Leicester 1-0 Liverpool – Premier League: Ademola Lookman nets winner

The pre-game warning was emphatic. To stand any chance of becoming champions, Jurgen Klopp had told Liverpool’s players they could not make any mistakes.

Liverpool are usually so adept at following their manager’s commands but, on this occasion, the opposite was true. How bitter the irony for Klopp that on a night when they need clarity and composure, they were confused and careless. And how it has cost them.

From a missed Mohamed Salah penalty and squandered chances (21 shots, none converted) to the easy concession of Ademola Lookman’s decisive goal, it might be December 29 but the ramifications of this defeat at Leicester City are likely to be long-lasting in the title race.

Leicester City players celebrate Ademola Lookman’s winning goal during their 1-0 Premier League victory over Liverpool

Lookman’s goal came just after two minutes the Everton forward was introduced as a substitute at the King Power Stadium

Virgil van Dijk couldn’t charge down Lookman quick enough after the striker jinked through the Liverpool penalty box

Mohamed Salah wasted an excellent chance to give Liverpool a first half lead after failing to score from the penalty spot

Salah struck a poor penalty kick that Schmeichel easily parried away before he headed the rebound against the crossbar

By the time Liverpool next play, at Chelsea on Sunday afternoon, they could – and most probably will – be 12 points behind Manchester City. History tells you Pep Guardiola isn’t accustomed to relinquishing such advantages. Why should it be any different this time?

‘What can we say?’ said Virgil van Dijk. ‘The season is so, so long. Anything can happen. You have seen it with Covid and injuries – lots of things can change. There’s no point looking at City or Chelsea or the other teams around us. We look at ourselves.’

That Liverpool find themselves in this position was down a combination of factors but perhaps the biggest was from Kasper Schmeichel, who changed the course of the contest – and potentially the direction of the campaign – when he plunged to his right in the 15th minute.

Daniel Amartey was clumsy when trying to dispossess Salah but he made no contact with ball and gave Michael Oliver an easy decision. Brendan Rodgers shook his head, bubbling with frustration; he, like everyone else, assumed the next time Leicester would touch the ball was at the kick-off.

You should never, however, assume anything in football. Salah’s shot was powerful but it was too close to Schmeichel, who saved and earned himself some luck when the Egyptian headed the rebound against the bar.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp (right) appeals from the touchline after Joel Matip and Kelechi Iheanacho battle for the ball

Sadio Mane wasted Liverpool’s best chance of the second half as he rifled over under pressure form Timothy Castagne

It was the first time since October 2017 – in a game against Huddersfield – that Salah had missed from 12 yards in the Premier League and it transformed the mood in the stadium, the home fans celebrating as if they had a goal of their own.

Suddenly, all the gripes about playing 48 hours after that basketball game against Manchester City and the grumbles over bad results were gone. Leicester scampered and scurried after red shirts to win back possession, as all Rodgers’s teams do when they are in the groove.

Liverpool, by contrast, started performing in a way that left Klopp theatrically clasping his baseball cap in dismay – on too many occasions they chose the wrong option with a shot or a pass, nobody more so than Salah, who seemed rattled and frustrated in equal measure.

He did have a chance to atone in the 32nd minute when Luke Thomas and Amartey got into a tangle but Schmeichel threw a big, strong arm in the direction of a left foot shot and pushed it over the bar; Salah looked back at the Dane and started laughing, almost in a state of disbelief.

Here was the point when you began to suspect that it was made for Leicester, who left the field at half-time to thunderous encouragement, to catch Liverpool with a sucker-punch. Of course the visitors would apply more pressure but, watching Klopp’s team, something wasn’t right.

‘It was a very strange game,’ Klopp gloomily noted. ‘We were just not good enough.’

Leicester though will be concerned with James Maddison after the midfielder limped off injured late in the second half

Jamie Vardy also needed treatment late in the game but stayed on to help the Foxes hang on in the final 20 minutes

High stakes lead to heightened emotions and a glimpse of what was riding on this for Liverpool came four minutes into the second period. A break down the left ended with Diogo Jota playing a ball fractionally too late to Sadio Mane, who handled to control.

In a flash, Mane spun and started jabbering at Jota, telling him to look up and pass. The message got through, as moments later, the Portuguese sent Mane haring into Leicester’s area – 12 yards out, with Schmeichel already diving, he seemed certain to score. Not so. Over the bar his shot went.

This was uncharacteristic of Liverpool. They don’t tend to be impetuous, they aren’t usually rash but this was scruffy – horribly so – and the more Rodgers looked at it, the more he knew there were gains to be made.

So he turned to his bench and introduced Lookman and Youri Tielemans and, almost immediately, they had the lead. Lookman picked up possession on the halfway line, ushered the excellent Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall forward, and carried his run to get the return pass.

Leicester had 10 players defending inside their penalty box to try and hang on as Wilfried Ndidi blocks a James Milner cross

Schmeichel congratulates match winner Lookman after Brendan Rodgers’s side held on for a huge three points

Could he supply the finish? You bet he could. With Liverpool’s defenders backing off, Lookman swept the ball past Alisson, hard and low and into the bottom corner. The noise that greeted it was wonderful, an explosion of joy that an exultant Rodgers happily joined in.

‘I’m lost for words because it was such a heroic performance,’ he beamed.

To think there are some Leicester fans who have been grumbling about him in recent weeks. Rodgers masterminded one of the greatest results in the club’s history seven short months ago, when winning the FA Cup. He’s a terrific manager, one they are lucky to have.

This performance, from a seemingly impossible situation, was put together by him and all over the pitch there were men in Blue running themselves to a standstill to make sure they got the rewards their endeavours deserved.

The final moments were like a siege, with goalkeeper Alisson even joining in the attack, but there was to be no get out of jail card this time, unlike at West Brom in May, when he produced that header.

Leicester had done enough and were over the line – sentiments that may soon apply to Manchester City, too.

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