Anfield witnessed Florian Wirtz’s moment of sheer genius as he scored what many believed to be his first ever Premier League goal, although the record books show it was an own goal by Nordi Mukiele, having rescued a point for Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool in the dying embers of the match.
With nine minutes left on the clock, the German international, woefully out of form, dazzled his way through the outfield nine of the opposition and scored, albeit due to a deflection, and justified the relief felt by the Liverpool manager, which he earned as a result of having, for the first time ever in his Liverpool career, left Mohamed Salah out of his starting eleven for two league games in a row.
With only 23 minutes to go, Sunderland supporters were momentarily on cloud 9, as the Sunderland bench and away goers were ecstatic to witness a, 42 years in the making, W for the away side, after Chemsdine Talbi, a goal giver to the adoration of Phillips, the celebrated goal giver, banged in a long goal.
Wirtz outperformed almost everyone on his side and clinched a win for Liverpool away to West Ham the week before, a fact which mirrored Liverpool’s hype and spending such in excess of 100 million for a 22-year-old to be, in a time where they were, in stark contrast with the remaining 19 Premier League signings, bound to be Liverpool’s 250 million pound spending, for the summer window.
In comparison to British record signing Alexander Isak who is still trying to find his footing after scoring a mis hit that flew to the Anfield Rd stand and received what the fans thought were mocking cheers, Isak has not received consistent playing time he was brought to the club to eventually take the mantle of Salah who is currently aging and is a former Newcastle striker and has not scored his goals.
Salah also did not have much impact from the bench before he came on for half time and will be heading for the Africa Cup of Nations within 10 days time which is rather convenient for Slot as he will not have to deal with the questions he will have to figure out how to deal with Salah as he is the clubs most important asset.
Sunderland had the majority of the chances to begin with in the game with the best being Trai Hume’s attempt which slipped through Alisson’s fingers and hit the crossbar but until the 1st half was on the verge of concluding Liverpool had not tested the goalkeeper Robin Roefs with Dominik Szoboszlai’s attempt being the best and having to be parried away before Alexis Mac Allister hit the post with a header.
Salah’s positive influence on the game was impeded by Joe Gomez who lost the defensive cover Szoboszlai had been providing as he was busy fouling Reinildo Mandava which resulted in him being given the yellow card.
Sunderland came close to making it a two-goal cushion when Omar Alderete had a header that found the outside of the post, a close range miss, and Liverpool’s defending got worse with each passing moment. Ibrahima Konaté mistimed a header, after which Virgil van Dijk passed to Enzo Le Fée directly, and then Talbi’s spinning shot deflected off the Dutch centre-back and past Alisson after receiving a slight inswing.
Wirtz did get the goal that brought Liverpool level, and a last-ditch goal line clearance was needed from the hosts to silence Wilson Isidor after Federico Chiesa defensive blunder in the dying embers of the game.