Ragnar Klavan made himself the hero for Liverpool on New Year’s Day as he grabbed the winning goal against Burnley.
The visitors to Turf Moor won 2-1 after a dramatic second half.
Jurgen Klopp’s dreadful record in the month of January – in which he had won just four of 18 games as Liverpool boss prior to today – looked set to continue.
The Merseysiders went ahead after Sadio Mane’s thunderous strike on the hour mark. That goal livened up what had been a terribly boring encounter in which both Mohamed Salah and Philippe Coutinho were absent for the visitors.
Johan Gudmundsson however appeared to have grabbed a point for Burnley when he headed in at the back post in the 87th minute.
But in the third minute of injury time a free-kick from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was headed goal-bound by Dejan Lovren. It had already beaten goalkeeper Nick Pope but Klavan made sure by poaching the goal from just a yard out.
Thankfully for him he was just onside and avoided the recent fate of Paul Pogba who denied his side a goal against Southampton.
In scoring, Klavan made some Premier League history.
So close was it to the line, Klavan wasn’t even sure it was his goal.
‘It was important – is it true that it is my goal?! Oh good. It was on the line so I wasn’t sure,’ he said.
‘It is always hard here, that’s a massive performance. It was a crazy game.’
The win moved Liverpool level with Manchester United prior to the Red Devils’ game with Everton.
MORE : Philippe Coutinho included in Liverpool’s 2018 calendar amid Barcelona transfer links
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