Monday, January 1, 2018

Liverpool grab late winner; struggling Stoke lose again

Liverpool scored a goal in the fourth minute of injury time to beat Burnley 2-1 away in the Premier League, while Mark Hughes' job as Stoke manager was looking increasingly fragile after the team's loss at home to Newcastle on Monday.

Ragnar Klavan headed home the winning goal at Turf Moor as Liverpool earned a hard-fought victory without three of its "Fab 4" attack, with Roberto Firmino demoted to the bench and both Philippe Coutinho and Mohamed Salah declared injured.

Sadio Mane was the only survivor and he scored Liverpool's opening goal, spinning and shooting high into the net in the 61st minute. Johann Gudmundsson equalized in the 87th.

The win lifted Liverpool level on points with third-place Manchester United, which plays at Everton in the late game Monday.

Salah was missing because of a groin problem while Liverpool said Coutinho had a thigh injury, a day after Nike's website advertised Barcelona shirts with the Brazil midfielder's name on the back to intensify speculation that he might be heading to the Spanish club.

Hughes rested many of his front-line players in the 5-0 loss at Chelsea on Saturday, in an attempt to keep them fresh for the game against Newcastle. It backfired with Stoke losing 1-0.

In other matches, mid-table teams Brighton and Bournemouth served up an entertaining 2-2 draw, and Leicester beat Huddersfield 3-0.



from The Malta Independent http://ift.tt/2CqMC3c
via IFTTT

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