Tag Archives: Liverpool

2nd April 2022- Premier League, Liverpool 2 Watford 0

Attendance: 53,104

BBC Sport: Joao Pedro wasted a glorious chance to equalise in the second half as Watford remain third from bottom, three points from safety.

Sky Sports: Jota scored his seventh header for Liverpool, more than any other player has scored in the league since his Reds debut, with Joe Gomez to thank for a perfectly measured cross from the right which the Portuguese glanced past Ben Foster. Fabinho made no mistake from the penalty spot late on to ensure Liverpool, who were 14 points adrift in January, temporarily moved two points ahead of Manchester City before Pep Guardiola’s side won at Burnley.

The Guardian: The early kick-off could not dampen the heightened expectation inside Anfield as Liverpool looked to increase the pressure on City. But Watford would make life difficult. Their three clean sheets in the league this season have all come on Roy Hodgson’s watch and with his trusted assistant Ray Lewington alongside him the former Liverpool manager oversaw a typically well-drilled defensive display. The visitors possessed a clear threat, too, on the break and from set-pieces and performed with a composure that belied their lowly league position of 18th.

BHappy: Team selection is influenced, almost certainly, by the physical consequences of a heavy programme of international duty including plenty of key World Cup qualifiers and far too much extra time for anyone’s liking. Emmanuel Dennis and Joshua King are on the bench, for instance, whilst Peter Etebo and William Troost-Ekong don’t even make it that far. That aside there remains evidence of Roy having established a set of key personnel; pejoratively you might call them “favourites”, Cucho, Kabasele, and even Kucka and João Pedro are more prominent – game triers all – whilst Shaq Forde has been singled out amongst the youngsters. I’ve not seen enough of Shaq to comment but whether his judgement proves sound on not it’s a Good Thing that Roy’s perspective is broad enough to make one despite his presumed summer departure.

16th October 2021- Premier League, Watford 0 Liverpool 5

Attendance: 21,085

BBC Sport: Roberto Firmino scored a hat-trick as rampant Liverpool condemned Claudio Ranieri to a miserable start to life as Watford manager in a one-sided game at Vicarage Road.

Sky Sports: There was to be no new manager bounce factor for Watford with Sadio Mane scoring after just eight minutes, setting the tone for a completely dominant Liverpool performance and netting his 100th Premier League goal in the process.

Fran’s Watford Blog: So, we reached half time two goals down after being thoroughly outplayed. During the break, there was a brief appearance by Heiđar Helguson, who is the latest Watford ambassador. I was expecting an interview, but he just waved to the crowd as we sung his name.

29th February 2020- Premier League, Watford 3 Liverpool 0

Referee: Michael Oliver
Attendance: 21,634

1-0

2-0

3-0

Watford stun league leaders Liverpool in Premier League clash

Wonderful Watford inflict Liverpool’s first league defeat of season in stunning victory

Nigel Pearson hails Watford performance after Liverpool triumph

Watford players rated after sensational win over Liverpool

Abdoulaye Doucoure praises Nigel Pearson after Watford beat Liverpool

Jurgen Klopp says Watford victory ‘should be the headline’ after Liverpool defeat

Watford’s Gerard Deulofeu suffers ACL injury, Nigel Pearson confirms

Selection of images from Watford’s stunning Liverpool victory

Ismaila Sarr ‘disappointed’ to not score a hat-trick in Watford’s win over Liverpool

Troy Deeney promised Gerard Deulofeu Watford would beat Liverpool for him

Troy Deeney and Abdoulaye Doucoure speak of admiration for Ismaila Sarr after Watford beat Liverpool

Liverpool’s hopes of remaining unbeaten for an entire Premier League season were ended in sensational style by a rampant Watford at Vicarage Road.

This was supposed to be Liverpool’s day. It ended up being Watford’s.

Beating Liverpool could kick-start Watford’s season – Pearson

Why Watford’s win over Liverpool might be Premier League’s biggest ever upset

Sarr nipped in to break the deadlock after 54 minutes, before then racing through to double the Hornets’ lead six minutes later. With 18 minutes left to play, Watford captain Troy Deeney rounded off an incredible 18-minute spell by taking advantage of yet more sluggish defending from the visitors to add a third.

One of the greatest unbeaten streaks in the history of the English game had to end somewhere, but that it came against a club who have sacked two managers already this season and nursed a relegation death-wish since August, made this a truly surreal event.

Quite simply Liverpool were battered. From first minute until last Watford refused to display any sense of an inferiority complex against esteemed opponents and instead delivered a display of great togetherness, aggression and potency. They scored three and could have had more on a night that will be spoken about in these parts for years to come. That much could be taken from the thunderous roar that greeted the final whistle from the majority of those in attendance. A famous victory for Watford’s supporters to celebrate and one that also lifts their side out of the bottom three on goal difference and gives them renewed belief they can avoid the drop after all.

Minute by minute

“The most important thing is congratulations to Watford, well deserved,” said Klopp. “The first half there were football things that didn’t work out for us and overall we didn’t create enough and that’s what leads to a defeat. But it’s just one football game and we have to admit that Watford was the better team.”

Ismaïla Sarr. This was it, the game when he announced himself to the rest of the Premier League. We knew already, now everyone knows. Time will tell how he adapts to that, how he accommodates being targeted… today he was lethal.

Deeney, Deulofeu and Pereyra had all been disappointing at Old Trafford, but had been superb in this game with even Pereyra working his socks off. The performance of Femenía showed how much we had missed him. What was really impressive was that, after two months out, he looked as though he had never been away. Similarly with Sarr, who frightened the life out of the Liverpool defence, the only disappointment had been that he didn’t get his hat trick. The midfield three of Hughes, Capoue and Doucouré had worked tirelessly and been incredibly solid. Sometimes it is the silly things that give you immense pleasure and one of the memories that I will take from this game involved Capoue. I love him as a player, but he can blow hot and cold. Watching him when he is enjoying himself is utterly joyous and there was a point in the game when he sprinted from one side of the pitch to the other and back again, frustrating the Liverpool midfield and it was one of those moments that has me clapping my hands in glee.

As Watford fans we’ve had some great wins this season. We’ve also had some terrible performances. HOWEVER, today is up there with the best wins since we returned to the top flight – WE BEAT THE WORLD CHAMPIONS!!

14th December 2019- Premier League, Liverpool 2 Watford 0

Referee: Andre Marriner
Attendance_ 53,311

Match Report: Liverpool 2-0 Watford

League leaders Liverpool beat Watford at Anfield

Watford beaten by Liverpool despite improvement in Nigel Pearson’s first game

Nigel Pearson disappointed after Watford impress in Liverpool defeat

Watford players rated following defeat at Liverpool

Will Hughes calls on Watford to take chances after they paid the price for misses at Liverpool

Mohamed Salah’s superb double gave an under-par Liverpool a 2-0 victory over bottom side Watford to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League.

Watford missed chances in both halves, while Liverpool’s Sadio Mane had a header ruled out for offside following a review by the video assistant referee (VAR).

This was far from a vintage display from the unbeaten leaders. They played within themselves and were flattered by the margin of victory delivered by two outstanding finishes from Mohamed Salah. Had Nigel Pearson inherited a player with even a hint of composure in front of goal then Watford would have given their new manager something more tangible from his first game than just an encouraging performance. The visitors created and squandered several excellent openings, with Ismaïla Sarr and Abdoulaye Doucouré the chief culprits.

As it happened…

Having periodically raged at the likes of Xherdan Shaqiri and Salah, Jurgen Klopp said afterwards that this had not been a bad day for his league leaders, just a difficult game. He was impressed with the way in which Nigel Pearson had organised his new players in the space of one week to close down the usual channels through which Liverpool like to pass the ball. Klopp also charitably suggested that the raw wind whipping around Anfield had contributed to a calamitous miskick from Ismail Sarr in front of the Kop in the first half.

It is strange to feel so positive after a defeat, but the performance had been very encouraging and we felt very unlucky to have lost. Given the relative positions of the two teams at each end of the table, this game was much closer than it should have been and, but for the terrible finishing from the Hornets, this could have been an upset.

Jon and Mike convened on Sunday morning to try and make sense of contrasting emotions after a largely excellent performance yielded no points and no goals. There’s praise for a heroic back line, excitement about Sarr and in answering listeners questions, they try to sort out the Doucouré conundrum.

https://www.11v11.com/competitions/premier-league/2020/matches/

27th February 2019- Premier League, Liverpool 5 Watford 0

Referee:
Graham Scott
Attendance:
53,316

Watford thrashed away at Premier League leaders Liverpool

Liverpool beat Watford by five goals at Anfield in the Premier League

Watford head coach Javi Gracia has defended his team after their five goal defeat against Liverpool

Watford players’ individual ratings following their difficult away day in Liverpool

Watford head coach Javi Gracia wants his side to accept responsibility for Liverpool defeat

Jurgen Klopp feels Liverpool proved some doubters wrong after they turned on the style to crush Watford at Anfield and stay top of the Premier League.

Watford had conceded 11 goals on their previous two visits to Anfield and they were soon facing an uphill task again as Mane netted twice inside the opening 20 minutes.

Fear stalked the Watford defence each time Salah received the ball in space, a lesson they failed to heed from United’s approach at Old Trafford. The paucity of the visitors’ attacking display was summed up by Javi Gracia withdrawing both of his forwards, Troy Deeney and the erratic Gerard Deulofeu, in a double substitution.

In many respects, Watford did well to keep it to three before the last ten minutes when the situation finally became critical, two crosses delivered into the box – one each from the two full-backs – and both headed past Ben Foster by Virgil Van Dijk.

Whilst the five goals was disappointing, what was really frustrating was the number of Liverpool fans in the away end at Anfield. I was on a mission to point them out.

https://audioboom.com/posts/7187795-it-happened-again-9-39

24th November 2018- Premier League, Watford 0 Liverpool 3

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Screen Shot 2018-11-30 at 21.08.43 Referee:Jonathan Moss Attendance:20,540

Watford Observer

Watford vs Liverpool: Relive coverage of the Premier League clash at Vicarage Road

Watford vs Liverpool: Hornets stung by second half strikes

Watford vs Liverpool: Jurgen Klopp salutes ‘really mature performance’

Watford vs Liverpool: Javi Gracia feels ‘bit unlucky’ with ‘some decisions’ for second game running

Watford Player Ratings: Ben Foster stars in Liverpool defeat

IN PICTURES: Images from Watford’s defeat to Liverpool

Watford’s Will Hughes says he was caught by Liverpool’s Andrew Robertson

FAN’S VIEW: Positives to be taken from Watford’s loss to Liverpool

Watford had the ball in the net inside three minutes but the goal was ruled out for offside. A long ball was touched on by Troy Deeney, allowing Gerard Deulofeu to race through but, as he slotted past Alisson, the offside flag was correctly raised.

Hosts Watford were aggrieved not to be awarded a penalty when Reds defender Andy Robertson appeared to foul Will Hughes while the score was level.

Although the tackle was clearly mistimed, it was hard to tell whether he made contact with Hughes. Watford’s players claimed there had been an obvious foul but the referee, Jon Moss, disagreed. Shortly after that Liverpool went in front thanks to the first high-class move of the match.

In a match where the opening goal always felt it would be decisive, it was crucial. Gracia was non-committal. “The last two games we have been unlucky with some decisions but I prefer to support the referees,” he said. There was still plenty to encourage Gracia in defeat. Watford willingly conceded possession, but were defensively sound. Ben Foster was outstanding. They had their chances.

So the first of two home games in ten days against ostensibly the strongest clubs in the country. Beaten fair and square, but the scoreline doesn’t do justice to our performance which was better than that, or to the strategy selected which asked a lot of us but wasn’t a million miles from earning a result. Good decisions don’t guarantee good outcomes, it’s difficult to conceive of an approach that would have had a better chance of success.

Prior to kick-off there was a superb set of banners in the away end protesting Scudamore’s golden handshake. Well done to the Liverpool fans for that.

In short we were good, should have had a penalty, but ultimately not good enough to beat an excellent Liverpool side.

It was a result that didn’t exactly tell the whole picture of the match, but Jon, Jason and Mike talk through a positive performance from the Hornets.

http://watford.fcdb.info?s=39639&id=5309

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