Liverpool has been held to a goalless draw at home to relegation-threatened Stoke City just four days after their five-star Champions League semi-final performance against Roma.
Mohamed Salah squandered the best chance of the match after just six minutes as Stoke held on to move within three points of safety, although they now have only two games of their season remaining.
Liverpool, meanwhile, edge nine points clear of fifth place, but miss the chance to temporarily move up to second and take a big step towards clinching a top-four spot with two games to spare.
It looked like an ominous sign for the Potters, but they instead learned from their mistake and Liverpool found it more difficult to cut through the visitors as the half wore on.
An end-to-end period of the match then saw Stoke come forward again as Xherdan Shaqiri got in behind the defence before playing a low ball across the area which was just too far in front of Peter Crouch.
Salah, who had been well-marshalled by Erik Pieters since missing his early chance, found himself in some rare space five minutes into the second half when a corner was only cleared as far as him on the edge of the box, but he fired his effort well off target.
Alberto Moreno was the next to try his luck after finding himself in space outside the area, but his low long-range effort zipped a couple of yards wide of the far post.
It wasn’t until the very closing stages that the second half really came to life, and Liverpool were left furious with the officials when they were denied a penalty after Wijnaldum’s cross struck Pieters’s hand inside the area with only three minutes of normal time remaining.
The hosts’ anger was almost compounded just a minute later when Stoke almost ended their 54-game wait for a top-flight win at Anfield in smash-and-grab fashion, with Diouf looping an effort towards the far corner which Shawcross almost turned in at the back post.
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