David Wagner planted a little kiss on Jürgen Klopp’s cheek as the best friends embraced on the final whistle. For the Liverpool manager, a routine win at the end of a trying week meant so much more. “Big relief,” he sighed. “The pressure was there, no doubt about it. I could hear it.”
Discontent was audible around Anfield at the end of a first half that contained the lingering after-effects of that demoralising defeat at Tottenham Hotspur, stubborn opponents and a missed penalty by Mohamed Salah. A few boos accompanied Liverpool’s players down the tunnel. They reappeared with renewed energy and purpose and, though indebted to the visiting captain, Tommy Smith, for the crucial breakthrough, there was no denying the merit of Liverpool’s victory or its importance to Klopp. Daniel Sturridge, Roberto Firmino and Georginio Wijnaldum scored the second-half goals that lifted Liverpool’s anxieties.
“We had not the best week as you can imagine and we take the situation very seriously,” the Liverpool manager said. “Tottenham was the worst game we have played this season, you cannot ignore it, and we were a bit stiff, not fluent and Huddersfield’s style was rather defensive, I would say. It was not too easy to fix it at half-time but we had more players between the decisive lines in the second half and made it more difficult for Huddersfield to defend. We forced the situation for the first goal. The second goal felt like Christmas.” The first half had felt like purgatory.
An initially disjointed Liverpool display was perhaps to be expected. Philippe Coutinho joined Sadio Mané on the sidelines with an adductor problem, denying Klopp much-needed invention against a Huddersfield team content to have 10 men behind the ball. Dejan Lovren survived the axe despite his calamitous performance against Spurs only to injure his groin in the warm-up. Even the minute’s silence for Remembrance Sunday did not proceed as planned.
Alberto Moreno’s first contribution was to concede a corner attempting an overhead kick deep inside his own half. It threatened to be one of those days. Liverpool threatened little themselves until presented with a needless penalty shortly before the break. Kevin Friend spotted a pull on Firmino’s shirt by Smith as the pair jostled for a James Milner free-kick. No one inside Anfield seemed aware of the offence until the referee showed a yellow card to the Huddersfield captain and pointed to the spot.
Salah took the penalty instead of Milner, presumably on the basis of his World Cup qualifying heroics for Egypt, but struck it straight at Jonas Lossl. Jordan Henderson drove the follow-up against a post. It was Liverpool’s third consecutive penalty miss at Anfield, all by different takers. “I have no idea why he whistled,” Wagner said of Friend. “If it was for holding then we have to have five or six penalties in every game.”
Liverpool, to their credit, swiftly made an irrelevance of the first half. Klopp’s side were given a significant assist towards victory by another unforced error by Smith. The right-back was under minimal pressure as he attempted to cut out an aimless punt from Moreno but succeeded only in steering a wayward header across his own penalty area. Sturridge had sensed the slip and pounced in style, beating Lossl to the loose ball and lifting a nonchalant finish over the exposed keeper.
Sturridge was denied a second by a superb intervention from Mathias Jorgensen, who managed to divert Firmino’s low cross out for a corner after Henderson had released the Brazilian with another fine ball from deep. The reprieve was fleeting for Huddersfield. From the resulting Milner corner Firmino escaped his marker, Aaron Mooy, and planted an unstoppable header beyond Lossl from inside the six-yard box.
Salah and Joël Matip both went close to scoring a third as Liverpool ultimately cruised to a much-needed win. It fell to Wijnaldum to deliver the final flourish, collecting Salah’s pass inside the penalty area and lashing the ball into the roof of the net as four defenders backed off.
“Until the first goal we had defended very well and neutralised them,” the Huddersfield manager said, reflecting on defeat a week after beating Manchester United. “I haven’t seen Anfield as quiet as that for a long time. But after we conceded the first goal, when we gave the assist, they showed their offensive power. In the last two games we have learned that we are able to defend against the big guns and you can get points against the big guns if you get everything right. If not, they will punish you.”
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