LIVERPOOL, England — Alisson Becker buried his head in his hands. With just five minutes of normal time remaining at Anfield, the Liverpool goalkeeper’s frustration was evident as the ball bounced off teammate Darwin Núñez and wide of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ net, giving them a goal kick.
Liverpool were leading the Premier League encounter, but only barely. Matheus Cunha’s curling finish had halved the deficit for the visitors after first-half goals from Luis Díaz and Mohamed Salah had seemingly put Arne Slot’s side in firm control of a game that — at the end of an emotionally charged week — felt like a must-win. In the end, they sealed the 2-1 victory, but not without a few nerves getting frayed.
On Wednesday night, Liverpool were only seconds away from going nine points clear at the top of the Premier League table. At times on Sunday afternoon, it felt like it would only be a matter of time before their advantage at the summit was reduced to four. Little wonder, then, that Alisson looked unsettled.
After Slot’s calls for “cool heads but not cool legs” fell on deaf ears in the Merseyside derby, this game — a home fixture against a team 17th in the league — appeared to be just what the doctor ordered. Tensions bubbled over at Goodison Park in midweek following James Tarkowski’s 98th-minute equalizer for Everton, with Slot, assistant Sipke Hulshoff and midfielder Curtis Jones all shown red cards after the final whistle. Pressure on Liverpool was then ramped up further on Saturday when Arsenal, despite injuries to several key attacking players, secured a late win at Leicester City to keep the title race alive.
For the league leaders, Wolves’ visit to Anfield should have been the calm after the storm. For the best part of an hour, it looked like that might prove to be the case. While far from their sparkling best, Liverpool dominated in the first half and deservedly took the lead with a scruffy finish from Diaz, who nudged the ball in with his hip after gathering Salah’s deflected cross.
On 37 minutes, Salah stepped up to settle any lingering nerves, coolly slotting home his 28th goal of the season from the penalty spot after Díaz was clumsily brought down by goalkeeper José Sá inside the area. At that point, the possibility of a Wolves comeback seemed remote.
Twice in the second half, Liverpool were a whisker away from taking the game far beyond their opponents. Salah once again had the ball in the back of the net with a sublime finish but was adjudged to have been marginally offside. Diogo Jota — making his first Premier League start since October against his former club — then thought he had won a penalty after going down under a challenge from Emmanuel Agbadou, before referee Simon Hooper overturned his original decision following a VAR review.
