Liverpool started the Premier League season on Saturday with a loss of points. On a visit to PhD student Fulham it became 2-2. Virgil van Dijk caused the penalty that made it 2-1, after which Mohamed Salah saved another point for the number two of the past year.
Liverpool narrowly missed both the league title (one point less than Manchester City) and the Champions League overall victory (lost to Real Madrid in the final) last season, but did win the FA Cup and League Cup. Sadio Mane was the most notable player to leave ‘The Reds’ this summer. Instead, Darwin Núñez was taken over from Benfica, but the Uruguayan started on the bench.
Jürgen Klopp’s formation made a very poor impression against the PhD student in the first half. Liverpool were allowed to make the game from Fulham, but did very little with the many ball possession. After more than half an hour, the Londoners struck. Right back Kenny Tete gave a good cross which was headed in by Aleksandar Mitrovic at the far post. The 27-year-old Serb was good for no less than 43 hits in the Championship last season.
After the resumption, Liverpool increased the pace, without initially leading to a shower of chances. In fact, on behalf of Fulham, Neeskens Kebano hit the post after an hour. At Liverpool, Núñez had already entered the squad at that time and it was the million-dollar signing that equalized after 64 minutes by working the ball through his standing leg.
Aleksandar Mitrovic’s 1-0 in the making.
Aleksandar Mitrovic’s 1-0 in the making.
Photo: Getty Images
Salah saves point for Liverpool
The visitors smelled blood and Núñez was immediately close to the 1-2 just after his goal. Fulham survived this difficult phase and even regained the lead after 72 minutes. Mitrovic sought the duel with Van Dijk and fell after light contact. The attacker then cashed the penalty himself.
Liverpool straightened again and through Salah it was again equalized in the eightieth minute. The Egyptian tapped in, taking advantage of a sea of freedom the Fulham defenses bestowed on him. In the final phase, there were no great opportunities for the 2-3, so that Liverpool immediately suffers damage in the Premier League.
The nineteen-time national champion continues the competition next Monday with a home game against Crystal Palace.
Premier League first round
Crystal Palace-Arsenal 0-2 Fulham-Liverpool 2-2 Leeds United-Wolverhampton Wanderers Newcastle United-Nottingham Forest Tottenham Hotspur-Southampton AFC Bournemouth-Aston Villa Everton-Chelsea Manchester United-Brighton & Hove Albion Leicester City-Brentford West Ham United- Manchester City
:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/P4I3UXWX6NCORBATSMRFHZC7O4.jpg)
:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/OBK6QUJA7BHWDK37OIJO5ZIXTE.jfif)
