Losses for Liverpool are about as rare as penalty misses by Mohamed Salah, but both happened on Tuesday and, even at the halfway stage of the season, it could cost Juergen Klopp’s team the Premier League title.
Liverpool were beaten 1-0 by a patched-up Leicester City and could find themselves nine points behind Manchester City heading into the new year, with the leaders to play Brentford early this morning Taiwan time.
It is a cushion that might prove to be insurmountable, given that City are on a nine-match winning streak in the league and are looking unstoppable, scoring 17 goals in their past three victories.
Photo: AP
Liverpool also will soon be without their two star forwards, Salah and Sadio Mane, who are heading to the Africa Cup of Nations next week. They were granted permission to delay joining up with their national teams ahead of the tournament so they could play for Liverpool over the festive period, but they could not make the difference at the King Power Stadium.
Salah won a penalty, but his weak effort was saved by Kasper Schmeichel in the 16th minute, thereby failing to convert a spot-kick for the first time in 16 attempts.
His previous penalty miss was against Huddersfield Town in October 2017.
Photo: AP
Liverpool ultimately slumped to only their second loss in all competitions this season when substitute Ademola Lookman found space between Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk, and shot inside the near post in the 59th minute.
“There were too many performances below normal level,” Klopp said. “So often these boys give me the opportunity to say: ‘Wow, what a game.’ Tonight it’s: ‘Wow,’ but in completely the other way.”
Elsewhere, Tottenham Hotspur were denied victory against 10-man Southampton after having two second-half goals ruled out in a 1-1 draw, while Norwich City are to end the year in last place in the league after a 0-3 loss to Crystal Palace and Watford lost 1-4 to West Ham United.
The 20th round was reduced to seven fixtures when the match between Everton and Newcastle United was postponed because of COVID-19 cases and injuries in the Newcastle squad.
The games between Arsenal and Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leeds United and Aston Villa had previously been called off.
BOUNCE BACK: Curry scored 46 points in the Warriors’ victory over the Spurs, after ‘everybody stepped up’ following Tuesday’s blowout loss to Oklahoma City Nikola Jokic scoring 50 or more points had never been enough for the Denver Nuggets to win — until now. Jokic on Wednesday night tied the highest-scoring performance in the NBA this season with 55 points, as the Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Clippers 130-116 for their sixth straight victory. The Nuggets were 0-4 in his previous 50-point outbursts. “It’s a good feeling,” the three-time NBA Most Valuable Player said. He equaled Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 55 in a double-overtime game at the Indiana Pacers on Oct. 23. Jokic has been on a roll during Denver’s winning streak. He is the
TIGHT GAME: The Detroit Pistons, the NBA’s second-best team, barely outlasted the Washington Wizards, who fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss Cade Cunningham’s triple double, Daniss Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer and Javonte Green’s overtime dunk lifted Detroit past Washington 137-135 on Monday, stretching the Pistons’ win streak to seven games. In an unexpected thriller, the NBA’s second-best team barely outlasted a Wizards club that fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss. “We knew how big this game was for us,” Jenkins said. “We wasn’t going to let nothing stop us from getting this W.” Cunningham made 14-of-45 shots and 16-of-18 free throws for a career-high 46 points, and added 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals and two
The tri-nation Twenty20 international series featuring hosts Pakistan, as well as Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, is to be played entirely in Rawalpindi from Tuesday next week, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said yesterday, after this week’s suicide bombing in the capital, Islamabad. The change came after at least eight Sri Lankan players asked to leave over security fears following Tuesday’s bombing that killed 12 people and wounded 27. Their country’s cricket board issued a stern directive to the team to stay put or face consequences. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said the decision to stay was taken after “close consultations” with hosts Pakistan who
LIKE FINE WINE: Thirty-eight-year-old Djokovic won his 101st title of his career in Athens, becoming the oldest tournament winner since Ken Roswell, 44, in 1977 Elena Rybakina on Saturday clinched her biggest title since Wimbledon in 2022, defeating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6 (7/0) at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. The world No. 6 put on yet another serving masterclass and was at her returning best as she became the first Kazakh and the first player representing an Asian country to lift the WTA Finals singles trophy. Having gone 3-0 in round-robin play, Rybakina earned a record US$5.235 million and would finish the year ranked No. 5 in the world. “It’s been an incredible week, I honestly didn’t expect any result, and to go so far,
RSS