Liverpool 3 Sheff Utd 1: Reds survive scare against bottom-dwellers before Mac Allister stunner keeps title bid on track
WHERE’S Andy Gray when you need him? He would have been in his “what a hit son” element at Anfield.
It is nearly two decades since Gray uttered his most famous sentence when Steven Gerrard thumped the wonder goal against Olympiacos that saved Liverpool’s Euro dream.
Few have come close since, and none have had such a devastating impact as that thunderbolt which ended with Champions League glory in Istanbul.
Yet the net-busting rocket from Alexis Mac Allister to get the Reds back in front just when their title dream was slipping away certainly did.
The 20-yard powerblast rescued a game they should have strolled, but were in serious danger of blowing against the Premier League’s basement boys to boot.
Forget Cody Gakpo’s 88th minute header. That made things look a whole lot easier than they were for such a huge chunk of the ultimate squeaky bum second half.
It was the jaw-dropping strike which nearly took the roof off the Kop which was the real difference.
Jurgen Klopp knew it, Mac Allister’s team mates knew it… the whole of Anfield knew it. So, too, did everyone of a Manchester City and Arsenal persuasion.
Conor Bradley’s bolt-from-the-blue own goal looked destined to give Sheffield United the unlikeliest point of their lives, and hand Liverpool’s title rivals a dare-not-dream shot in the arm.
Bradley had turned Gustavo Hamer’s innocuous and harmless header across the Kop box beyond his own keeper, and a game the Reds looked certain to romp had suddenly become an embarrassing cock-up.
Then suddenly, with panic aplenty in every corner of this most famous of arenas, the ball dropped to Mac Allister lurking on the edge of a packed penalty area.
The Argentine midfielder will never strike a sweeter ball than the thumping drive which flew past Ivo Grbic and into the top corner.
They have witnessed some wild celebrations here over the years. They have enjoyed some never-to-be-forgotten European nights.
The second Mac Allister’s rocket rippled the net – nearly took it from its moorings more like – will live as long in the memory as any of them.
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Because up to that point it was seriously threatening to become an evening they looked back on for all the wrong reasons.
Quite how it had come to that, only Liverpool will know, to be honest. They may have needed a freak goal to go ahead, but until Hamer and Bradley’s unlikely combo, it was a lead they never came close to losing.
A goal that will give Blades keeper Grbic plenty of horror moments of his own, too – and totally out of nowhere.
When Jack Robinson rolled a ball back to him from just inside his own half, there wasn’t even a hint of danger.
Sure, Darwin Nunez set off to close him down, but the Uruguayan striker’s gallop was more token than top speed.
Maybe that was the problem. If the Croatian keeper had been hurried into a slash downfield, the chances are he’d have saved his blushes.
Yet he dithered and dawdled until eventually Nunez was upon him, and you can guess the rest.
The Reds forward actually had his back to the ball when Grbic got rid, and couldn’t believe his luck as it struck him and rolled apologetically into the empty net.
Hardly one for any Goal of the Season compilation, but when you’re chasing the title, as priceless as a 30-yard screamer.
On the touchline, Blades boss Chris Wilder spun on his heels and let out the most helpless and heartfelt of sighs.
You know what they say about everything going against you when you’re down. And with a combination of luck and laziness like that, it’s only a matter of time before they are.
From then on it was surely a case of how many. The Blades cleared it, Liverpool attacked. But ominously they kept wasting the openings.
And when the lead is a single goal, there is always some hope, however faint and flickering. And as long as the Blades were in touching distance, they had a prayer.
One that was rewarded 12 minutes after the break when the Blades took a puncher’s chance swing and caught the Reds squarely on the chin.
Hamer set things rolling with a marvellous ball swung to James McAtee, on loan from Manchester City, on the right flank and ten yards in the opposition half.
His delivery – a looping, swirling cross beyond the far post – was even more impressive, with Liverpool suddenly woefully short of numbers.
Hamer leapt to head across goal, Bradley stuck out a leg and it bobbled between Caoimhin Kelleher.
Suddenly it was all square. Suddenly the title was drifting away. Suddenly Mac Allister appeared from nowhere like a caped crusader to save the day.
What a hit son indeed. Gakpo’s header may have given a bit of closing stages breathing space, but that was the moment it all changed again. Next stop Old Trafford…