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Jota goal earns points for leaders despite Robertson’s red card in thriller

Rachel05 mins


Diogo Jota scored within eight minutes of his return from an 11-match injury absence to rescue a point for Liverpool as the Premier League 10 leaders avoided a surprise home defeat to Fulham.

Rodrigo Muniz’s improvised finish from close range 14 minutes later looked to have ended the Reds’ 18-game unbeaten run, with Antonee Robinson beating the Brazilian forward to fire home a move after Alex Iwobi’s impressive work down the Fulham left.

Liverpool, who had Andy Robertson sent off six minutes after Andrea Pereira’s 11th-minute opener, found their first equalizer when Kody Gakpo met Mohamed Salah’s diving header two minutes after half-time.

Fulham moved up to ninth after becoming the first of the last four teams to visit Anfield to score, while Liverpool are five points clear of second-placed Chelsea, who host Brentford on Sunday (7pm GMT).

Liverpool vs Fulham

Arne Slot’s side have been in quiet form since their 1-0 home defeat by Nottingham Forest on September 14, including winning each of their last three games at Anfield with a 2-0 win against Manchester City. of Real Madrid and Aston Villa.

In the technical opposition, his counterpart Marco Silva was winless in all 10 meetings with Liverpool as manager – but left-back Robertson’s miserable start to the game put his side on course to almost claim three points.

After receiving treatment early on, Robertson might have wished he had gone when Robinson’s cross went over his head and found Pereira at the far post, whose shot hit the roof of the net via the Scotland captain.

Robertson was sent off after miscontrolling the ball into the path of Harry Wilson and hurriedly hauled him down in an attempt to atone for his mistake, although there was a lengthy video assistant referee review for offside before the decision was upheld.

Jota goal on return from injury

Silva’s men looked comfortable but Liverpool did not look like a depleted team, moving Ryan Gravenberts to centre-back as Joe Gomez took Robertson’s place on the left.

Gakpo’s goal capped a thrilling start to the second half for his side, only for Muniz to restore Fulham’s lead within nine minutes of coming on and put them in touch with a first win in seven over Liverpool, having last beaten her at Anfield in 2021.

Late slot changes included the introductions of Darwin Nunez, Harvey Elliott and Jota into attack and the Portugal international showed why he had missed Liverpool.

Jota collected Nunez’s pass, turned to advance inside the penalty area and slotted in with four minutes remaining for his first home league goal in more than 10 months.



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