Liverpool 2-0 Crystal Palace: Reds secure Champions League football on last day of miserable season

 

Ten thousand energetic Liverpool fans descended on Anfield for the highest attendance since March 2020 for Liverpool's final game of what has been a miserable 2020/21 Premier League season. All the injuries, home defeats, last-minute draws, all came down to a final game to get the Reds into the Champions League for next season, else suffer the dreariness of Thursday nights in the Europa League. Crystal Palace were the opposition, and considering Liverpool had won the previous six meetings in the league, the odds were stacked in the home team's favour. 

Anfield tends to provide for Liverpool when the stakes are high, and the addition to the ground of supporters will have gone a long way and given the players a massive mental boost. 

However, it was a nervy start for the Liverpool players and Palace started the game on top. Liverpool had Alisson's saves and a sitter from Andros Townsend to thank for not being behind by the twenty-minute mark. This clearly kicked Liverpool into gear as they came out of their shell for the second part of the first half, with the Reds finally breaking the deadlock on 36 minutes when Sadio Mane scrambled the ball over the line from a corner after a spell of dominance. 

By half-time, Liverpool were definitely on top. The performances of Thiago and Wijnaldum (on his final game for the club) were particularly pleasing with the tirelessness of the pair mixed with Thiago's flair going forward and excellent passing. Salah had some frustrations going forward as he had a couple of great chances to score and secure himself the Premier League golden boot ahead of Harry Kane, however, the Spurs man's goal at Leicester meant finished as top scorer for the third time. Once again, Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips were solid at the back as the makeshift centre-back partnership.

The second half was more of the same as Liverpool relentlessly attacked the Palace goal, with the benefit of shooting towards the Kop to try and score another goal and secure the three points. The goal came once again through Sadio Mane, this time in the 74th minute after Salah passed the ball across the edge of the box, and Mane's strike deflected into the bottom corner of Guaita's goal. 

Throughout the second half, Liverpool looked to attack and add more goals to the total, which is a change we have seen throughout the course of the season where chance creation and finishing has been a massive issue for us, despite Salah hitting over 30 goals in all competitions. The players left it all on the pitch, particularly Wijnaldum whose performances have dipped over the past six months as his contract is set to expire at the end of the season, but today he pulled his finger out and showed us the Gini of old. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson also impressed, as both were relentlessly up and down the flanks causing havoc on the overload, as well as still being solid defensively - a side of Trent's game that has massively improved over this unbeaten run Liverpool have been on.

Liverpool end the season in third place, after being top at Christmas, and eighth in March. A rollercoaster of a season has finally come to an end and we can look forward to Champions League football and an interesting summer transfer window.