Liverpool scored twice in second-half stoppage time to beat Brentford 2-0 and keep up their push for the Premier League title.
Thomas Frank’s Bees were resilient for 90 minutes but couldn’t hold out having conceded 37 shots in total, as the Reds came away from west London with all three points.
Arne Slot’s side had already dropped points at Nottingham Forest this week, and needed a better result here before Arsenal’s match with Aston Villa kicked off later in the day. Fortunately for the visitors, they were rewarded for their endeavours with a grandstand finish.
The hosts ought to have been ahead inside five minutes, with Mads Roerslev nipping to the byline and flashing a cross right through the six-yard box, but neither Yoane Wissa or Mikkel Damsgaard could sort their feet out in time to tap home.
Liverpool took a while to settle into the game and had to wait until the 35th minute to go particularly close to an opener, as Dominik Szoboszlai thundered a strike from distance off the crossbar. Soon after, Cody Gakpo failed to make good of a free shot towards the back post after being found by Mohamed Salah, only for his weak effort to be easily collected and cleared.
After the break, the Reds wanted a penalty after Mark Flekken spilled a shot from Luis Diaz and appeared to clip the Colombian when scrambling for the loose ball, only for their appeals to be dismissed by the referee and VAR.
Arne Slot’s side piled on the pressure in search of a winning goal and came close to that in the final ten minutes when Trent Alexander-Arnold lashed a strike narrowly past the far post, while Virgil van Dijk was in the right place at the right time to slice over a Kevin Schade cross down the other end.
But into added time at the end of the 90 minutes, Liverpool grabbed that all-important goal. In an opening eerily similar to Brentford’s first chance of the day, Alexander-Arnold found space to nip to the edge of the pitch and he cut back for Darwin Nunez to convert.
Liverpool and Nunez weren’t done their, either. The Bees pushed everyone forward in search of an equaliser, allowing Harvey Elliott to tee up the Uruguayan to thump home.
GOAL rates Liverpool’s players from the Gtech Community Stadium…