Football: Liverpool tame Wolves to climb into top six
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Liverpool's Mohamed Salah celebrates scoring their second goal.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON – Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah scored second-half goals as Liverpool battled to a 2-0 Premier League home win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday, with “a big fight” with Manchester United looming on the horizon on Sunday.
With their latest victory, the Reds climbed into sixth spot in the table on 39 points, ahead of Fulham on goal difference. They are six points behind fourth-placed Tottenham with a game in hand.
But the home side were forced to work hard on a rainy night at Anfield. “We controlled the game without creating massively, but we found our rhythm back,” said Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, after his side claimed their third win in an unbeaten four-game Premier League run.
Despite the first effort on goal, the visitors suffered an early blow when left-back Hugo Bueno went down clutching his hamstring midway through the first half. He was replaced by Rayan Ait-Nouri.
The best chances of the opening 45 minutes fell to Liverpool’s teen midfielder Harvey Elliott, who steered a header just wide in the 39th minute and followed that up with a bouncing stoppage-time shot that was turned away for a corner.
Van Dijk finally broke the deadlock in the 73rd minute, forcing a save with his initial header from a set piece, before Diogo Jota put the rebound back across the goal for the Dutchman to head home from close range.
Four minutes later, Salah used his right thigh to steer home a cross from Kostas Tsimikas to double his side’s advantage and take the wind out of the visitors’ sails as Liverpool cruised to victory, much to the delight of the home fans.
“You have to break an opponent down step by step, it’s not often they make mistakes and you get easy goals in the 420 or something games I’ve had here,” Klopp said.
His side now face a resurgent United, who are 10 points ahead of Liverpool in third spot, at Anfield. “It’s a big game anyway, against a team in form. We have to be ready, and we will give them a big fight,” the German said.
Virgil van Dijk scores Liverpool’s first goal against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Meanwhile, Brentford striker Ivan Toney has requested England’s Football Association (FA) conduct a leak inquiry following British media reports about a confidential hearing into his alleged breaches of betting rules and the possible ban he faces.
The Daily Mail on Tuesday reported that Toney could face a lengthy ban, after he pleaded guilty to many of the 262 charges issued by the FA in December but denied others.
Toney said on Instagram on Wednesday: “It is especially disturbing for me to read that the FA is saying I shall be banned from football for six months before there has even been a hearing. It does make me worried about the process.”
The FA declined to comment. REUTERS
