Henry Bushnell – Yahoo! News
Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker may very well have saved Liverpool’s season on Sunday. But not with a save. With a stunning, 95th-minute, game-winning goal – the first goal by a Liverpool keeper ever:
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Liverpool needed to beat West Brom to retain any hope of finishing in the Premier League top four and qualifying for next season’s Champions League. Tied at 1-1 with four minutes of stoppage time elapsed, a disappointing season appeared to be headed toward a disappointing conclusion.
But Alisson ran the length of the field to join teammates in the box as Liverpool prepared to take one final corner.
He met Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross with an incredible diving header to give his team a 2-1 win.
His teammates mobbed him. And then mobbed him again after the match. As they did a second time, Alisson was in tears.
Asked to reflect on the moment after the match, he became emotional again as his mind was drawn to the memory of his late father. Jose Agostinho Becker drowned to death back in Brazil earlier this year.
“Football is my life. I play, since I remember as a human being, with my father,” Alisson said in a postgame interview. “I hope he was here to see it. But I’m sure that he’s seen it with God on his side and celebrating.”
The win takes Liverpool within one point of fourth-place Chelsea, and within three of third-place Leicester City. With Chelsea and Leicester set to play each other on Tuesday in the season’s penultimate round, Liverpool knew entering Sunday that if it won its final three games, it would have a very good chance of finishing in one of those crucial top-four places.
One down, two to go – thanks to the goalkeeper.
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