Leicester City scored three goals in an unbelievable seven minutes of football to beat the Champions Liverpool and move into second place.
Wow! Hopefully you’re reading this after getting your breath back. What a game. A match dominated by Liverpool, and the Foxes were perfectly happy to just stay in the game. Although Jamie Vardy had a number of chances, the Champions looked imperious and took a deserved lead thanks to a cool finish from Mo Salah after some clever footwork from Roberto Firmino.
But the game turned with 15 minutes left as Harvey Barnes was tripped outside the area according to VAR, and the resulting free kick found its way in and then another VAR check deemed Firmino’s foot to be playing everyone onside, and from then on it was chaos.
Another Allison mistake gave Vardy an open goal, despite him being 30 yards from goal, and Barnes capped off a fine performance, in front of a watching Gareth Southgate, with a lovely finish after Klopp’s men just lost the plot.
An important win for Brendan Rodgers’ men, one that was crucial in the race for the top four, although you won’t hear that from the ‘big six media’. By the way, this season will mean that the ‘big six’ won’t have finished in the top six in six of the last 10 seasons.
With such a confusing game, who excelled in the player ratings?
Kasper Schmeichel- 7
A weird game from the captain today. It was his 100th successive game today and he made a couple of crucial saves to showcase why he is a mainstay in this side. However, on the ball he was one of the reasons why the Foxes struggled so much in the first half, as his passes were too often intercepted and won back by Liverpool high up the pitch.
Daniel Amartey- 5
His inclusion shocked a few and his performance didn’t justify the surprise. Whilst Mane was quiet on the left- helped by Ndidi and co-, too often Amartey was a liability on the ball and allowed Liverpool to sustain pressure in the first half.
Jonny Evans- 6
It looked for all the money as though he would have been replaced at the break as Evans was moving far from freely, but he soldiered on somehow and put in a fine performance, giving nothing away as all the attacks were coming from out wide.
Caglar Soyuncu- 6
The centre-back partnership is back and looking imperious. Soyuncu was superb today, and in the first half an hour was one of the busiest players.
Ricardo Pereira- 6
Salah did have the better of him in the first half; as time and time again that long ball was always on and with a bit more luck Salah could have had a couple more. His attacking play was restricted by the game plan and Liverpool to an extent, but looked a lot more at ease in the second half when the intensity dropped off. A good game in an unfamiliar position.
Wilfred Ndidi- 9 MOTM
If it wasn’t for this man, Leicester City would have lost this game. In that first half he was just immense, recovering so many balls and breaking down dangerous attacks that without him would have developed into key chances. He got a 9 today to just exaggerate how much better how was than everyone else on the pitch. It was a sumptuous pass for the Harvey Barnes goal as well which was good to see.
Youri Tielemans- 6
Physically the Belgian performed very well but surprisingly it was his passes that were poor today. It was his bad pass that ultimately led to the opener from Salah and there were too many lumped up balls to opposition players.
Marc Albrighton- 5
I could have been harsher because Albrighton was dreadful today. It got to the point where you were praying he wouldn’t be given the ball, as he gave away the ball too often, mainly thanks to his classic Vardy long balls that were aimless. However, his defensive play helped out Amartey a lot and got the team through that tricky first half.
Harvey Barnes- 7
The youngster is now deadly in one on one situations, which 12 months ago were a real problem of his. It was a good battle with Alexander-Arnold which ebbed and flowed- unlike the Reece James one a few games ago-. His directness is such an asset to this side, and it was his run that won the foul for the equaliser that turned the game on its head.
James Maddison- 5
Maddison struggled to get involved in the game today and was relying on little moments. He needs to either improve or get off corners, but it was a wonderful fizzing free kick which topped up his goal contributions to 13 in his last 15. I take it Southgate has different stats at his disposal.
Jamie Vardy- 6
The veteran striker could have had a hat trick today. He had three chances, one of which hit the bar, in the first half, however, as always, he was always going to get one more chance even it was the easiest goal he will ever score. The threat in behind was always there, despite the Foxes not utilising as much as they could of. A good performance.
Substitutes:
Ayoze Perez, Papy Mendy and Hamza Choudhury- 5
All of them were on for less than 10 minutes and had nothing to do but waste time. Perez came off with another knock, hopefully it’s not too serious.