clear how difficult it would be a game and how to play at a different intensity level than we against PSG.
“Maybe to get used to that level of intensity we will experience again. But after all, I had to make some difficult decisions in half the time to create a certain anger with the players. Those who came were very important to us.”
