By Dipo Olowookere
Liverpool suffered their first loss at Brentford in 84 years at the Gtech Community Stadium in an English Premier League on Monday night.
Jurgen Klopp’s men lost 3-1 in Liverpool’s first match of the year. It was their first loss to the Bees since 1938.
Brentford drew the first blood 19 minutes into the game through an own goal by Ibrahima Konate, and the lead was doubled three minutes before half-time by Yoane Wissa.
The scoreline left Liverpool confused in the first half of the match and forced the Anfield outfit to make three substitutions at the resumption of the second 45 minutes of the contest.
The captain’s armband was taken from Virgil Van Dijk and handed over to Robertson, who replaced the Dutch defender.
The introduction of the Scot and two others changed the dimension of the match and produced an instant result as Trent Alexander-Arnold provided an assist for his fellow Englishman, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who reduced the deficit five minutes after the second half resumed. This was just two minutes after Darwin Nunez’s goal was chopped off for offside.
Liverpool looked like it would equalise until Bryan Mbeumo pierced a sword through the hearts of the Reds to restore the two-goal lead in the 84th minute after he overpowered Konate, who looked perplexed, with Liverpool players surrounding the referee, Mr Stuart Attwell, asking for the goal to be disallowed for a foul.
However, the VAR found no substance in their protest, and the goal stood for Brentford, who executed the match without their main striker, Ivan Toney, because of an injury.
The victory over Liverpool has left Thomas Frank’s men just two points behind Klopp’s battalion at seventh on the table after garnering 26 points from 18 games.
Modupe Gbadeyanka