Key events
74 min: A word on Liverpool’s attackers. Salah has barely kicked a ball this second half. I would suggest that while Gakpo is a neat enough footballer, he isn’t elite and won’t win you a Premier League title or the Champions League if he is the main man. A good first reserve, perhaps. Perhaps Gakpo will be transformed next season under a new Dutch manager and I will eat my words. Perhaps not.
72 min: This game could easily be 5-3 to Villa.
70 min: Villa are having all sorts of joy down that right flank. The ball is cut back to Zaniolo on the penalty spot, and Italian fires his shot on target, but Alisson gets down well to his left. Liverpool break, and McGinn trips Diaz. The Scot is the first player this evening to be booked, a caution he accepts with no complaints.
69 min: Bailey is the latest to break free of Liverpool’s defenders but Gomez makes a cracking covering tackle to keep the Jamaican at bay.
68 min: Liverpool look awfully shaky at the back and Diaby again gets in behind the Reds’ defence. It’s a tight angle and the Frenchman fires into the side netting with his right foot. A poor effort.
67 min: Villa Park is a special place. The noise is absolutely deafening as the home fans roar their team forward with their own rendition of ‘Allez, Allez, Allez’.
65 min: Villa make a change: Zaniolo comes on for Tielemans, which means McGinn will move into the middle from the left of midfield.
“Re: Zaniolo – I think he’s done okay, and I’d be keeping him around if it was me; he’s produced more than Diaby, who has really not lived up to his promise and has been quite a frustrating watch this season,” emails Benjamin Gravestock. “Re: Mings, I’d suggest that Carlos, Konsa and Torres are all ahead of him in the pecking order. Clemens Lenglet has been little short of a liability, which is a shame; I don’t see Mings walking back into the side, though”.
63 min: “I hope Southgate is paying due attention to Harvey Elliot whose touches are simply sublime,” emails Colum Fordham. “The match sums up Liverpool’s season. Flashes of brilliance followed by defensive errors.”
Elliott is certainly playing his way into the conversation. With Henderson injured and out of form for Ajax, there’s definitely a midfield spot to be had. Maybe James Maddison could lose his spot as well? Adam Wharton and Kobbie Mainoo are also surely contenders to be called up.
61 min: What a game this is, by the way.
GOAL DISALLOWED!
59 min: Liverpool are next to have a goal chalked off for offside, and it’s another close one. Diaz races clean through on goal, squares it to Elliott, who taps the ball into the empty net. But VAR have a look, and it’s ruled out.
56 min: The second half is eerily similar to the first. Early Liverpool goal, Villa roaring back into it. The home side have yet to find a goal though.
54 min: Alisson so nearly punished for some sloppy play at the back! Watkins gets a toe on the goalkeeper’s clearance, Diaby picks up the loose ball in Liverpool’s area, squares back to Watkins. The striker is facing away from goal and tries a backheel finish, but completely mishits it! Villa fans are bereft.
53 min: Some real tension between Villa teammates Bailey and Watkins, with the latter arguing that Bailey should have held his run, or left it to Diaby (who was just behind). Ridiculous defending from Liverpool, who got away with it there. Villa have one of the quickest attacks in world football with Diaby-Watkins-Bailey. What on earth are they doing playing a defensive line up near the half-way line?!
GOAL DISALLOWED!
52 min: Villa have the ball in the net after a suicidal defensive line from Liverpool … Bailey races through on the right, checked back, passed square to Watkins who sidefooted the ball past Alisson! That’s 20 league goals for the season for the striker is it? No! VAR rules the goal out for offside. Bailey was just off.
50 min: Emery will be fuming. The cross from Elliott and header from Quansah was delightful but that goal was as much to do with a lack of concentration from Villa.
GOAL! Aston Villa 1-3 Liverpool (Quansah 48)
Liverpool start the second half like a train, just as they did the first! Elliott whips a brilliant free-kick to the back post and Quansah rises impossibly high and plants a pinpoint header in off the far post! Martínez didn’t move!
Peeeeeep! We’re off again at Villa Park.
Half-time reading:
If xG is your thing, go outside a bit more. That said, Diego Carlos really should have equalised for Aston Villa. 0.99!
Half-time: Aston Villa 1-2 Liverpool
That’s a great half of football. And a nice scoreline if you are a Tottenham fan.
45+4 min: Scrappy end to the half. Gakpo, Elliott and McGinn all lose possesion unnecessarily.
45+2 min: McGinn is down, he’s clutching his ribs. Looks like it was that coming-together with Mac Allister. Looks like he’s going to be OK to continue, but the Scot is not particularly happy.
45 min: Liverpool break at pace and suddenly it’s two on two at the back! Diaz breaks the offside trap but his pass to Salah is poor and mis-timed, and the Egyptian is forced wide. Aston Villa recover. Five minutes added on here.
43 min: Liverpool are all over the shop! Endo loses the ball cheaply in midfield and Diaby races through on goal. He’s clean through … but blazes his finish over the bar! That was nowhere near the goal.
41 min: Decent stat, this.
1,196 – Coady Gakpo’s strike to put Liverpool 2-1 up against Aston Villa was the 1,196th Premier League goal of 2023-24 making it the outright second highest scoring season in the competition’s history after 1992-93 (1,222). Captivating. pic.twitter.com/WLiPoQrhWR
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) May 13, 2024
39 min: Some nasty challenges flying around now, Diaz on Konsa, Mac Allister on McGinn. Villa pressing for the equaliser, Digne winning a corner off Alexander-Arnold: Konsa wins the knock down but Liverpool scramble the ball clear.
MISS OF THE SEASON KLAXON!
36 min: SOMEBODY SOUND THE MISS OF THE SEASON KLAXON. Crikey. This is some miss from Diego Carlos, who somehow conspires to miss a tap in from a yard out! Liverpool make a mess of clearing a free-kick, the ball bounces around the penalty box, before Diaby finds some space, drives to the byline and rolls a perfect cross across the six-yard box. Alisson is beaten and Villa have two (!) men on the back post: Diego Carlos and Watkins. But the big Brazilian slices his finish which not only fails to find the net, but also takes it off the toes of Watkins. Instead, the ball trickles wide! Emery can’t believe it. Nobody can.
33 min: What a lovely, awkward little player McGinn is. Beats Alexander-Arnold and Quansah with some silky skills but sees his shot blocked.
31 min: Interesting to see Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna chatting with England manager Gareth Southgate in the stands. I wonder if the pair have had any words about the potential Manchester United vacancy in the summer …
29 min: A lively, even game on our hands, although Liverpool have had 64% possession.
27 min: The cameras cut to Tyrone Mings, who hasn’t kicked a ball since the opening day of the season. Hope the 6ft5in defender is on the mend, but I wonder if there’s space for the 31-year-old in this squad when he returns. An important player in the past, but feels slightly out of sync with this incarnation of Aston Villa.
25 min: “First time I encountered footballers carrying their children was at a cup final,” emails Neil Tully. “Interviewer asked a player, ‘can he talk yet?’ The child replied ‘no, but he’s getting better’”.
GOAL! Aston Villa 1-2 Liverpool (Gakpo 23)
Clinging on, or ahead?! Classic MBMers curse, there. Villa’s defence is all over the shop. Gomez makes the overlap from left back and suddenly the home side are exposed down their right. Gomez shoots first time, Martínez can only get a finger on the effort and Gakpo taps in at the back post. There’s a VAR check for offside with Gomez, but after a lengthy delay, the goal is awarded!
21 min: Quansah makes another block, this time from Bailey! Liverpool clinging on a little here.
19 min: Konsa makes a sensational slide tackle on Gakpo on the edge of the area and Villa break! Bailey slips in Watkins, who beats the offside trap, bears down on goal … but Quansah gets back to make a crucial block. Credit to the young Liverpool defender there, but Watkins rather dallied with his shot.
17 min: After a really poor start to the game, Villa are motoring now. Bailey and Diaby picking up the ball in pockets of space between midfield and force a corner, Van Dijk shepherding the former away from danger.
15 min: That’s another assist for Watkins – nobody has more in the Premier League this season. Add that to his 19 league goals, and this is a generational season.
GOAL! Aston Villa 1-1 Liverpool (Tielemans 13)
Villa are level! For the first time this evening, Watkins finds some space on the left flank. He ghosts past Quansah – really poor from the Liverpool defender – cuts the ball back to the penalty spot, where an unmarked Tielemans is waiting. The Belgian hits it first time through a crowd of bodies and into the net!
12 min: Liverpool hits the post! Digne is all at sea at left back, and Salah chips a lovely cross into Diaz. The Colombian’s header is saved and Gakpo’s rebound shot hits the post! Replays show Diaz was actually offside but neither Villa or Liverpool knew that.
10 min: Villa’s first attack of substance as Diaby makes a nice run to the byline, cuts the ball back to Bailey but the Jamaican mishits what was a fairly easy shot with his weaker right foot/swinger. A good chance wasted!
8 min: “Many, many debts of horribleness repaid”, emails Charles Antaki. “Can someone take Martinez aside and whisper gently in his ear: ‘karma’”.
Not sure I agree with ‘horribleness’. The crotch groin at the World Cup was a bit much but I generally quite enjoy Martínez’s wind-up antics.
6 min: Martínez and Neuer both have a claim to being the world’s best keeper. Both have made awful clangers in the last week.
4 min: No nearly 2-0! Inches wide for Salah, who cuts inside Digne with extreme ease and fires towards the far post. Once again it hits Pau Torres, but this time deflects just wide of Martínez’s post. The Villa keeper wasn’t getting there if it crept inside the post.
GOAL! Aston Villa 0-1 Liverpool (Martínez og 2)
Horrendous start for Villa! Elliott plays a one-two with Salah and crosses from the byline. It hits Pau Torres but is a pretty regulation catch for Martínez … but the World Cup winner drops the ball and then accidentally pushes the ball into his own net as he tries to collect the loose ball!
Peeeeeeep! We’re off in the West Midlands.
The teams are out! Villa’s players are carrying their own children out with them. Most of the kids have ‘Daddy’ emblazoned on their backs, which is quite cute. I’m not entirely sure what the reason is for their presence, though.
Villa fans, what have you made of Nicolò Zaniolo this season? Haven’t watched closely but from what I’ve seen, the midfielder has been underwhelming and looks set to go back to Galatasaray at the end of his loan spell, with Villa reportedly opting against paying the £23.2m option-to-buy clause. Fiorentina have been linked with bringing him back to Italy.
Zaniolo was such a talent when he came through at Roma, before a knee injury and contract issues derailed him slightly. But there’s still definitely a player in there, and he’s still just 24.
John McGinn, Villa’s captain, was speaking prior to tonight’s game.
I think we owe the supporters a performance. We owe ourselves a performance after the effort throughout the season, the graft every single day coming in. It has been a long hard season with many [games] on the road but certainly one to be proud of. We don’t want to stop short. We know what we have to do. It is in our hands.
Tom Hanks is a good egg, isn’t he.
Football Weekly has landed, for your listening pleasure.
Jürgen Klopp should be on his best behaviour tonight. If he’s not, there could be quite an awkward end to his reign at Anfield on Sunday – Klopp has been booked twice this season, against Burnley on 10 February and Luton on 5 November, and a third at Villa Park would bring an automatic touchline ban for his final match.
The teams!
Aston Villa: Martinez, Konsa, Diego Carlos, Torres, Digne, Tielemans, Douglas Luiz, Bailey, McGinn, Diaby, Watkins.
Subs: Chambers, Lenglet, Zaniolo, Duran, Olsen, Kesler-Hayden, Iroegbunam, Munroe, Kellyman.
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, Van Dijk, Gomez, Elliott, Endo, Mac Allister, Salah, Gakpo, Diaz.
Subs: Konate, Szoboszlai, Nunez, Jones, Tsimikas, Gravenberch, Bajcetic, Kelleher, Bradley.
Referee: Simon Hooper (Wiltshire)
Preamble
Normally, the end of a Premier League season would mean a lorryload of permutations at the top and bottom of the table, and for the teams battling it out for Europe. But the relegation battle is already over, both City and Arsenal must win their remaining games to have any chance of the title and the top four is sewn up almost sewn up.
Win tonight against Liverpool and Aston Villa will claim a place at the top tier of European football for the first time in over 40 years. The last time Villa played in the European Cup they went out in the quarter-final stage to Juventus in 1983 as defending champions. Heady days, but it’s been a while.
On paper, Liverpool don’t have much to play for. Win, lose or draw, third place is assured. But with a new manager coming in, many of Liverpool’s squad are playing for their futures. Former Liverpool sporting director Julian Ward has rejoined the club’s ownership group 12 months after leaving Anfield, while Benfica’s former technical director Pedro Marques has been appointed director of football development. Both will work with Michael Edwards, Liverpool’s chief executive of football, and all three will be pivotal in incomings and outgoings. The point is, especially with international selection for Euro 2024 up for grabs, no player can rest on their laurels.
Oh, and it’s Jürgen Klopp’s last away game as Liverpool manager. But you knew that already.
Kick-off: 8pm BST.
