BRENTFORD 1 – 2 LIVERPOOL
Brentford: Lewis-Potter 44’
Liverpool: Muñoz 62’, Isak 70’
Pre-Match
Is there a blue moon, because Liverpool are actually playing a Saturday 3PM match. Liverpool look to grab three points after their failure against documented, confirmed cheats, Manchester City last week.
First Half
I’m a very simple person, and I guess my brain has permanently associated the color red with Liverpool, so I am having difficulty following this game with the Reds wearing black and white and Brentford wearing red. It’s fine, I’ll power through, but the first five minutes included a lot of confused blinking on behalf of your faithful scribe.
Liverpool start off defending a few corners. Then Dominik Szoboszlai blazes one over the net after a neat counterattack with Víctor Muñoz and Alexander Isak.
These wild long throws from Brentford are causing a bit of havoc in Liverpool’s defense, but so far, Liverpool have cleared the danger before it’s caused any serious trouble for them. When they get their own corner, courtesy of Barcola, they make it a short corner that’s quickly wasted.
Then minutes later, Liverpool miss a big chance. Barcola gets clear and his chip veers wide and causes Kelleher no troubles.
After a collision, Muñoz goes down clutching his leg. It didn’t look like a clash, which makes it more concerning how long Muñoz stays down writhing in pain under the care of the physios. He eventually gets up, but it’s Szoboszlai that is injured after that and subbed out for Trey Nyoni. Szoboszlai looked very frustrated as he made his way off the pitch. Let’s hope it’s nothing serious.
Liverpool have two penalty shouts. The first one against Florian Wirtz went unheeded. The second against Alexis Mac Allister initially got granted by the referee. However, the VAR check overturns the decision, and they play on instead.
At the end of normal time in the first half, it’s Brentford who open the scoring, because of course it is. Lewis-Potter heads it in Thiago’s cross. Not a great way to end the half.
But apparently the excitement had just begun. Liverpool get a corner that goes out for another. On the second attempt, there was a scuffle between Jacquet and Yarmoliuk. Yarmoliuk headbutted Jacquet, and after a check, he’s shown a straight red, leaving Brentford down to 10 men for the second half.
Second Half
Liverpool make a change at the half. Ronald Araujo goes off for Jeremie Frimpong. Let’s see if Liverpool can take advantage of the extra man in these next 45 minutes.
It doesn’t start well, with Jacquet getting booked. Frimpong went off injured almost immediately after, replaced by Rio Ngumoha.
About 15 minutes into the half, Liverpool finally got their break through. Wirtz played in Muñoz down the right. Muñoz backheeled it forward, swerved around the defender and sunk the ball into the back of the net with his left foot. That was such a pretty goal.
The next goal, putting Liverpool into the lead, came less than 10 minutes later. Liverpool won a corner. While they didn’t convert it, they did well maintaining possession and continuing to apply pressure to the tiring Brentford players. Barcola had an unlucky afternoon, but that time he knocked down a cross to the feet of Isak. Isak took a touch and then guided the ball into the far corner.
Now to see if Liverpool can hold onto this lead to see out this game.
Moments later there’s nearly a disaster in front of Alisson’s goal. Alisson came off his line to defend against an onrushing Brentford player speeding up the wing. Thankfully no one is there to guide in his low cross into the box.
Brentford have their own penalty shout ignored deep into the second half.
And Brentford ended the match down to nine men after Janelt received his second yellow for a push on Ngumoha.
Final Thoughts
That game was simultaneously really interesting and very boring. I’m not sure how it managed that. But in the end, I’ll take interesting when it benefits us. Liverpool leave Brentford with three points and fifth in the league.