Mane grabs winner as Liverpool edge Crystal Palace
A second half strike from Sadio Mane helped Liverpool to their first win of the new Premier League campaign.
With all the Liverpool news being dominated by Phillipe Coutinho’s potential move to Barcelona, Jurgen Klopp’s side would have been happy to focus and get down to what really matters, the football. They came up against a stern Crystal Palace side that have won at Anfield the last three seasons.
Bright play from Liverpool in the early stages brought the first real chance of the game for James Milner. The midfielder got to the byline but selfishly shot instead of squaring into the box. Wayne Hennessey easily saved the strike but would have struggled if Milner had cut the ball back for a teammate.
Liverpool should have been ahead after 16 minutes when Andrew Robertson delivered a cross into the Palace box, which Hennessey tried to collect, but made a mess of it and Joel Matip somehow sent his header wide. The defender may not have been expecting the ball to reach him, but it was no excuse as the ball should have been buried in the back of the net.
The game became more open after the half hour mark and both teams had chances that tested the men between the posts. First, Firmino let fly from 25 yards out and forced Hennessey to parry before Palace immediately broke with Ruben Loftus-Cheek. The man on loan from Chelsea drove into the Liverpool half and fizzed a ball into the feet of Jason Puncheon, who unleashed a fierce strike for Mignolet to save.
After the break, the game continued at its same frantic pace. Georginio Wijnaldum tested Hennessey again with a fierce volley after the ball bounced out to him following a corner.
Crystal Palace should have broken the deadlock after 57 minutes when Ruben Loftus-Cheek did incredibly well to get to the right byline. He cut it back perfectly for Christian Benteke but the striker fired over the bar.
Firmino was next to narrowly miss the target. The Brazilian cut in from the left and drove a strike towards goal that skimmed inches over the top right corner.
After a couple of substitutions from Klopp, Liverpool started to look more and more threatening and finally opened the scoring on 73 minutes. Luka Milivojevic was under pressure from substitute Dominic Solanke and a poor touch on the edge of the box allowed Mane to intercept and strike into the Palace goal from 10 yards out.
From that point on, a Liverpool second goal always looked more likely than a Palace equaliser. The Eagles lacked cutting edge in the final third as they struggled to create any real opportunities towards the end of the game.
Hennessey was forced to make a string of spectacular saves in the final minutes. Long range efforts first from Solanke, then Robertson and Mohamed Salah saw a frantic end to the match up for the Crystal Palace goalkeeper.
Liverpool held on and closed the game out to earn their first win of the new Premier League campaign. Crystal Palace can take plenty of positives from the 90 minutes, but one thing they will be looking to work on is their flair in the final third.