Aston Villa 1-2 Liverpool – Premier League: Live rating and updates

Offside flag saves Salah’s blushes

That was a Nunez-esque miss from the Egyptian. Gakpo delays a lofted pass into Alexander-Arnold which leaves the right back receiving the ball in an offside position.

Trent wan’t to know that and he played a pinpoint low cross to Salah, who inexplicably ballooned the strike over the bar from all of three yards.

Luckily for him, the assistant quickly raised his flag.

McGinn is struggling

Play pauses as the Villa captain gets treatment. The Scot is feeling the affects of a coming together with Alexis MacAllister some minutes prior.

He should be able to make it to the break but we’ll keep an eye out for weather he returns for the second half.

Liverpool squander a great chance to get a third just as the asisstant indicates we’ll have five more minutes of action in this enthralling first half.

Another one goes begging. It’s a huge chance on his favoured left foot but Diaby blazes his shot high over the bar.

The winger received a pass from McGinn and was through on goal with only Alisson before him. But the Frenchman curled his shot into the stands.

Villa in the ascendancy

Buoyed by the earlier chance, the home side have come roaring back in the last few minutes and their intent has awoken the crowd.

John McGinn had a foray into the Liverpool half before Bailey looked dangerous on the right side. No shots on Alisson’s goal but this is better from the home team.

Harvey Elliot gets his name in the book after kicking the ball away to delay the restart.

For a second it looked as though Klopp had been cautioned by Simon Hooper.

Carlos takes it off Watkins’ foot

The defender misses from point blank range after great work from Bailey. To make matters worse, the Brazilian’s errant touch took the ball away from Watkins stood behind him.

That should have been a second equaliser for the home side. Lucky escape for Klopp’s men.

Gakpo’s strike was the 1,196th goal in the Premier League this season. That’s the second-highest in the competition’s history.

Nervy stuff from the home side

Villa look a threat when they’re up against the Liverpool back line. But with the ball in their own half, it hasn’t been pretty for Emery’s side.

On several occasions they have nearly shot themselves in the foot by giving the ball away in dangerous areas.

It’s already 2-1 and you wouldn’t bet against the scoring being over here.

It was extremely tight that one. Looks to me as if the evidece was inconclusive so there was no basis to disallow the on-field decision.

I can’t believe VAR have actually determined to complete certainty that Gomez was onside there. But there you go. Rant over. Game continues with the Reds in front again.

The Dutchman taps in Gomez’s low cross but this one is going to a VAR check because Gomez might be offside in the build up.

Quansah to the rescue for the visitors. The young defender stuck with Watkins and was able to block his attempted chip over the onrushing Alisson.

Watkins was clean through on goal and will probably now regret going for the extravagent finish.

What a start to the game

Liverpool have responded with a period of dominance but they have been unable to test Martinez again.

If Liverpool can keep feeding Salah then they’ll get more joy down the right with Digne in al sorts of bother.

Tielemans is the scorer but that goal is down to Watkins. The England striker gets a cross in at the byline, which finds Tielemans on the edge of the area.

The former Leicester man was unmarked and used his space to lash his shot past Alisson for the equaliser. Game on!

It’s all Liverpool

Liverpool are pinging the ball around with confidence at the minute. Klopp’s side have come close on two occasions to getting a second.

Villa need to weather this storm. It’s all the Reds and it’s all the Reds supporters, who are making themselves unheard at Villa Park.

Salah nearly makes it two

The forward ghosted past Lucas Digne before curling an effort towards goal. The shot takes a deflection and goes away for a corner.

The home side are shellshocked here.

Nightmare start for Villa and their goalkeeper.

Elliot’s tame cross took a deflection of Torres and fell straight into the Argentine’s hands. But as he fell, he lost his grip on the ball and saw the ball trickle into his net.

And we’re off! Liverpool get the game underway at Villa Park.

Villa Park is rocking and we’re almost ready to go. This is going to be a good one, I’m convinced of it.

Not long left to go. Kick-off is less than 10 minutes away and we’ll be bringing you all the updates as they unfold so stay tuned!

Gary Neville, Sky Sports:

We talk about Klopp and Guardiola being two of the best managers in the world. He is next best in the Premier League. He is because of what he achieved. He’s a guy whose won Europa League. He’s been around the block. He’s won trophies all around basically Europe and he’s coming here and doing it here.

Emery’s men are gearing up for the showdown. Kick off is less than 20 minutes away.

Through Premier League with Aston Villa is really, really a high, high achievement I can take, of course, in different countries.

My achievement I did before, have sometimes been successful. But here, after my experience with Arsenal, we lost at the end moment to play in Champions League. This is my first time, of course, here and in England, in Premier League, and with Aston Villa and of course, is really amazing and my challenge here.

Lewis Steele, Mail Sport:

Andy Robertson missing from Liverpool squad but believe it’s nothing to worry about — he has a minor niggle and has just been given the night off tonight with the Euros just around the corner. Should be ok for Wolves on Sunday

It’s a landmark game for the Liverpool No 1. Alisson Becker will be making his 200th Premier League appearances.

In his previous 199, he has kept 85 clean sheets in 132 wins and let’s not forget his winning goal against West Brom in 2021.

Here are the images of the visitors arriving for tonight’s game. Klopp has the chance to bolster his stellar record in away matches.

Across Premier League history, only Pep Guardiola Alex Ferguson averaged more points per game in away matches than Klopp has (1.89).

Here’s more context on what the former Liverpool defender was talking about.

Julian Ward is poised to make a shock return to Liverpool as technical director of owners Fenway Sports Group as the club continues their reshuffle – just 18 months after leaving the Anfield club as sporting director.

Ward is set to rejoin the club alongside Pedro Marques, who is being poached from Benfica and will be appointed as director of football development by the owners. Both hires are set to officially start on June 1.

It continues a mass overhaul at Anfield following a spree of departures, most noticeably Jurgen Klopp. Former director of football Michael Edwards has returned as CEO of Football at FSG, while Bournemouth transfer guru Richard Hughes is the new sporting director.

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Jamie Carragher, Sky Sports:

I think what’s really interesting at Liverpool is it’s obvious that there’s been this journey with the club and Klopp, with a structure of the club now, FSG, the ownership actually halfway through there, or three quarters of the way through, decided to stick with the manager rather than structure, because they had a, as you’ve just described, a once in a generation manager.

As soon as Jurgen Klopp announced he was moving on, the first thing the ownership did was bring the team back. You know, getting the band back together. Basically everyone who was there at the start of year in Klopp’s time has come back.

I mean, literally everybody. So that tells you there was, there was a fracturous relationship three quarters of the way through. So I actually think the structure behind the new manager, whoever that is, we think it’s going to be Slot from Feyenoord, I think puts Liverpool in it in a healthier place than maybe when Manchester United [lost Ferguson].

‘Hello, Birmingham,’ don’t know about that Tom. All jokes aside, the Forrest Gump actor is a massive Villa fan.

Apparently his allegience dates back to the Martin O’Neil days when a LA neighbour of his couldn’t stop banging on about the team.

What a welcome. If that doesn’t get you in the mood then nothing will. As I mentioned about 50 times already, Villa can do something historic tonight.

They were the defending champions the last time they participated in a European Cup campaign.

Ollie Watkins leads teh line for Villa again tonight and he has the chance to net his 20th Premier League goal of the campaign.

Should he do so, he’ll become the first Villa player since Peter Withe in 1980-81 to score 20 goals in the top-flight.

Watkins also enjoys a great record against Liverpool. Only Brighton have been on the receiving end of the striker’s efforts more times than the Reds.

Yeah, they gave me Simon Hooper. That’s obviously the biggest challenge they could find. But I’m, I’m all right, I should be, I should be fine.

Good football would be cool. Results would be nice as well. So obviously, we play in a situation where pretty much everybody around us is playing for absolutely everything, and we cannot really make a move in the table or something like that.

So but if we really think about it, and if I organize tomorrow, a five a side game, and then the boys go full throttle without any kind of bigger target. So that’s what I want to see. We play for the love of football, for the love of good football. Look left and right, look at the quality we have and use it. And that’s what I want to see.

Only one change for Liverpool as well as Joe Gomez comes in for Andy Robertson at left-back. The front three that started against Tottenham remain, meaning it’s another match with Darwin Nunez starting on the bench.

Tielemans come straight back into the starting line-up. He is the only change from defeat by Olympiakos in midweek.

Matty Cash drops out of the squad for tonight’s game.

It’s been very Villa heavy so far hasn’t? Alright Reds fans, here’s a clip from yesteryear to get you in the mood.

Fernando Torres, 93rd minute winner from 2009. One of the many late winners the Reds have had at this ground over the years.

Two-time Oscar winner and Hollywood royalty Tom Hanks is in attendance tonight. I believe his last trip to the ground was Villa’s 4-2 defeat by Arsenal last season.

He’ll be hoping for better viewing. I’m hoping for the same number of goals.

Gary Neville, Sky Sports:

It could be emotional there tonight, when you think, in their recent history, a club that’s been in the championship, a club that’s nearly got relegated from the Premier League, is absolutely magnificent Aston Villa on the great clubs of my youth, the original, sort of top five, top six.

And then we start to talk about them sort of differently in the last few years, because they sort of, yeah, they spend differently. They fall behind a little bit, and the new sort of wave of clubs come along, like Chelsea, manage the city, but for them to be on the brink of top four this season, I thought they were a good season, but I didn’t think they would get top four.

Tom Collomosse, Mail Sport:

Youri Tielemans is with the Villa squad as they arrive to a spine-tingling welcome from the home supporters.

The midfielder was not involved against Olympiacos last week and his return would be a huge boost.’

Unai Emery’s side are looking to avoud a fourth consecutive defeat in all competitions, having crashed out of the Europa Conference League on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Liverpool have nothing to play for. Man City and Arsenal’s wins this weekend have mathematically ended their title aspirations.

It’s all vibes from here on out.

Tom Collomosse, Mail Sport:

Villa are exhausted but the prize is so close. With performances from key men like Emi Martinez, Ollie Watkins and John McGinn, they will feel they can pull this off.

The Reds boss is one yellow card away from a suspension that would mean a touchline ba for his final game as Liverpool boss. Imagine that, Klopp absent from the sidelines for the emotional scenes on Sunday.

There’s no chance of that happening. Even if he has to channel his inner Jose Mourinho and sneak onto the bench against Wolves.

Regardless, Klopp is adament it won’t come to that, telling reporters he’s known he has had to watch his conduct for a few weeks now.

The flags are out on seats at the ground ahead of the clash, potentially in anticipation of celebratory scenes at full time. Villa can clinch Champions League qualification for the first time with a win tonight.

That could also have ramifications for the title race but we’ll get back to that in due course.

As I alluded to earlier, Liverpool’s record at Villa Park has been brilliant in recent seasons. The Anfield club have lost one of their previous 12 Premier League visits.

However, that result was the bizarre 7-2 in October 2020. And the Villa social media team are understandably keen to remind everyone of Ollie Watkins’ hat-trick on that day.

I’ll admit that this game looked like it would have far more ridding on it a few weeks ago. That shouldn’t detract from what will still likely be an engaging clash between Aston Villla and Liverpool.

It’s the final home game of the season for the Villans, who could secure their first-ever Champions League spot with a win, while the Midlands ground will be the last Jurgen Klopp will experience as a visting Liverpool boss.

The Reds have a superb record at Villa Park and we’ll be bring you all the key facts ahead of the 8pm kick-off. Then make sure you stay with us when the action gets underway!