An amazing statistic has come to the fore online this evening, following Liverpool’s victory over Southampton.
Matchup
The two sides went head to head at St. Mary’s, with Jurgen Klopp’s men eager to get back to winning ways after Tottenham’s late-show saw the Reds drop two points last time out.
Southampton, meanwhile, headed into today’s clash on an impressive 6-match unbeaten streak across all competitions, with the Saints’ last outing culminating in a thrilling 3-2 victory over West Brom at the Hawthorns.
2-0
Liverpool were viewed as the clear favourites heading into this evening’s matchup, with the Merseyside giants taking little time to prove exactly why following kick-off.
With just 6 minutes on the clock, a long ball forward towards Mohamed Salah saw Wesley Hoedt fluff his attempted clearance, allowing Salah to slide a perfectly-weighted ball across to the incoming Roberto Firmino on the edge of the home side’s box.
Firmino slotted his ensuing finish home with aplomb, before the Reds’ brilliant attacking duo combined once again to double Liverpool’s lead shortly before half-time.
Firmino was the creator on this occasion, though, with the former Hoffenheim star having produced what many have since referred to as the ‘assist of the season’ in setting Salah up.
After Salah played the ball into Firmino’s feet 5 yards outside Southampton’s box, the South American proceeded to slide his teammate through on goal with the most sumptuous of flicked passes with his instep, with Salah going on to finish in typically-cool style.
Result
And this is how things stayed for the remainder of the clash, with the Saints struggling to create clear-cut goalscoring opportunities over the course of the second-half, whereas Liverpool could easily have added to their goal tally through the likes of Salah, Firmino and Sadio Mane.
Similarities
Today’s win marked a milestone in the career of Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp, in that it was the German tactician’s 50th victory in the Premier League.
As such, as outlined by the statistic below, Klopp’s experience in the English top-flight to this point has proven remarkably similar to that of the man that he actually replaced on the bench at Anfield, current Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers:
Jürgen Klopp records his 50th #PL win as manager of @LFC in his 95th fixture in charge – his predecessor Brendan Rodgers also claimed his 50th win in his 95th PL match #SOULIV #LFC
— Gracenote Live (@GracenoteLive) February 11, 2018
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