Liverpool 2 (Diaz 15, Salah pen 37) Wolves 1 (Cunha 67)
Wolves left Liverpool empty handed on Sunday but will take heart from a battling second half performance – and brilliant Matheus Cunha strike – which pushed the league leaders all the way.
The opening 45 went the way the table suggested, with Luis Diaz scrambling home the first and Mohamed Salah netting the second from the spot, after Jose Sa had brought down Diaz in the area.
However, Wolves rallied after the break and had threatened on a number of occasions before Cunha curled home a brilliant 13th goal of the season. Vitor Pereira’s side denied Liverpool a single shot after the break but couldn’t force an equaliser few would have said was undeserved.
Wolves travelled to Merseyside with back-to-back clean sheets to their name, but it took Liverpool just 15 minutes to find the breakthrough at Anfield. It was a scruffy way to concede the lead too, as Salah’s ball clipped the toe of Toti and fell nicely for Diaz to bundle the ball beyond Jose Sa with his chest.
The Old Gold had plenty of the ball in the opening 45 but struggled to create anything of substance. Nelson Semedo had a shot deflected into Alisson’s hands before Diogo Jota headed over an Alexis Mac Allister’s corner against his former club.
Dominik Szoboszlai drove an effort just wide from the edge of the box, while Sa saved well with his leg to deny Jota at his near post. However, on 37 minutes, and after Emmanuel Agbadou had got his clearance wrong, Sa brought down Diaz and the referee pointed to the spot. Salah converted from 12 yards by firing down the middle.
The closest Wolves came to a goal back before the break predictably came through Cunha. After the Brazilian had been fouled by Ibrahim Konate, who was already on a yellow to Wolves’ frustration, his curled the free-kick just wide of Alisson’s post.
Salah and Pablo Sarabia both had attempts to change the score late in the half, but Liverpool had their two-goal buffer at the interval.
Half-time | Liverpool 2-0 Wolves
After the break Wolves were much improved and could easily have ended up with something from the contest. The tone was set one minute after the interval when half-time substitute Jean-Ricner Bellegarde set up Cunha, who had two bites of the cherry, but couldn’t seriously trouble Alisson.
The chance of the half fell to another introduction in Marshall Munetsi, who was sent clean through by Bellegarde’s flick, but Alisson shot off his line to save. Joao Gomes should have pulled a goal back too, after Trent Alexander-Arnold gifted possession to Cunha, but the midfielder curled over with his left foot.
Wolves eventually got the goal they deserved on 67 minutes when Cunha picked up the ball from Bellegarde and dropped his shoulder to get beyond Virgl Van Dijk and Ryan Gravenberch and curled a brilliant low finish into the bottom corner beyond the dive of Alisson.
That goal gave Wolves belief and both Gomes and Munetsi had half chances, while with one minute left Cunha and Tommy Doyle combined, but Munetsi couldn’t scramble the ball home at the back end. Doyle had a free-kick deflected over inside injury time too, and while that equaliser didn’t materialise, the Old Gold will take plenty from the performance.
Full-time | Liverpool 2-1 Wolves
Liverpool | Alisson, Alexander-Arnold (Bradley 64), Van Dijk, Konate (Quansah 45), Robertson, Mac Allister, Gravenberch, Szoboszlai, Salah, Diaz (Endo 71), Jota (Nunez 64).
Unused subs | Kelleher, Chiesa, Elliott, Tsimikas, McConnell.
Wolves | Sa, Semedo (Lima 90+2), Doherty, Agbadou (Bueno 61), Toti, Ait-Nouri, Andre, J Gomes (Doyle 83), Sarabia (Munetsi 45), Cunha, Guedes (Bellegarde 45).
Unused subs | Bentley, Djiga, Traore, Forbs.
