United and Liverpool grab wins
Print Edition
Liverpool defender Ragnar Klavan’s 94th-minute header snatched a 2-1 victory at Burnley on Monday as the visitors coped without the injured Mohamed Salah and Philippe Coutinho and made up ground on their rivals near the top of the Premier League.
With Chelsea and table-topping Manchester City playing later in the week, Liverpool registered its second win in 48 hours after the Estonian popped up with his first league goal.
On the blue half of Merseyside, Manchester United climbed back up to second in the table after second-half goals by Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard earned a 2-0 victory at Everton — its first win in five games in all competitions.
Stoke City’s Mark Hughes is under more pressure after his side’s 1-0 home defeat by Newcastle United, Leicester City beat Huddersfield Town 3-0 while Brighton & Hove Albion shared the points with Bournemouth in a pulsating 2-2 south-coast derby.
All the managers rotated players to deal with a busy festive period and Liverpool boss Juergen Klopp made seven changes, including giving Adam Lallana his first start this season, against a Burnley side who have often troubled the Merseysiders.
The absence of Coutinho will prompt inevitable speculation about the his future on the day the transfer window opened although Klopp said the Brazilian had a thigh injury.
With Liverpool’s top scorer Salah also ruled out with a groin strain and Firmino on the bench, Sadio Mane was the only member of the ‘Fab Four’ to start.
He opened the scoring with a superb strike after 61 minutes, picking up the ball with his back to goal and spinning to fire an unstoppable left-foot shot into the corner.
Burnley thought it had salvaged a point when Berg Gudmundsson equalized in the 87th but Klavan secured a win that moved Liverpool to 44 points, a point behind Chelsea.
With no Romelu Lukaku in the United side, Jose Mourinho’s men were struggling to break down an Everton side which has become much more resolute under new manager Sam Allardyce.
However, Paul Pogba unlocked the Everton defence with a pinpoint pass into the feet of Martial, who controlled the ball brilliantly before curling it home in the 57th minute. Jesse Lingard’s clinching strike late on was equally well executed.
“We found a way to play without a player like Lukaku or Zlatan (Ibrahimovic) with more dynamism and freedom,” Mourinho said. “I think we played very well, second half better than the first.”
United’s victory took it to 47 points from 22 games behind local rival City, which leads the standings on 59.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
