Liverpool moved to within nine points of claiming the Premier League title by coming from behind to beat AFC Bournemouth 2-1, while Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers missed a chance to put pressure on Chelsea for a top-four finish.
Sheffield United were the big winners in the race for a place in the Champions League next season with a 1-0 win over Norwich City to move up to sixth, while Arsenal moved to within five points of the top four by beating West Ham United 1-0.
Liverpool had suffered three defeats in four games in all competitions, including their first in the Premier League for 45 matches against Watford.
Photo: Reuters
Callum Wilson’s controversial early opener threatened another major upset, but all of Liverpool’s setbacks of late have come away from Anfield and they set an English top-flight record for 22 consecutive home league wins as two quickfire goals from Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane turned the game around.
The runaway league leaders still needed a goal-line clearance from James Milner to deny Ryan Fraser an equalizer.
“There’s nothing good in losing football games, but it makes you aware of how special it is to win football games. That’s what we had in the last 10 days or two weeks when we lost games,” Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said. “I was absolutely happy about the result, the three points and the performance because I knew it would be tricky for different reasons.”
The spread of COVID-19 could have a big impact on the Reds’ title celebrations in the weeks to come with the possibility of games being played behind closed doors, but the abandonment of the normal pre-match ritual of handshakes was the only disruption to the Premier League calendar this weekend.
Despite the coronavirus risk, there was no halt to players celebrating wildly with each other and Arsenal players piled on top of Alexandre Lacazette after a long video review of the Frenchman’s winner at Emirates Stadium.
Mesut Ozil was originally flagged offside as he latched onto Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s deflected shot and headed down for Lacazette to sweep home.
However, the goal was finally given after a delay of several minutes to move Arsenal to within five points of the top four.
“They deserved more because of the chances they created. This is football, sometimes you don’t get what you deserve,” Lacazette said.
Spurs halted a run of four straight defeats in all competitions with a 1-1 draw against Burnley to stay a point ahead of their north London rivals, despite Jose Mourinho following through on his threat to rest players ahead of tomorrow’s trip to play RB Leipzig in the Champions League.
FIFA on Friday blamed the empty seats during the FIFA World Cup match between South Korea and the Czech Republic in Guadalajara, Mexico, on fans who watched from the concourses. There were many visible empty spots at the 45,664-capacity Guadalajara Stadium, with sections in the middle of the stands showing many unoccupied spaces and with other empty seats scattered around the venue. The announced attendance was 44,985 — including FIFA president Gianni Infantino. “Official attendance figures reflect the number of tickets scanned and spectators present within the stadium footprint, rather than visual assessments of seating occupancy at any given moment
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About 100 people gathered at a bar in Taipei to watch the FIFA World Cup start in Mexico, despite the early hour of 3am yesterday. All seats had been reserved before the game started, said a clerk at the Brass Monkey, a bar in Taipei where customers can watch live sports broadcasts. The Group A clash between Mexico and South Africa drew supporters from multiple continents to the venue. For Misael Alanis, a Mexican student who has lived in Taiwan for two-and-a-half years, the atmosphere was just as important as the game itself. “There are a lot of Mexicans here and you can tell
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