With a 3-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers, Liverpool has risen to the top of the Premier League standings.
Hee-chan Hwang’s goal gave the Wolves an early advantage throughout the first half as they had the majority of the possession.
Liverpool punished the hosts for their several missed opportunities, however, as they re-entered the game in the second half.
Cody Gakpo’s goal gave Jurgen Klopp’s team a chance to even the score before Andy Robertson scored an important goal five minutes from time.
Hugo Bueno’s own goal in stoppage time gave Liverpool the three points, moving them above Manchester City to the top of the Premier League for the first time in 16 months.
Wolves have dropped to 15th after suffering their fourth defeat in their last five games, and they could go even further before the weekend is out.
Jean-Ricner Bellegarde received his Wolves debut after being signed on the final day of the transfer window by Gary O’Neil. He immediately appeared energized and attacked the Liverpool defense in the first minute.
That would serve as a foreshadowing of how the first 45 minutes would go as Liverpool battled to control Wolves’ direct attacking style.
Wolves dominated the early exchanges, and the hosts profited by taking the lead after just seven minutes on account of Hwang’s acute-angle finish.
Pedro Neto displayed excellent play down the left side, gliding past Joe Gomez, Joel Matip, and Dominik Szoboszlai before delivering a square pass to an open Hwang, whose shot snuck through Alisson in the Liverpool goal.
Moments later, when Nelson Semedo’s pass was entirely missed by Gomez, Neto was once more involved, but this time the Portuguese winger made the incorrect contact and blazed over.
The Molineux crowd gave former Wolves player Diogo Jota a somewhat unfriendly welcome, and they cheered when, after 13 minutes, Liverpool’s first shot on goal flew over Jose Sa’s crossbar thanks to their former hero.
Craig Dawson, who has a strong scoring record against Liverpool, blew a great chance from a corner, taking his eyes off the ball and mistiming his header after finding space in the box. Wolves, however, continued to dominate the game.
Then, with 10 minutes left in the first half, Wolves squandered arguably their best opportunity of the contest when more Neto magic up against Gomez saw him beat the substitute right-back with ease before supplying a brilliant cross for Matheus Cunha. The latter attempted a header but saw the ball awkwardly bounce off his thigh as the opportunity slipped away.
At times, Klopp cut a disgruntled and agitated figure on the sidelines, but Liverpool began to exert greater control over the game near the conclusion of the first half, with Gakpo squandering two half-chance shots.
One of those opportunities came from Robertson, and another of his crosses was where Liverpool came close to tying the score.
Sa blocked the left-back’s dangerous delivery in the last seconds of the first half, and Rayan Ait-Nouri then stopped Mohamed Salah’s initial shot before rising to his feet to stop Szoboszlai from scoring on the rebound.
Cunha’s promising run created lots of space, but when he had choices on either side of him, his effort flew far over the crossbar, adding additional aggravation to an already chaotic first half.
Gakpo’s goal for the visitors leveled the score 10 minutes into the second half as Liverpool showed significant improvement.
Gakpo was on hand for a tap-in after Salah found space on the right and his shot-cum-cross eluded three Wolves players. This would be Gakpo’s final touch as he was substituted immediately after.
Darwin Nunez entered the match in place of Gakpo after picking up a knock while traveling with Uruguay during the international break.
Nunez was as energetic as always, and his connection with fellow replacement Luis Diaz nearly reversed the tide of the match. However, Sa came out and made himself huge to deny the Liverpool number nine one-on-one.
Liverpool appeared to have the best chance of scoring in the waning moments, and eventually, it did, from the most unlikely of places.
Midway through the Wolves half, Robertson dribbled through the Wolves defense, intercepted a Salah pass, and then slid the ball underneath the Wolves goalkeeper as Liverpool regained control when Sa botched his kick-out attempt.
After losing the lead, Wolves appeared dejected. In stoppage time, Harvey Elliott’s shot was diverted barely inside the post by left-back Bueno, causing more harm to Wolves.
The game was closely contested despite a sizable amount of extra time, and Liverpool ultimately prevailed 3-1 away from home.
Next weekend, Wolves will visit recently promoted Luton Town, while Liverpool will first travel to Linz before returning to league play on Thursday to play LASK in the Europa League.
The Reds’ next league match is against West Ham United, a team also competing in the Europa League.
