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Brentford breaks 85-year drought with huge upset over Liverpool

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2nd January, 2023
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Liverpool’s top-four hopes have been dented after Brentford capitalised on woeful defending to win 3-1 at an ecstatic Brentford Community Stadium.

The Bees’ first win against Liverpool since 1938 was delivered through goals from Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbuemo, after Ibrahima Konate’s own goal.

Former Liverpool legend turned commentator Michael Owen believes their season could be over after the shock loss.

“No way did Liverpool deserve anything out of that game. I started the show saying I fancy Liverpool to get into the top four but after today it’s a little bit of a worry,” said Owen during Matchday Live on Optus Sport.

“I still think they’re one of the four best teams in the country but the worst thing is after 17 games of the season they’re out of the title race – they can’t win the league really.

“I still think that they’re going to be very competitive, but in an area we shouldn’t really be talking about – top four should be a given for this team, this manager and this set of players.

“Now we’re all debating ‘are they going to get there?’ which isn’t good enough for Liverpool. They’re out of the title race after 17 games. That’s just not good.”

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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp wasn’t happy with Brentford’s final goal, telling beIN Sports that dealing with the officials was ‘exactly the same as I would talk to my microwave.’

“The third goal should not be a goal, easy as that. If you’ve ever played football and been in a foot sprint and you get a slight push you go down because you cannot keep balance. That’s how it is and you could see that,” said Klopp on his way to the post-match conference.

“That’s actually exactly the same as I’d talk to my microwave. You get no response really. It’s always the same. Before the season they give us advice that the players must be careful in these moments because the refs will have an eye on it and you see these games and pretty much everything is allowed. It’s always on the edge.”

Losing 2-0 at half-time on Monday Klopp rang the changes, including replacing Virgil van Dijk, and Liverpool had hope thanks to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s 50th-minute header.

Yet Mbuemo pounced on Konate’s mistake late on to kill the game off and snap Liverpool’s four-match winning streak in the Premier League.

An Mbeumo shot was palmed away for a corner early on, but Brentford had their opener from the resulting set-piece – Konate diverting into his own net from Mbeumo’s inswinger.

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Brentford’s threat from corners continued, with Wissa – who replaced injured talisman Ivan Toney – twice having the ball in the net, only for the offside flag to come to Liverpool’s salvation.

Wissa would not be denied a third time though, heading home from Mathias Jensen’s cross, with Alisson unable to scoop the ball away before it crossed the line.

Klopp made a triple-change at the break and it looked to have made an immediate impact when Darwin Nunez lashed in, but a VAR check showed he was offside.

Liverpool had one back shortly after when Oxlade-Chamberlain met Trent Alexander-Arnold’s sublime cross on his 100th league appearance for the Reds.

Yet having weathered the storm, Brentford wrapped up a memorable, deserved victory with six minutes remaining, Mbuemo muscling Konate off the ball before drilling beyond Alisson.

Wissa said: “Crazy, we know Liverpool are one of the best teams in the world so if you want to beat them you have to be at 100 per cent, so I hope the fans enjoyed it but we worked so hard because we stayed together.”

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The win moved Brentford into seventh, above Chelsea, and two points behind sixth-place Liverpool.

© AAP

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