We put the PL champions firmly in their place

Despite Liverpool’s poor league form, they smashed Eintracht Frankfurt during the week in the CL. So, I was expecting a resurgent Liverpool team and was praying that we might be able to nick a point. We had an unchanged side from our win against the Hammers on Monday night, and the squad contained four ex-Liverpool players, Henderson, Kelleher, van den Berg in the line-up with Carvalho on the bench. It took The Bees less than five minutes to open the scoring. Kayode launched in a trademark throw from the left, Ajer made first contact with his head in a crowded six-yard box, and Ouattara’s first-time hooked left-footed volley left their keeper with no chance. Liverpool came within inches of an equaliser midway through the half. Having worked the ball into the box, Wirtz shot just wide of Kelleher’s right post. Then van Dijk only half cleared his lines under pressure from Thiago and Damsgaard seized possession. The Dane skipped forward and saw his dipping effort from 20 yards tipped over the bar by a back-pedalling Mamardashvili. Our persistence was rewarded. After Liverpool surrendered possession, Damsgaard released Schade with a defence-splitting pass. The forward pulled clear of Konaté and stroked the ball beyond Mamardashvili and into the net. Frustratingly for the Bees (as I was praying for the ref to blow for half-time), Liverpool pulled a goal back in the final seconds of the first half. Bradley’s low delivery from the right evaded Ekitiké and Kerkez beat Ouattara to the ball before turning in from close range. We should have cleared Bradley’s cross.

We were the brighter side after the break. Having latched on to van den Berg’s pass over the top, Schade centred for Thiago. The Brazilian’s first touch took him away from goal and Mamardashvili smothered the ball at his near post. The Liverpool keeper then launched himself to his left to deny another great effort from Damsgaard, who had struck sweetly from the edge of the area. We were presented with a huge opportunity to restore our two-goal advantage on the hour mark. After Ouattara was fouled by van Dijk, the referee awarded a free-kick on the edge of the box. However, following a VAR review, a penalty was awarded as replays showed that contact was made inside the area. Thiago made no mistake from the spot, coolly sending Mamardashvili the wrong way to take his tally for the season to seven. Shortly after the restart, Collins and van den Berg made brave defensive blocks after Szoboszlai's low cross from the byline caused chaos in the Bees’ penalty area. Ouattara had great opportunity to increase our lead, but he headed Kayode’s cross wide of the post when it would have been easier to score. Another opportunity fell to him with 84 minutes on the clock. He got across Konaté to meet Lewis-Potter’s arrowed ball into the box, but his glancing header dropped wide. With a minute of normal time to go, we tried to play it out from the back and made a complete mess of it and Szoboszlai’s cross from the right was brought down by Salah with a sublime first touch before he blasted it into the top corner of the net to set up a nervy finish at the Gtech. Liverpool threw the kitchen sink at us during more than 10 minutes of stoppage time (and it didn’t help with Kelleher holding on to the ball for too long and Liverpool being awarded a corner), but we stood firm to secure back-to-back victories in the Premier League.