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37 min: “It’s absolutely mad to me how Premier League referees seem to have decided that they’re never going to call a foul for a player being pushed in the back as they chase the ball toward the touchline,” emails Paul Done, presumably in reference to that Bijol challenge on Ekitike. “It’s a horribly dangerous play which has resulted in injuries from ligament tears to fractured legs and yet even clear pushes which send players flying into touch go unpunished. It’s happened at least twice today—one each way.”
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35 min: Frimpong, Liverpool’s biggest threat by far, has a chance to stretch his legs down the right and streams away from the retreating Struijk. But Wirtz can’t collect the bouncing cross, and Ampadu nips in to quell the danger. Sighs all around at Anfield.
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33 min: Robertson sends in a brilliant cross to dissect Leeds defence, but there is nobody following up at the far post! Maybe a more natural winger than Frimpong – such as a certain Egyptian – would have been there to tap it in. Instead Frimpong collects the ball and sends in a decent cross of his own. It’s more of a shot, actually, fiercely driven across the six-yard box. Ekitike has a free header at the back post, but he can’t control the bullet train of a cross, and instead heads it wildly away from goal. Lucas Perri was stranded if Ekitike got that on target.
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31 min: Dragged out of his goal, Alisson tries a trivela pass (!!!) into Liverpool’s midfield, which goes awry and straight to the feet of Ampadu! The Leeds midfielder briefly looks like he can just shoot into the empty net but Alisson scampers back and dives gratefully on the ball. A lucky escape for the Liverpool goalkeeper!
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28 min: Frimpong again leaves Gudmundsson for dead with frightful pace but fails to beat the first Leeds man with his cross. Struijk’s clearance, though, means Liverpool have a corner. But Leeds stand strong, heading and kicking it away.
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25 min: A long throw for Leeds! Something for the visiting fans to get excited about. Sort of. Ampadu hurls it goalwards, there is a flick on and Bradley bravely stoops to head the ball away at the back post for Liverpool, taking a whack in the face for his troubles from Nmecha, who was lurking.
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23 min: Leeds can’t hang onto the ball but look relatively comfortable out of possession when Liverpool build up slowly. The only time Liverpool have carved them open was with a long ball over the top to Ekitike.
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20 min: Jones, who has been excellent for Liverpool in recent weeks and particularly important to Wirtz’s boost in form, tries his luck from range after cutting in from the left. Straight at Lucas Perri.
That’s 20 minutes up. Liverpool’s home crowd pay tribute to the late Diogo Jota with a song and a few banners.
Curtis Jones in action for Liverpool. Photograph: Liverpool FC/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 18.03 GMT
18 min: After a strong start to this game, Leeds have retreated into a mid-block. Liverpool are now the dominant side.
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16 min: Refreshing to see a right-sided winger on the right wing in Frimpong. Liverpool’s Dutchman has the beating of Gudmundsson but hasn’t been able to deliver a telling cross. Yet.
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14 min: Route-one stuff from Liverpool prizes open Leeds! Konaté lumps one over the top and Ekitike steals a march (Marsch?!) on Bijol and shows incredible strength to hold off the big 6ft3in Slovenian. There is plenty of grappling from the Leeds player, but Ekitike stays on his feet inside the visitors’ area, cuts the ball back to Wirtz and only a sensational block from Justin prevents a certain goal for Liverpool. Ekitike is absolutely furious that a penalty wasn’t awarded for Bijol’s challenge, but it was probably just on the right side of legal. If the Liverpool forward had gone down, however, the referee would have had a tough decision to make.
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10 min: MBMers curse! Ampadu has his pocket picked by Ekitike and after a neat one-two, the Frenchman cuts inside and bobbles an awkward shot towards goal from an acute angle. Lucas Perri makes a bit of a meal of it, fumbling it back into danger, but luckily James is there to clear Leeds’ lines.
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8 min: Ampadu is knitting things together nicely for Leeds in defensive midfield. Always seems to find space and Liverpool haven’t yet figured out how to press him.
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6 min: Wirtz, who is playing off the left today, takes a blow to the face, but the German is going to be OK to continue.
Ouch. Photograph: Liverpool FC/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 17.43 GMT
4 min: Really sloppy from Szoboszlai in midfield – the Hungarian missed the win over Wolves due to suspension – and Leeds counter-attack at pace. Stach finds Aaronson, who has the freedom of Anfield to pick a pass to Gudmundsson, whose cross is blocked by Konaté. A really poor start from the home side.
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2 min: Liverpool immediately concede a free-kick on their own byline, which immediately allows Leeds’ looming back-line to come up from the back. Liverpool, remember, are joint last in the Premier League for goals conceded from set pieces, and sacked their set-piece coach last week.
Liverpool survive here, though, with Alisson punching away.
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Updated at 17.43 GMT
Peeeeeeeeep!
And we’re off.
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Here come the teams. Liverpol in their all-red strip, Leeds in all white. YNWA is belted out at Anfield. Let’s do this.
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Jamie Vardy broke the record for scoring in consecutive Premier League games, scoring in 11 consecutive games in 2015. Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who has scored in his last six games, has a chequered past with injuries but will surely be disappointed that he won’t be given another 90 minutes here to make it seven. He may well feature from the bench, of course, but it’s a hard task to score at Anfield.
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Some pre-match reading, here:
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“I always think of these opponents for the Tony Yeboah goal,” emails Andy O’Shaughnessy. “I had started a job in Bristol and wandered into one packed pub – when Tony scored. Thirty years later it’s still iconic.”
Oh, yes. One of the great Premier League goals. It’s the sound of it that still gives me the goosebumps. I reckon you could close your eyes, listen to the above clip, and still figure out what goal is was: the ball thudding off Yeboah’s laces, crashing off the underside of the crossbar to send the Elland Road crowd wild.
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In case you need reminding, the reverse of this fixture just last month was a ripsnorting 3-3 draw, and was the catalyst for those Mo Salah comments.
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Arne Slot makes three changes from Liverpool’s win over Wolves, with Jeremie Frimpong on the right wing for the Reds. It is not the first time the Dutchman has played there, and also occasionally featuring there for Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen. It’s interesting that Conor Bradley has got the nod over Frimpoing at right back and Frimpong has got the nod over forwards like Gakpo and Chiesa, both on the bench.
For Leeds, in-form Dominic Calvert-Lewin is on the bench! Here’s what Leeds manager Daniel Farke has had to say to Sky Sports:
I trust my whole group. If I don’t use the whole group and we have a schedule like this, I would never do this. For a player like Dominic I have to look after him. We all know his recent couple of years was difficult. He is in red-hot form but it’s important I look after him and sometimes the head needs to win over the heart.
We are the underdog. We have to make sure we take strength of performances, surprise them as well. If you are the underdog you have to be more flexible.
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The teams!
Liverpool (a fluid 4-3-3): Alisson; Bradley, Konate, van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Jones, Szoboszlai; Frimpong, Ekitike, Wirtz.
Subs: Mamardashvili, Kerkez, Mac Allister, Chiesa, Gakpo, Nyoni, Ramsay, Ngumoha, Lucky.
Leeds (3-5-2): Lucas Perri; Bornauw, Bijol, Struijk; Justin, Gruev, Ampadu, Stach, Gudmundsson; Aaronson, Nmecha.
Subs: Darlow, Bogle, Calvert-Lewin, Piroe, Okafor, Harrison, Tanaka, Byram, Gnonto.
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Preamble
Welcome to the Gary McAllister Derby, as almost nobody knows it!
Liverpool’s Premier League title defence might already be up in smoke, but maintaining their current position of fourth come the end of this season is still absolutely essential to the club. Those Alexander Isak instalments are not going to pay themselves.
Arne Slot will have enjoyed this week’s results thus far, with pretty much all the teams around them dropping points. Third-placed Villa lost (at Arsenal), fifth-placed Chelsea drew at home to Bournemouth and are now manager-less, sixth-placed Manchester United fielded five defenders and two defensive midfields and only managed a 1-1 draw at home to possibly the worst ever Premier League side in Wolves, while seventh-placed Sunderland face a tough task in the visit of Manchester City (later on today). With the Mo Salah debacle calming down and Florian Wirtz finally finding the net, things are suddenly looking up for the Reds.
Leeds are on something of a run, unbeaten in their last five. Their only objective is clear: stay up, by hook or by crook. Philosophy, identity and style can wait: just lump it up to Dominic Calvert-Lewin and pray that the big man can keep his own run going – the striker has netted at least one goal in each of his last six matches – to drag Leeds six points from the drop zone. DCL has three goals in his last five matches against Liverpool, and another one here would be extra special, given his Everton links.
With your running shoes still in the back of the wardrobe, your New Year’s resolutions may have got off to a terrible start but what do you the rest of your family expect? It’s Anfield under the mid-winter lights (kick-off 5.30pm GMT). Time to settle into that sofa once again and crack a frosty one. Enjoy the footy and happy 2026 everyone.
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