Bournemouth 1 Liverpool 0: Salah with horror penalty miss as Billing brings Reds crashing down after Man Utd mauling
MOHAMMED SALAH skied a penalty as Liverpool are beaten 1-0 at the Vitality.
Cherries top scorer Philip Billing gave Bournemouth the lead in the first half.
The penalty would only have spared the club’s blushes after Philip Billing’s epic 28th-minute opener for Bournemouth.
The Reds would have gone into the game thinking they could have not claimed such an emphatic win against United at a better time.
And they must have been licking their lips at the idea of a trip to rock-bottom Bournemouth – who they thrashed 9-0 earlier in the season.
After all, we enter the business end of the season, Jurgen Klopp’s side were fifth but victory would have seen them leapfrog out-of-sorts Tottenham into fourth.
But write Bournemouth off at your own peril as they claimed only their sixth win of the season to haul themselves out of the drop zone.
And they smelt blood early on with Virgil van Dijk forcing Jefferson Lerma into a remarkable off-the-line clearance with a bullet header.
But Bournemouth hit back strongly with Dominic Solanke picking out Dango Ouattara who made a blistering run – although a heavy touch let him down and he could only lash into the side netting.
Liverpool had seen enough and Andy Robertson stung the hands of Neto with a fierce drive before Cody Gakpo volleyed in from close range but the flag was up straight away.
BETTING SPECIAL – BEST FOOTBALL BETTING SITES IN THE UK
The Cherries survived the onslaught and proved that when given the chance to get comfortable on the ball they can hurt you.
The opener all began with Ouattara’s blistering run, before cutting back for Billing to tap in as the Reds shirked their defensive duties.
There was a quick VAR check for offside but the goal stood.
Van Dijk was then the culprit of a glaring miss with a header smack bang in front of goal from a free kick just before the break.
Tempers flared when he then morphed into a WWE wrestler by dragging Solanke to the floor.
Solanke had a chance up the other end and the red mist descended on fuming Jurgen Klopp who was blasting his players from the touchline.
Jurgen Klopp had seen enough of the first-half display and Diogo Jota came on for Harvey Elliott.
Jota was straight into the thick of things as he drove through the middle before curling a shot towards the far corner but Neto dived well to push it away.
Then on 65 minutes, Klopp turned to his golden oldies, with a triple substitution of James Milner for Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson for Fabinho and Roberto Firmino for Darwin Nunez.
They added some instant oomph and it looked as though the Reds would be handed a lifeline.
There was a VAR check for a handball as the ball struck Adam Smith’s arm in the way of a Jota header.
John Brooks checked the monitor and pointed to the spot, leaving Cherries fans seething.
Up stepped Salah, Liverpool’s record goal-scorer on 129, to spare the club’s blushes against relegation-scrapping Bournemouth.
But jaws hit the deck when the Egyptian striker blazed his spot-kick well wide on 69 minutes.
Here’s how the action unfolded at the Vitality Stadium…