Mohamed Salah scored his 150th goal for Liverpool and Luis Diaz got his first in a come-from-behind 3-1 win over Norwich City.
Liverpool went into the game knowing it was a good opportunity to keep the pressure on league leaders Manchester City. But relegation-threatened Norwich gave them a tough test. Indeed, they actually went in front before goals from the front three of Sadio Mane, Salah and Diaz turned things around for the Reds.
Alisson was the first goalkeeper called into action when he had to make a save from a Max Aarons cross.
The visitors then thought they had taken the lead when Milot Rashica scored, but he had been offside.
At the other end, it should have been Liverpool to go in front when Kostas Tsimikas got on the end of a cross from Salah. However, he could only aim over the bar from inside the six-yard box.
Another defender had their next chance of note, too; Virgil van Dijk forced a save from Angus Gunn after a header from a Mane cross.
But Norwich went close again when Teemu Pukki found space in the Liverpool box and aimed wide after Brandon Williams’ set-up.
Chances were flowing for both sides, with Diaz going close to a first Liverpool goal and Matthias Norman next having to clear a Salah header off the Norwich line.
The ball was in the Norwich net when van Dijk finished from close range. Alas, he was offside, so like Norwich’s earlier strike, it did not count and the sides went in at the break all square.
Liverpool fight back after conceding first
It did not take long in the second half for the deadlock to be broken – by Norwich. The away side took the lead in the 48th minute when Josh Sargent picked out Rashica, whose shot looped into the net via Joel Matip.
Liverpool knew they had to step it up. There were appeals for a penalty and a VAR check when Mane went down in the box, but they did not get a decision their way.
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Mane made that of little consequence when he found the equaliser for them in the 64th minute. From inside the area, he acrobatically finished to level things up.
And three minutes later, Liverpool went in front for the first time on the day. Salah got his 150th goal for the club by latching onto a long ball from Alisson and calmly beating Gunn.
1⃣5⃣0⃣ goals in 233 games
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𝙎𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡.
pic.twitter.com/DleK1V8NdE
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) February 19, 2022
The Egyptian forward had a chance to make it 3-1, but curled his attempt wide.
Instead, it would be his new teammate Luis Diaz to get the third goal for the hosts – and his first for the club.
Captain Jordan Henderson picked out the Colombian forward, who dinked the ball over Gunn to make the lead more comfortable.
It could have increased further when Mane curled an effort narrowly wide. But the two-goal lead still turned out to be enough as an eventful match came to a close.
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