Mohamed Salah missed a penalty as a disjointed Liverpool suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to relegation-threatened Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.
A shadow of the side that destroyed Manchester United 7-0 last week, the Reds saw their Egyptian wing king send a spot kick horribly wide as they succumbed to a first-half Philip Billing strike, which lifted Bournemouth out of the Premier League relegation zone.
Unable to replicate their nine-second Emirates goal, Bournemouth were handed quite the reprieve in the sixth minute of the contest, as Jefferson Lerma made a stunning goal-line clearance from Virgil van Dijk’s header.
While being forced to weather an early Liverpool storm, Bournemouth – and Dango Ouattara in particular – threatened every time they broke forward, and the former Lorient man skipped past Alisson Becker with nine minutes gone, but a heavy touch forced him wide and he could only find the side netting from a tight angle.
Cody Gakpo would find the net four minutes later, but the Dutchman was clearly offside when firing home into the roof of the net from Darwin Nunez’s knock-down, and Gary O’Neil’s side remained defiant in defence as Liverpool quickly ran out of ideas.
The Cherries’ commitment to counter-attacking would pay off in the 28th minute, as Ouattara kept himself onside and skipped past Van Dijk before cutting back for Billing to side-foot home from close range.
Liverpool could have had little complaints about falling behind, but Van Dijk squandered a gilt-edged chance to redeem himself in the 41st minute, meeting an inswinging Andrew Robertson free kick but heading wide from a few yards out.
Jurgen Klopp wasted no time in tweaking his setup, bringing on Diogo Jota for Harvey Elliott at half time, and the Portuguese got stuck in straight away, winning the ball back in midfield, charging forward and forcing a strong save from Neto in the 49th minute.
Despite largely being camped in their own half, the Bournemouth backline continued to hold firm against ineffective Liverpool pressure, and Klopp did not shy away from making a triple substitution in the 65th minute – bringing on Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Roberto Firmino as Trent Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho and Nunez made way.
Just two minutes later, Liverpool screamed for a penalty when Jota’s back-post header hit the outstretched arm of Adam Smith on its way over, and referee John Brooks awarded the spot kick following a brief look at the monitor.
Salah stepped up to the 12-yard mark and sent Neto the wrong way, but in doing so he horribly miscued his attempt at a power strike, sending a wild penalty into the crowd as the Cherries survived a major scare.
Gakpo sent one final half-volley over the bar with seconds remaining, as a well-organised Bournemouth navigated five minutes of injury time to rise into 16th in the table, while Liverpool stay fifth, having missed the chance to rise above Tottenham Hotspur into the Champions League places.
Klopp’s side have little time to recover before Wednesday’s Champions League last-16 second leg against Real Madrid, while Bournemouth visit Aston Villa next weekend.
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