Liverpool have endured a frustrating night so far against Everton in the Merseyside derby after a goalless opening 45 minutes. The best chance fell to the visitors when Beto went clean through, but he could only hit the post. The Toffees should probably have been down to ten men by that point, with James Tarkowski fortunate to avoid a red card for a wild lunge on Alexis Mac Allister.
Victory tonight for Arne Slot’s side and they will go 12 points clear of Arsenal with eight matches to play, in what has increasingly turned into a procession of a title race. Much of the talk at Liverpool over the international break was over Trent Alexander-Arnold’s future and a possible summer move to Real Madrid – Slot will be keen to get the focus back to matters on the pitch. The Englishman is out injured, and Slot has opted to start Curtis Jones at right-back in a surprise move.
A derby clash is the perfect opportunity to do so, though it comes only six weeks after a frustrating trip to Goodison Park when Tarkowski delivered a stunning 98th-minute equaliser. The Toffees are unbeaten in nine Premier League matches, but they have won just once at Anfield since 1999. Follow all the action with Standard Sport’s LIVE blog below!
81 mins: Diaz cuts inside onto his right foot in the box, low strike is blocked by Tarkowski.
Big appeals for handball as it bobbles around in the area, referee waves away the appeals. VAR quickly checks, no penalty there.
80 mins: Liverpool doing a good job of ticking away the seconds, controlling possession and taking their time over every throw-in.
Toffees struggling to get a kick, let alone a chance.
78 mins: Three more changes for Everton. Match is very stop-start now.
Broja, Young and Iroegbunam are on to replace Beto, Garner and Alcaraz.
75 mins: Jota’s night is over – job done for him.
Nunez on. It’s rarely boring with him, for better or worse.
72 mins: Not great from Konate and it allows Everton the chance to get the defenders up for a corner.
Garner swings it in, Kelleher with a bit of a flap… behind for another one.
It will be Garner to take this one too, from the opposite side. Mac Allister doing a fair wrestling job on Tarkowski, gets away with it.
69 mins: Ndiaye on for Everton to replace Harrison.
That might be as close as the Toffees come to ‘going for it’ in these final 20 minutes or so.
67 mins: Salah has a run at Mykolenko, who hooks the ball out of play for a corner.
Beto with the header at the near post, Mac Allister will get a second chance to whip the corner in. Liverpool into double figures for these now.
Again Everton comfortably deal with it.
64 mins: Jota screams at the linesman as a couple of decisions go against him.
Yellow card for dissent, which he responds to with a sarcastic clap and more words at the officials.
62 mins: Pickford still seems to be wasting time whenever he has the ball in his hands.
Just as strange is the Liverpool fans booing and demanding he hurries up. Let him hold it for 30 minutes if he wants…
59 mins: Van Dijk doing his best to try and get Beto sent off, with the striker already on a yellow card.
Liverpool captain hasn’t particularly enjoyed that battle tonight, he’s looked unusually rattled.
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