Liverpool substitutes come back in Southampton and put the Premier red hot

Straight

Matip scores 1-2 at Southampton. GLYN KIRK (AFP)

Liverpool's substitute team traveled to the English Channel coast, conceded first at Southampton, put on a display of

and where anguish threatened it, it sowed order and even beauty.

He came from behind, defended 1-2, and secured what is probably the most exciting end of the century in the Premier League.

Just one point behind Manchester City, the Mersey club arranged a dramatic outcome to the duel between the two teams that have set the trend in European football for years.

It will be next Sunday, at 5:00 p.m. in Continental Europe, when City take on Aston Villa at the Etihad and Liverpool take on Wolverhampton at Anfield, and the knot that Guardiola and Klopp have jealously tied will finally be broken.

SOUSouthampton

one

McCarthy, Kyle Walker-Peters, Mohammed Salisu, Nathan Redmond, Jack Stephens, Lyanco, Ward-Prowse, Nathan Tella (Armstrong, min. 70), Mohammed Elyounoussi, Ibrahima Diallo (Oriol Romeu, min. 70) and Armando Broja (Che Adams, minute 81)

LIV Liverpool

two

Alisson, Joe Gomez (Henderson, min. 45), Ibrahima Konate, Konstantinos Tsimikas, Matip, Milner, Harvey Elliot (Divock Origi, min. 64), Curtis Jones, Roberto Firmino (Naby Keita, min. 82), Diogo Jota and Minamino

Goals

1-0 min.

12: Nathan Redmond.

1-1 min.

26: Minamino.

1-2 minutes

66: Matip.

Referee

Martin Atkinson

Yellow cards Nathan Tella (min. 68) and Jack Stephens (min. 73)

The fans owe much of this outcome to the Liverpool B team.

Without Alexander-Arnold, without Robertson, without Van Dijk or Firmino, without Thiago, without Keita and without Mané or Salah, the line-up with which they jumped to play the league recalled the deep scar that the conquered Cup final left on their squad on penalties just three days earlier.

With the players exhausted, Jürgen Klopp had no choice but to dig into the bottom of his bag of pieces.

He found a pile of rust, several kilos of will, and a gold nugget on the person of Roberto Firmino.

The path has gotten steeper for Liverpool since they left the dressing room tunnel at St. Mary's Stadium.

His rival owed nothing more than an afternoon of entertainment to his fans and the pressure fell on the pursuer, as brave as he was exposed to suffering.

The hardships came before the quarter of an hour when Lyuanko stole a ball at the regulatory borders and created a counterattack that caught all of his opponents in unknown territory.

Nathan Redmond exploited the disorder with a shot from outside the area that caught Sancho offside and Alisson far from the parabola.

The 1-0 silenced the thousands of visiting fans huddled in the back of the stadium and forced Liverpool to recover without losing their cool with just the right amount of talent to manage the crisis.

Driven to heroism against an opponent buried in a trench with three centre-backs and four midfielders at their service, the Liverpool players clung to whatever tools were closest to hand.

First, the Swiss Army knife provided by Klopp's training, second, James Millner's exemplary courage to sustain pressure without having the necessary flexibility so that the task does not entail an ordeal, and third, Firmino's inventiveness.

Thanks to the inexhaustible lucidity of the Brazilian striker, the team came together and regained their place in the match.

Liverpool never abandoned the organized occupation of the opposite field.

He finished the first half with 12 shots in favor of just one for Southampton after a harassment that, due to lack of talent, he carried out with the fundamentals that have made this team a steamroller.

Pressure, supports and unchecks at will, dissipate the weaknesses of individuals like Joe Gómez, Elliot or Jones and raise the category of the group.

Faced with the threat of disaster, the players did what Klopp instilled in them to the point of obsession: every time they lost a ball, they took a step forward, and every time they recovered it, they took two more.

There were never empty lanes in Liverpool's attack.

It was thanks to two of these indefatigable velocipedes (Jota who assisted and Minamino who finished off) that the visiting team scored the tie after half an hour,

Perhaps to provide mental resources where nervousness could turn on, at halftime Klopp replaced Gómez with Henderson.

Liverpool redoubled their attack honoring the work of their manager, who declared on Monday that the club has no money to bid for Mbappe.

Without figures, without men excessively gifted to shine, based on generosity in efforts, applying principles of good play, the team found spaces for its players to receive the ball with room to think and decide correctly.

There were innumerable occasions that he had, mainly through medium distance shots from Firmino, Jota or Millner.

The winning goal came somewhat randomly.

At the exit of a corner, Elyounoussi cleared and Matip headed with a foreshortening.

The ball grazed Walker-Peters and flew through the crossbar.

Liverpool did not stop ruling the game until the final minutes, when fatigue and the risk of losing the three points weighed on the body and mind of the players.

They survived buoyed by the massive choir singing

and by the closet-profile French center-back whose name inspired one of the traveling banners at St. Mary's:

.

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