Liverpool came back from an early deficit to beat Leicester City 2-1 at Anfield on Friday courtesy of a quickfire pair of own goals from Foxes defender Wout Faes.
Faes became just the fourth player in Premier League history to score two own goals in the same game with two defensive blunders in the space of seven minutes at the end of the first half to overturn Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall‘s early strike.
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)
Liverpool stay in sixth position in the Premier League table but close to within two points of fourth-placed Tottenham. Leicester, meanwhile, are down in 13th after suffering their 10th defeat from their opening 17 matches.
“We are here to get results and that’s what we did tonight,” said Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, whose side have now won four league games in a row.
“But we lose balls at the wrong moments and we were too open at times. We have to take the result momentum but have to play better in our next match against Brentford.”
Fresh from a humbling 3-0 home loss to Newcastle United on Boxing Day, Leicester got off to a dream start when taking the lead in just the fourth minute. Dewsbury-Hall took advantage of a missed tackle by Jordan Henderson and a gaping hole in the middle of Liverpool’s defence to run through into the box and beat Alisson with a composed finish.
Liverpool, without the previously ever-present Fabinho, initially struggled to mount a meaningful response to the early concession. It took until the 23rd minute for the hosts’ first meaningful effort at goal when Mohamed Salah shot wide following a pull back from Darwin Nunez.
But two extraordinary gifts meant Liverpool went into the half-time interval in front.
The first came in the 38th minute when a seemingly harmless cross from Trent Alexander-Arnold appeared destined for the grasp of goalkeeper Danny Ward only for Faes to slide in at the near post and send the ball spinning over his goalkeeper’s head and into the far corner of the net.
Stunningly, Faes soon doubled his tally. After surging into the Leicester box, Nunez’s dink over Ward came back off the post and Faes failed to adjust his body quickly enough, shinning the ball into his own net and surely wishing the ground would swallow him up.
“He has come back a bit rusty, not playing at the World Cup with Belgium, and it’s going to take him time to get back to speed. But he’s also been fantastic for us this season. It was unfortunate for him tonight,” said Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers of Faes.
Liverpool could have made the result more comfortable but Nunez missed a glorious chance to get on the scoresheet when being put through on goal and side-footing over the crossbar.
Liverpool, who have 28 points from 16 games, are away at Brentford on Monday while Leicester, on 17 points from 17 matches, next host Fulham on Tuesday.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.