It’s the first time these two teams have met since the tragic demise of Diogo Jota so many tributes as the fans come together to mourn a common loss. What a striker he was! Wolves are playing in a changed light blue away kit, quite a strange sight to get used to!
It’s Chiesa’s first start for Liverpool today after eighteen months at the club. Perhaps, with Isak now out for some time he will get a continued run and be able to demonstrate his class. He starts down the right side of attack.
Wolves have three deep banks of defenders, protecting at all costs. They seem to be holding firm and there is a severe lack of space in the final third. We have to be careful as I’m sure that they will try and hit us on the break. Alexis Mac Allister does a cheeky step over and the ball goes through to nobody so he was wrong in doing that and should have made an effort from what was a good position. I’m sure he’ll get another chance though. Moments later, Hugo Ekitiké gets in behind and chips it towards the far post which it hits and bounces off. Unlucky! I’ve backed him to score today so will be cheering him on extra loudly!
Wolves get their first chance after 16 minutes when Mateus Mané has a longish shot from outside the box but Alisson can gather nicely in hiw open arms. It is straight at him.
At the 20 minutes mark, the whole stadium roars to pay tribute to the fallen soldier, Diogo Jota. It’s quite a loud atmosphere with all supporters chanting and applauding. I hope he is smiling down on Anfield to witness it all and to enjoy the game.
Liverpool have a couple of corners in succession but cannot penetrate the steadfast Wolves defence. It’s quite a lsow game. The Wolves tactics make it so really. They are in no real rush to concede a goal and need to preserve energy levels.
Mac Allister latches onto a deflection and bangs it straight at the crossbar. The linesman’s flag goes up anyway as Chiesa is stood right by the goal and is offside so I doubt that it would have counted, had it been on target. Shows we are up for it though….
Half hour gone and it’s still nil-nil. Wolves proving a difficult opposition team for us at the mo. Let’s keep the pressure on.
Mateus Mané gets his second chance of the game but hits it too high. He looks like the danger man, really. At the other end Kerkez gets the ball in a really good position on the left of the box but he skies it completely and it is a wasted opportunity. The stats at 37 minutes show 107 LFC passes in the final third to 8 for Wolves. Looks like one way traffic but the goalscoring chances have actually been pretty even. The throng of defenders are like a pack of Wolves as they wrestle the ball from every possible LFC attacking danger. Just as I say that, Liverpool get their breakthrough, Frimpong hits the byline and slots it back into the path of Ryan Gravenberch who places it past the keeper, at pace, into the botttom right corner of the Anfield Road end net. With Wolves not catching breath, in under a minute, LFC double their lead. Ekitiké sends a perfectly weighted through ball into Florian Wirtz, running centrally in on target and he scores his frist goal for the club with a great team effort.
Half-time and the score is a flattering 2-0 to Liverpool. I think that the Wolves manager was tactically astute to set up his side so defensively and it worked for most of the half. However, LFC seized the opportunity with both hands and are two goals to the good. Wolves will have to change their style of play now and come out at us in order to try and salvage something from the match so I would predict a few more goals second half.
Well, I said that Wolves needed to come out firing and this they sure did. On 52 minutes, following a corner, Santiago Bueno banged it into the back of the net from close range, thus bringing the away sie from Wolverhampton back into the game. All to play for.
Liverpool change things up from the subs bench with Connor Bradley replacing Federico Chiesa. Wolves make three substitutions of thier own. Liverpool have a few fleeting chances but bothing major. They will need more goals definitely to ensure the much predicted victory here.
The game goes into the final twenty minutes. I’m still holding out for Ekitiké to score for my bet to come in lol. He is on form of late. I just hope he doesn’t get substituted. It’ll be just my luck.
Mateus Mané manages to get yet another go at goal, this time with a driving left-footed shot that Alisson catches and the drops but luckily nobody is running through to take advantage.
Wolves are coming more and more into the game. Anyway, bad news for me as my bet is off as Ekitiké makes way for Cody Gakpo to close the game out on 85 minutes. Hugo the Frenchman did well with his assist though. Shame he didn’t score.
The game doesn’t seem as nailbiting as the first half. I think all the players are a bit tired. It is halfway through the season. It’s our last match of 2025 and the game is closed out and Liverpool have their victory of 2-1. Wolves certainly don’t look like a completely lost cause and I’d encourage them to keep fighting in order to turn their season around. We managed to do it a bit. Let’s hope that 2026 brings kuch joy. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from https://gerrardthered.com
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