Even once Liverpool took control in the final half-hour there rarely seemed any sense to its shifts in momentum. Like a leaf in a windstorm, for long periods it tumbled gently in no particular direction, before zigging and zagging through a series of sudden, unexpected and often inexplicable turns. It was an extraordinary match in a bewildering and often underwhelming way, stuffed with a combination of the surprising and the indefensible.
Two goals came from centre-backs giving the ball away, two from the penalty spot, one from an inexplicable handball, one (scored by the goalkeeper's team) from a goalkeeping fumble, another from the same keeper not so much coming for the ball as going for a stroll in its general direction. Goals are generally considered the high points of a game of football; here, with one wonderful exception, the opposite was true. "My overriding feeling is frustration that the goals were so poor," Russell Martin, the Southampton manager, said. "If they produce a moment of magic you can maybe accept it a bit more but the quality of the goals was so bad. So bad."
This story is from the November 25, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the November 25, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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