Cardiff 0, Liverpool 2: Man of the Match

Cardiff entered this match with a little pep in their step, having closed the gap on Brighton with a 2-0 victory, thereby giving themselves a glimpse of hope in their relegation battle. Taking points off Liverpool, however, was always going to be a tricky proposition for Neil Warnock’s side, and the Cardiff manager unsurprisingly set his side up to avoid defeat above all other objectives.

Against Cardiff, Liverpool were not lacking in motivation or patience, as they sometimes have been guilty of doing against teams at the lower end of the table. The forward trio were full of running, and Roberto Firmino arguably should have put the visitors ahead about midway through the first half. Liverpool probed methodically, but the opener did not come until after the interval via a corner and a Gini Wijnaldum thunderbolt.

Despite going in front, Klopp’s side continued to press the issue, and Mo Salah elicited a penalty when Sean Morrison decided to try and swap shirts before the final whistle. James Milner, who had come on only due to an injury to substitute Fabinho, converted, and from that point on the result was not in doubt. All eyes turn next to Manchester City and Manchester United.

Now let us know how you saw it. With our usual polling tool out of service, we’re instead giving you a choice between a few of the players we thought looked best today for the Reds, so make your choice below and vote for who you think should be the man of the match—or take to the comments to let us know that we got it wrong by leaving the real man of the match off the list entirely.

And as always, anyone visiting on Apple News or Google AMP who wish to vote and can’t see the poll can make it visible by navigating to the front page of The Liverpool Offside and re-entering the story.