Premier League: Liverpool Beat Crystal Palace To Maintain Table Lead
On the other hand, Palace could have had a point off the game had the VAR not ruled out James Tomkins' goal following a free-kick. The electronic device upheld a foul being committed by Dejan Lovren and the referee ruled out the goal and awarded a free-kick to Liverpool instead.
The controversial ruling may be deemed favouring the table leaders but the push was clearly intentional. Nonetheless, Sadio Mane set the side off in the path to victory and carefully finishing Andrew Robertson's cross just after the break.
Sadio Mane scores the opening goal and his fifth goal in five games in a row |
Before the fate of the game was decided by Firmino in the 85th minutes, he had come close twice to doubling the lead for Reds and Christian Benteke bicycle-kick could have been a leveler for Palace but Wilfried Zaha scored the equalizer with eight minutes remaining to play.
The winning goal would end Firmino's goal drought in nine games whilst the side's Mohamed Salah was on the bench throughout the game owing to an ankle injury.
Recalling the VAR incident, the device has split football lovers and analysts in two half; one side believes it is not right for the beauty of the game whilst others believe it can be improved or just right for the sport.
In the latter is Reds' manager Jurgen Klopp, who called for improvements to be made to the use of the device at UEFA Coaches' Conference earlier this week.
"The players should be congratulating themselves on taking a point from the leader but it wasn't to be," said Palace manager Roy Hodgson. " Throughout there was not an awful lot of clear-cut chances. That was testament to the defensive work we did throughout the team."
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