SLAM FLUNK

Arne's Globetrotters come up short

- JEREMY CROSS' WEMBLEY VERDICT

TURNING a team into football's version of the Harlem Globetrotters is all well and good - but even the American basketball legends had to defend at times.

Which is what Liverpool failed to do here.

Someone once famously said that attacks win games, but defences win titles. And that person was right. This game was a microcosm of such a fact.

Twice Liverpool went ahead. But twice Palace came back after Arne Slot's back line let themselves down, before the London side went on to win on penalties.

First it was Virgil van Dijk, his needless mistake inside his own box allowed Jean-Philippe Mateta to equalise from the spot before halftime.

Then Ismaila Sarr waltzed through to make it 2-2 with 13 minutes left.

Before Sarr's leveller, he had come within a whisker of scoring when Palace had opened up their rivals.