Liverpool’s charge for Champions League football hit a slight bump in the road on Saturday as struggling Chelsea fought back to secure a 1-1 draw and a valuable point at Anfield. Ryan Gravenberch opened the scoring with a wonderful strike early on, but the Reds’ dominance waned after that, with a porous defence allowing the Blues back into a game their hosts let get away.
It looked like it would be a straight-forward day out for Liverpool when Gravenberch picked out the top corner after just six minutes, with Virgil van Dijk missing a massive chance to add to that lead only a few minutes later. But a disorganised defence would be got at by Chelsea and especially Marc Cucurella, who exposed Curtis Jones’ lack of know-how in the right-back role for which he was picked. It was down that side that the Blues got tons of joy, with Giorgi Mamardashvili regularly called into action as a result.
It was another of the Reds’ weaknesses that was exposed for Chelsea’s leveller, though, as yet another set-piece situation proved to be their undoing just before the break. Wesley Fofana pounced to attack Enzo Fernandez’s low delivery, with Cody Gakpo completely unaware of the Frenchman’s presence before he bullied him out of the way to swing a leg at the ball, leaving Mamardashvili hapless as it trickled into his goal without a touch in the end.
Half-time came at a good time for Liverpool given the way their opponents had got on top, but they still needed VAR to intervene to prevent Chelsea from taking the lead shortly after the restart, when Cucurella had leaned just offside in the build-up to what Cole Palmer though was a strike that put his side ahead.
Chances mainly fell to the Reds after that, with Jones seeing a header ruled out for offside before Szoboszlai stung the palms of Filip Jorgensen and then rattled an effort off the post, with Van Dijk also hitting the woodwork late on. But there would be no further breakthrough in a disappointing draw with a side that had lost all of their previous six Premier League outings. Arne Slot’s side are still in a strong position to qualify for next season’s Champions League, but that they failed to move a big step closer to that objective here will be frustrating.
GOAL rates Liverpool’s players from Anfield…
