Liverpool edge past Southampton to keep Champions League qualification hopes alive

An uninspiring and unconvincing win for Liverpool, which could easily have ended up like Liverpool’s last two games against Leeds and Newcastle, where early leads were not capitalised on, chances were missed, and the opponents scored late equalisers to deny important victories.

Thus, after having Diogo Jota – starting ahead of Roberto Firmino – and Mo Salah – who had one of those frustrating games in which he seemed more concerned with personal rather than team glory, shooting where a pass was the better option – squander good openings, and one minute after Alisson Becker made a point-blank save against Che Adams, Sadio Mané got on the end of a chip from Salah to nod past the Southampton keeper from a yard out and give Liverpool the lead on 31 minutes.

In the second half, Liverpool created one or two more chances, but were never dominant and the second goal never looked like coming. Indeed, with a quarter of the game to go, Southampton began to look threatening and Alisson had to make another one-on-one save with Adams, though the keeper nearly spoiled a man-of-the-match performance when he gave the ball away, again to Adams, on the edge of the area but recovered smartly to save a weak finish that saw the Southhampton striker get the hook.

It wasn’t until the 90th minute that Liverpool nerves were settled, when Thiago Alcantara, fed by substitute Firmino, passed the ball with curl from outside the box into the corner of the Southampton net, beyond the despairing hand of Frazer Foster. This was Thiago’s first goal for the Reds since his move from Bayern Munich.

The three points puts Liverpool up to sixth place, six points behind fourth placed Leicester but the Reds have one game in hand. 

Leicester suffered a shock 4-2 defeat to Newcastle on Friday, which makes them the likelier target for Liverpool to overtake. Chelsea beat Manchester City 2-1 at the Etihad to go third and their form looks too good for them to fall out of the Champions League places. 

If Liverpool win their next game – the rescheduled tie against Manchester United on Thursday – then they’ll be three points behind Leicester, whose tricky run-in involves games against Chelsea, Manchester United and Spurs.

Manchester United have found a rich seam of form and with their potent strike force will go into the biggest game in English football as favourites.