Leicester City vs Liverpool: Reds survive scare to stay top of the Premier League
Leicester 1-2 Liverpool: A howler from goalkeeper Alisson gave the Foxes a sniff of a share of the points but Jurgen Klopp's men held on
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Liverpool conceded a goal for the first time this season thanks to a howler from goalkeeper Alisson but survived a scare from Leicester City to move three points clear at the top of the Premier League.
First-half goals from Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino gave the unbeaten Reds a seemingly unassailable lead, but Leicester were much improved in the second half and deservedly reduced the arrears through Rachid Ghezzal.
Jurgen Klopp made one change for Liverpool for the final game before the international break.
Jordan Henderson came back into midfield which saw Naby Keita drop to the substitutes’ bench.
Leicester made two changes from the side that won 2-1 at Southampton. Marc Albrighton and Rachid Ghezzal replaced Daniel Amartey and Kelechi Iheanacho, who were both among the substitutes.
Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel made his 300th appearance for Leicester after signing a new contract in midweek and was into the action within the first three minutes.
Mohamed Salah put Roberto Firmino through but he could only fire against Schmeichel's legs, and from the rebound, Salah sidefooted wide.
The Reds took a 10th-minute lead when Mane made the most of his ricochet off Harry Maguire from Andrew Robertson's cross to bury left-footed to Schmeichel's right for his third goal of the season.
Liverpool remained on top and Joe Gomez sent a header looping well over the bar from Trent Alexander-Arnold's corner.
Leicester's first chance came in the 22nd minute when Demarai Gray got away from a defender to latch on to Rachid Ghezzal's pass and squeezed in a shot that Alisson smothered.
The home side continued to find it hard to open Liverpool up, and were being forced to try their luck from distance as Albrighton then Maddison fired over from long range.
But they had eased themselves into the game and were finally starting to give Klopp's side something to think about.
Just as Leicester might have thought they had turned the tide, Liverpool broke away quickly and soon doubled their lead.
Salah forced Schmeichel to push his shot around the post, and from their second successive corner, Roberto Firmino met James Milner's flag-kick with a firm header into the far corner of the net from 10 yards to make it 2-0.
Firmino's aerial presence exposed some poor marking from Leicester's James Maddison.
Leicester pressed to reduce the arrears following the restart and Ghezzal surprised Alisson with a low cross that bounced just wide of the far post when the goalkeeper might have expected his defence to deal with it.
Claude Puel's side continued to probe and Maddison looked to test Alisson with a curling effort from 25 yards but it flew into the chest of the Liverpool goalkeeper.
Maddison was the nearly man again in Leicester's next attack, when only the outstretched leg of the lunging Gomez blocked a goalbound effort after he wriggled past Alexander-Arnold deep inside the box.
Leicester were now having their best spell of the game as the hour mark approached.
Wes Morgan failed to sort his feet out from point-blank range after Marc Albrighton and Gray also missed contact from Ben Chilwell's low centre that somehow escaped Liverpool's back line.
Leicester's persistence was rewarded in the 63rd minute when they deservedly pulled a goal back.
And after so much criticism of Liverpool's goalkeeping department in recent years, it was another howler from their first line of defence.
Alisson dallied on a back pass from Virgil Van Dijk and allowed himself to be dispossessed by substitute Kelechi Iheanacho on the byeline and he crossed for Rachid Ghezzal to steer home.
It was the first goal Liverpool had conceded in 418 minutes of Premier League football going back to May 6 and the first Alisson had let in in club football since last season's Champions League semi-final when he was playing for Roma, against Liverpool.
Klopp made a double substitution on 69 minutes in a bid to wrest back control of the game as Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri came on for Henderson and Salah.
The changes made little effect however, although Leicester's charge faded somewhat, until Mane glanced wide from Milner's free kick with nine minutes left.
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