Liverpool keep slim top-four hope alive with win against Fulham
2 min read
Liverpool continued to build momentum in their charge towards the Premier League top four with a narrow 1-0 win over a plucky Fulham side at Anfield on Wednesday night.
Mohamed Salah scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot late in the first half, although but for Alisson it could easily have ended all square.
The first opportunity actually went the way of the visitors, with Virgil van Dijk needing to be sharp as he slid in to hook the ball away from Carlos Vinicius and a certain tap-in.
Trent Alexander-Arnold went close for Liverpool not long after when he shot from the edge of the box, while a better ball into the area from Salah might have later put Darwin Nunez in.
Fulham didn’t back down and it took a good Alisson save to deny Vinicius in an end-to-end opening period. But Liverpool managed to take some sting out of the game to get on top. Salah made danger with a teasing ball across goal that no one was on the end of, before converting from the penalty spot in the closing stages of the first half after Nunez was brought down by Issa Diop.
Nunez squandered his own chance to double the Liverpool advantage soon after the restart, while Salah also missed the target from a similar position almost immediately.
But Fulham were growing back into the game in a big way, sensing an opportunity given that the hosts had failed to build on their lead.
The Cottagers thought they had what wouldn’t have been an undeserved equaliser as the clock ticked into the final 15 minutes. Willian made the chance down the left, feeding Vinicius in the box, with quick feet engineering the space and a big right hand from Alisson keeping the ball out.
Fulham were finishing the stronger of the two sides as momentum swung to the team in white. Anfield was made to hold its collective breath deep into stoppage time when Fulham substitute Bobby Decordova-Reid connected with a low cross into the box but couldn’t direct it on target.
