Own goal saves Liverpool against better Sunderland

Federico Chiesa has started to forge a reputation as Liverpool’s latest super-sub because of his capacity to deliver crucial contributions in the opposition’s penalty area.

- RICHARD JOLLY

Liverpool 1

Mukiele (81 og)

Sunderland 1

Talbi (67)

As he cemented it, it was with injury-time heroics in his own. Liverpool were spared a 10th defeat in 14 games, a third in a row at home and a particularly embarrassing concession by a man who had been sent on to score a winner. Perhaps not even David Fairclough or Divock Origi, previous generations of sensational substitutes, ever managed this.

But when Wilson Isidor’s 94th-minute shot beat Alisson, Chiesa turned rescuer. “I looked up and I saw the player of them completely free on the halfway line,” recalled Arne Slot. “The good thing is Fede could have thought, ‘it is nothing for me to do, I am so far away from the situation’, but he kept sprinting. As a result, Fede could clear the ball off the line, which is the minimum he deserved.” It was another illustration that the Italian, whose Anfield career could have been over in the summer, never gives up. For that, Liverpool could be grateful. If their season is becoming a damage-limitation exercise, he prevented it from getting any worse.