Burnley 0-3 Liverpool: Jurgen Klopp delight at ‘semi-final’ win as Reds move into top four
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp likened his side’s victory at Burnley to winning “a semi-final” that takes them to Sunday’s “final” against Crystal Palace and the chance to seal a top-four finish.
Liverpool’s incredible win at West Bromwich Albion on Sunday kept their Champions League hopes alive and at Turf Moor they built on their last-gasp weekend heroics with a victory that was much tighter than the scoreline suggests.
A cool finish from Roberto Firmino turned the game Liverpool’s way then a first club goal for Nathaniel Phillips and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s late drive made the points safe and improved the Reds’ goal difference.
The Reds are now in the fourth Champions League spot, level on points with fifth-placed Leicester City and with a goal difference four better than the Foxes.
Klopp’s side host the Eagles in Roy Hodgson’s last game in charge in four days’ time, with 10,000 fans inside Anfield.
The Foxes are at home to Tottenham while Chelsea, who are a point better off than both, are at Aston Villa.
“Today was a semi-final,” Klopp told Sky Sports. “We had to win the semi-final and we did.
“Nothing is decided yet but we improved our position and we have the final. That’s what we needed. It’s what we deserve because this was a top performance.
“Now we have to make sure we recover quickly. We have a thin squad in some positions. We have to wrap them in cotton wool.
“I can’t wait for the 10,00 fans at Anfield. Nothing is decided – Palace are strong.”
Liverpool dig deep for salvation
Having required a sensational injury-time goal from goalkeeper Alisson to complete a comeback and beat West Brom at the weekend, the Reds endured another stressful encounter at Turf Moor.
They were harried all over the pitch throughout by a committed home side keen to impress their 3,000 fans and provide them with an end to a terrible run of home form.
Liverpool struggled to deal with the Clarets’ energetic pressing, especially in the first-half, with the home side’s physicality posing a challenge the Reds failed at times to deal with.
However, despite their relative inexperience at the back, Phillips and Rhys Williams did well on the whole against the in-form Chris Wood, with the former even adding a welcome goalscoring element to his play.
Having come up for a corner, the 24-year-old was perfectly placed to head home when Mane swung over a cross from the left – his first goal in what has been an unexpected but vital 20 appearances for the injury-hit Reds this season.
Phillips also positioned himself perfectly on the line to clear a Ben Mee header that would have given the visitors a far more challenging final 20 minutes.
As it was, they snatched a third, with Oxlade-Chamberlain scoring his first goal – a fine finish after evading Charlie Taylor – at the end of a season hampered by injury as well as long spells on the bench.
It was Firmino’s goal, though, that had much earlier provided the crucial breakthrough, his low finish from Andy Robertson’s pull-back being the first shot the visitors had managed on target in a frantic and often end-to-end first half.
It was not a comfortable experience for Klopp’s side but not much has been during their run of nine games unbeaten that has put them on the verge of salvaging something from this hugely disappointing season.
“It never is easy,” Klopp told BBC Sport. “I can’t remember an easy game against Burnley.
“What a job Sean Dyche is doing here. The way they play is so tricky to defend against. They are smart.
“Apart from a nervy start passing-wise, we had to adapt to the atmosphere in the stadium, but then we played really good football.”
The Reds are now into the top four for the first time since February off the back of a fourth straight victory – their longest winning run of the campaign.
One more will be enough unless Leicester run riot against Tottenham and significantly improve their goal difference.
Battling Burnley give all they’ve got
Burnley have now extended an unwanted club record to 10 consecutive top-flight home league games without a win, dating back to January.
With fans back inside Turf Moor, the home side were clearly in a mood to make amends, harrying all over the pitch, snapping into tackles and diving in to block shots.
James Tarkowski and Mee were typically combative in an attempt to protect goalkeeper Will Norris, starting his first Premier League game for the club.
Things could have been different had Wood not fired an effort wide after nipping in behind the Liverpool defence to get on to a long ball forward, but this was indicative of the lack of ruthlessness that has, at times, blighted their season.
“We’ve had a really tough season,” Dyche told BBC Sport. “We’ve had some knocks on the way.
“I thought we gave a good account of ourselves. We have actually played pretty well over the last few weeks but we haven’t taken our chances.
“We could have been effective in the final third when it really counts. That’s probably been my biggest bug.”
There is little more Dyche could have asked from his players both in this game and the league campaign, which has again seem them defy their relatively small budget to stay in the division.
However Dyche will be eager to end on a high at Sheffield United before a summer that the long-serving manager will hope sees more investment than in the previous close season.
“There’s always a lot to do here,” said Dyche. “It’s a restart every summer. We will see what happens and what can be done investment wise.
“We have a base here to work on and it’s how we layer up on top of that to find the next generation of players to keep moving forward.”
When Firmino scores, Liverpool win
- Liverpool haven’t lost any of the 14 Premier League matches in which Roberto Firmino has scored the opening goal of the game (W12 D2) – including winning each of the last 11 in a row.
- Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino is only the second player to score in three consecutive Premier League away games at Turf Moor, after Anthony Martial. Indeed, the Brazilian has now scored as many times in his last three league appearances as in the 19 matches beforehand (3).
- Including a spell at Stuttgart last season, Nathaniel Phillips’ header was his first career goal as a professional, on what was his 20th appearance for Liverpool across all competitions.
- Since the start of last season, Burnley have lost all five of their Premier League games without Nick Pope in goal, conceding 3.4 goals per game on average, compared to just 1.2 in the 70 top-flight games in which he has started for the Clarets.
- Since the start of the 2017-18 season, only Kevin de Bruyne (49) has more Premier League assists than Liverpool full-back Andrew Robertson (35), who assisted twice in a Premier League game for the first time since April 2019.
Player of the match
PhillipsNathaniel Phillips
Burnley
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Squad number9Player nameWood
Average rating5.30
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Squad number6Player nameMee
Average rating5.29
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Squad number5Player nameTarkowski
Average rating5.27
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Squad number11Player nameMcNeil
Average rating5.04
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Squad number8Player nameBrownhill
Average rating5.01
-
Squad number3Player nameTaylor
Average rating4.96
-
Squad number2Player nameLowton
Average rating4.90
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Squad number27Player nameVydra
Average rating4.90
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Squad number18Player nameWestwood
Average rating4.84
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Squad number25Player nameNorris
Average rating4.83
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Squad number7Player nameGudmundsson
Average rating4.82
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Squad number4Player nameCork
Average rating4.81
Liverpool
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Squad number47Player namePhillipsAverage rating
8.25
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Squad number15Player nameOxlade-ChamberlainAverage rating
8.06
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Squad number9Player nameRoberto FirminoAverage rating
7.81
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Squad number26Player nameRobertsonAverage rating
7.78
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Squad number1Player nameAlissonAverage rating
7.68
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Squad number66Player nameAlexander-ArnoldAverage rating
7.65
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Squad number6Player nameThiago AlcántaraAverage rating
7.64
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Squad number3Player nameFabinhoAverage rating
7.43
-
Squad number7Player nameMilnerAverage rating
7.34
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Squad number11Player nameMohamed SalahAverage rating
7.28
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Squad number10Player nameManéAverage rating
7.09
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Squad number46Player nameR WilliamsAverage rating
7.05
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Squad number5Player nameWijnaldumAverage rating
6.83
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Squad number21Player nameTsimikasAverage rating
6.58
Line-ups
Burnley
Formation 4-4-1-1
- 25Norris
- 2Lowton
- 5Tarkowski
- 6Mee
- 3Taylor
- 7Gudmundsson
- 18Westwood
- 4CorkSubstituted forVydraat 76′minutes
- 11McNeil
- 8Brownhill
- 9Wood
Substitutes
- 10Barnes
- 15Peacock-Farrell
- 19Rodriguez
- 23Pieters
- 27Vydra
- 31Nartey
- 34Dunne
- 38Richardson
- 45Driscoll-Glennon
Liverpool
Formation 4-3-3
- 1Alisson
- 66Alexander-Arnold
- 47Phillips
- 46R Williams
- 26Robertson
- 6Thiago Alcántara
- 3Fabinho
- 5WijnaldumSubstituted forMilnerat 86′minutes
- 11Salah
- 9FirminoSubstituted forOxlade-Chamberlainat 81′minutes
- 10ManéSubstituted forTsimikasat 90+2′minutes
Substitutes
- 7Milner
- 13Adrián
- 15Oxlade-Chamberlain
- 17Jones
- 21Tsimikas
- 23Shaqiri
- 27Origi
- 76N Williams
- 89Koumetio
- Referee:
- Chris Kavanagh
- Attendance:
- 3,387
Match Stats
Live Text
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Match ends, Burnley 0, Liverpool 3.
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Second Half ends, Burnley 0, Liverpool 3.
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Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Charlie Taylor.
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Foul by Thiago (Liverpool).
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Charlie Taylor (Burnley) wins a free kick on the left wing.
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Substitution, Liverpool. Konstantinos Tsimikas replaces Sadio Mané.
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Alisson (Liverpool) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
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Chris Wood (Burnley).
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Foul by Sadio Mané (Liverpool).
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Matthew Lowton (Burnley) wins a free kick on the right wing.
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Goal! Burnley 0, Liverpool 3. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Liverpool) left footed shot from the left side of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Andrew Robertson following a corner.
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Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Ashley Westwood.
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Substitution, Liverpool. James Milner replaces Georginio Wijnaldum.
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Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Matthew Lowton.
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Attempt blocked. Sadio Mané (Liverpool) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold.
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Substitution, Liverpool. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain replaces Roberto Firmino.
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Hand ball by Charlie Taylor (Burnley).
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Fabinho (Liverpool) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
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Foul by Matej Vydra (Burnley).
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Substitution, Burnley. Matej Vydra replaces Jack Cork.