By Olukayode Olumuyiwa.
Liverpool’s incredible downturn continued with a calamitous 4-1 home defeat against PSV Eindhoven in the UEFA Champions League. This loss means Liverpool have now lost three games in a row while conceding three or more goals in each, escalating the sense of crisis at Anfield. The pressure on Liverpool boss Arne Slot is increasing in the dugout, and his position now comes under even greater scrutiny following this result.
The match began badly for the home side when Virgil van Dijk’s “moment of madness” led him to handle an early PSV corner inside the area. Ivan Perišić coolly assumed responsibility from 12 yards and found the bottom corner to hand the Dutch side a surprise lead. However, Liverpool swiftly responded on level terms, just as they had failed to rally from behind in their previous Saturday’s defeat against Nottingham Forest. Cody Gakpo’s initial effort was saved by Matěj Kovář, but only as far as Dominik Szoboszlai, who tapped into an empty net from 12 yards.
Liverpool were on the front foot for most of the half, applying intense pressure that forced Kovář into a fine one-handed save to deny Hugo Ekitike from firing Slot’s side into what would’ve been a deserved halftime lead. Liverpool also came within an inch of taking the lead when Van Dijk’s header crashed back off the underside of the crossbar. PSV thought they’d nosed themselves back in front just moments later through Yarek Gasiorowski, who fired home a rebound from inside the six-yard box, but an offside in the build-up quickly ended his celebrations.
Despite feeling they ought to have led, Liverpool found themselves behind again a little over 10 minutes after the restart. The beauty of PSV’s second goal was in the assist, as Mauro Júnior threaded an inch-perfect pass through for Guus Til, who made no mistake in firing past Giorgi Mamardashvili. Liverpool’s cause wasn’t helped by an injury to Ekitike, forcing an unwanted like-for-like change to introduce Alexander Isak. Incredibly, Liverpool’s situation went from bad to worse a little over 15 minutes from time. An Ibrahima Konaté mistake was pounced upon by Ricardo Pepi, and after his initial effort crashed back off the post, Couhaib Driouech was on hand to tap into an empty net.
Slot rolled the dice in the closing stages by taking Konaté off for Chiesa, but it was always likely to be too little, too late, as they’d simply left themselves with too much work to do. The pressure on Slot’s shoulders now weighs even heavier. This will go down as one of the most famous nights in PSV’s European history, and they capped it off in stoppage time when Driouech added a fourth to prompt a mass exodus towards the Anfield exits, confirming a miserable 4-1 defeat for the hosts.
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