Key events
That touchline row: Salah v Klopp
Asked by TNT if he can shed any light on the touchline tirade aimed at him by Mo Salah, Jurgen Klopp’s answer is fairly short and to the point. “No, but we have discussed it already in the dressing-room and for me it’s done,” he says.
Cody Gakpo’s opportunism: It seems the reason Gakpo didn’t put the ball in the net when Alphonse Areola threw it in front of him ready to resume play that time is because Anthony Taylor blew his whistle, signalling him to stop.
Taylor had no reason to blow his whistle because the ball hadn’t gone out of play and no foul had been committed. If Gakpo had been allowed and able to take the ball around Areola and roll it into the empty net, the goal would have been completely legitimate.
Cody Gakpo: “The result was obviously not the result we wanted,” the Liverpool player tells TNT Sports. “We came here for the three points. I think we played a good game; first half we controlled the game but then we conceded. It was difficult to come back but we scored two goals and then we just had to stay more calm, keep the ball … and don’t concede any more, but we did. It was not the result we wanted.”
A quick recap: Luis Diaz hit the post before Jarrod Bowen headed West Ham in front at the end of an otherwise uneventful and dreary first half, before proceedings livened up after the break. An opportunistic effort from Andy Robertson restored parity for Liverpool, who went ahead when a Cody Gakpo shot at a corner ricocheted in off Ogbonna, Soucek and finally Areola.
West Ham’s goalkeeper was forced to make several good saves to keep West Ham in the game, before Jarrod Bowen turned provider and teed up Michail Antonio to take advantage of some more woeful Liverpool marking. Harvey Elliott hit the woodwork late in an entertaining second half. Whatever about the on-field action, Salah’s angry confrontation with Jurgen Klopp on the touchline is likely to be a major talking point.
Full-time: West Ham 2-2 Liverpool
Peep! Peep! Peeeeeeeep! The game ends all square, with both teams taking a point that isn’t much use to either of them. The first half was dire, the second was great – if only there was some sort of cliche to describe such an encounter. We’ll bring you post-match reaction and see if we can find out what prompted Mo Salah’s very public act of insubordination against his manager on the touchline as he waited to come on.
90+4 min: Free-kick for West Ham. Ward-Prowse floats the ball into the Liverpool penalty area from deep, where Michail ANtonio chests it down but is unable to get a shot off. It’s all over …
90+3 min: Vladimir Coufal deals with a cross from by chesting the ball back to his goalkeeper with the power of 10,000 suns. Alphonse Areola probably wasn’t expecting to have to deal with such a violently struck pass, but gets behind the ball.
90+2 min: James Ward-Prowse floats a free-kick from deep towards the edge of the Liverpool penalty area. West Ham clear.
88 min: Harvey Elliott sees a shot hit the bar as Liverpool make another change. Dominik Szoboszlai is on for Jarell Quansah.
87 min: There’s a moment of ingenuity from Gakpo, who sprints to the ball after Areola had tossed it to the ground in front of him, as if to take a kick-out. The West Ham goalkeeper seemed to think he had a free-kick but there’s no evidence that any was awarded after he’d gone down injhured after catching a high ball under his cross-bar. If Gakpo had actually rolled the ball into the West Ham goal, I’m not sure Anthony Taylor would have had any grounds to disallow it. But he didn’t, so we’ll never know.
84 min: Brilliant defending from Coufal, who slides in to intercept a low pass from Salah towards Nunez at the near post. The Liverpool substitute looked nailed on to score there.
79 min: Liverpool have made a triple-substitution: Mo Salah, Darwin Nunez and Joe Gomes are on for Luis Diaz, Wataru Endo and Trent Alexander-Arnold. As the subs were waiting to come on, Mo Salah seemed to be having a very animated rant at Jurgen Klopp. There was a lot of finger-pointing from the Egyptian in the direction of his manager, who was standing a few feet away, pointedly ignoring him.
78 min: We’ve had more excitement in the past 90 seconds than we did in the entire first half but we’ve got a proper game on our hands now. A draw isn’t much use to either side, with Liverpool needing a win to keep their faint hopes of winning the league alive, while West Ham need all three points to maintain their push for a place in Europe.
GOAL! West Ham 2-2 Liverpool (Antonio 77)
West Ham equalise! Bowen crosses into the Liverpool penalty area from the right. Antonio drifts into the large gap between Alexander-Arnold and Quansah and heads past Alisson.
76 min: Michail Antonio sends a cross into the Liverpool penalty area, where Alisson flaps at it under pressure from Paqueta. Liverpool clear their lines but not for long … Alisson is forced to save splendidly from Emerson’s effort.
74 min: West Ham substitution: James Ward-Prowse comes on for Thomas Soucek. Lucas Paqueta will, presumably move further up the pitch while the substitute sits in a deeper role.
73 min: Coufal sends a cross into the Liverpool penalty area, where Quansah heads clear. Liverpool break upfield and Areola is forced into action again, saving from Diaz after the Liverpool winger had cut inside Kurt Zouma from the left.
70 min: Luis Diaz and then Alexis Mac Allister are both denied by Areola from close range in quick succession. Diaz had a low shot from a tight angle saved by the goalkeeper’s feet. Areola then kept out Mac Allister’s header from a Gakpo dink over the top.
67 min: The official verdict of the Premier League is that it goes down as an Areola own goal, which seems a little harsh if irrelevant. The goalkeeper was the last person the ball cannoned off before it crossed the line, but there would have been no goal were it not for the massive deflection off Ogbonna from Gakpo’s shot.
GOAL! West Ham 1-2 Liverpool (Areola 65og)
Liverpool lead! Liverpool win a corner, the ball is floated towards towards Gakpo at the far post. His volley takes a wicked deflection off Ogbonna, before hitting both Soucek and Areola on its way into the back of the net.
63 min: West Ham struggle to clear after Diaz plays the ball towards Gakpo in the West Ham penalty area. The Dutchman goes to ground but still tries to steer the ball goalwards under pressure from Ogbonna, who is standing over him but wary of commiting a foul and conceding a penalty.
60 min: Jarrod Bowen and Virgil van Dijk go down in a tangle after the West Ham goalscorer had been fouled by Robertson and knocked over the Liverpool captain with his momentum as he went to ground. Bowen rises to his feet nursing a sore elbow, while Van Dijk also seems to have hurt himself. Both players are fit to continue.
59 min: Elliott cuts in from the right and curls a cross towards the far post. Vladimir Coufal leaps to head clear.
57 min: Liverpool continue to dominate with West Ham struggling to get a touch of the ball. Trent Alexander-Arnold tries his luck with a dipping diagonal shot from outside the West Ham penalty area that looks bound for the bottom corner. Areola dives to his left to save well.
56 min: Angelo Ogbonna makes a crucial block as Cody Gakpo was shaping to pull the trigger from a good position in the West Ham box. West Ham are on the ropes in the early stages of this second half.
54 min: Performing a sort of pirouette as he tries to connect with a Gakpo ball towards the edge of the six-yard box, Gravenberch fails to make any contact and another good chance for Liverpool goes to waste. The visitors have really upped their game in this second half, presumably on the back of a half-time rocket from Jurgen Klopp.
51 min: That was quite the lucky goal for Robertson, whose effort was extremely speculative. With no other options available to him he sent a fairly weak shot goalwards from about 12 yards after having the ball played to his feet by Diaz. It went in off the post, despite Areola getting a hand to the ball.
GOAL! West Ham 1-1 Liverpool (Robertson 48)
Liverpool equalise! In a crowded penalty area, shooting with barely any backlift, Robertson sends a side-footed effort off the post and past Areola, who we’ll charitably say was unsighted as Angelo Ogbonna was standing in his way. The goalkeeper got a hand to the ball but could not keep it out.
47 min: Luis Diaz plays the ball into the path of Gravenberch on the edge of the West Ham penalty area but the Liverpool midfielder blasts the ball high over the bar.
Second half: West Ham 1-0 Liverpool
46 min: With his players sleepwalking their way to another defeat, it’s a surprise that Jurgen Klopp hasn’t made any changes in personnel at half-time, but the teams remain unchanged for now.
An email: “That is the 23rd time Liverpool have hit the post this campaign,” writes Declan Brennan. “Nice to see it wasn’t Nunez this time though; nine for him alone this season.” Like Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Liverpool clearly respect wood.
That goal: West Ham took a quick corner while Liverpool’s defenders were completely switched off. Emerson played the ball short to Kudus, who curled a cross into the penalty area while a couple of Liverpool defenders (hello Virgil and Trent) were quite obviously not paying attention. As the ball came into the box, Bowen rose completely unchallenged to powerfully nod home his 20th goal of the season.
Half-time: West Ham 1-0 Liverpool
Peep! A very pedestrian and largely uneventful first half meanders towards its conclusion with no sign of a reaction from Liverpool. Jarrod Bowen’s goal was the highlight of a half in which not a great deal else of note happened. Liverpool’s players look to have thrown in the towel as far as keeping their extremely faint title hopes alive is concerned.
45 min: Jurgen Klopp is appalled by what he’s just seen and it’s no surprise. He’s watched his team go behind again, conceding from a set-piece … again. Bowen, who is not a big man, was surrounded by Liverpool players as he leapt unchallenged in the box to power that excellent header home. A tip of the hat to Mohammed Kudus, whose delivery was excellent.
GOAL! West Ham 1-0 Liverpool (Bowen 44)
West Ham lead! Moments after going close with a deflected shot that Alisson was forced to put behind, Jarrod Bowen rises unmarked to head home from the corner. Liverpool concede the first goal for the 16th time in the Premier League this season.
42 min: Bowen whips a free-kick from deep over the top of Liverpool’s high defensive line. Soucek gets in behind and flings himself in the direction of the ball but is unable to get the crucial touch on it.
40 min: On the ball in the West Ham penalty area, Luis Diaz fires a shot through a gap between Coufal and Soucek only to see his effort strike the foot of the post. That’s the nearest we’ve come to a goal so far.
39 min: Retrieving an overhit cross from Harvey Elliott near the byline, Luis Diaz lays the ball off to Cody Gakpo in a good position. The Dutchman blasts the ball high and wide with the outside of his right foot.
38 min: Coufal sends a long, hopeful hoof down the pitch from deep only to see the ball bounce out of play for a throw-in. It’s that kind of game …
34 min: Liverpool continue to dominate possession but West Ham look more dangerous on their sorties forward in a game that has a real end-of-season, nothing-to-play-for feel about it. Both sets of players seem to be doing little more than going through the motions, while the atmosphere in the stands is pancake flat.
33 min: Harvey Elliott has the ball played his way in a good position by Mac Allister and shoots low, hard and straight at Alphonse Areola.
31 min: A half-chance for West Ham, as Paqueta sends the ball into the Liverpool penalty area. The ball doesn’t drop kindly for Bowen but squirms towards Coufal. The full-back’s low drive takes a nick off a defender but is saved by Alisson.
30 min: Wataru Endo is booked for a tactical foul on Kudus.