Liverpool vs Wolverhampton Wanderers. Premier League.
AnfieldAttendance2,000.
Report as Liverpool extend their unbeaten home record to 65 games; Klopp's side brush aside Wolves in front of 2,000 supporters; Goals from Salah, Wijnaldum, Matip and Semedo's own goal seal emphatic win; They move level on points with Spurs at top of table; Defeat leaves Wolves 10th
Monday 7 December 2020 06:05, UK
Liverpool moved level on points with Tottenham at the top of the Premier League as they put on a show at Anfield for their returning supporters with a 4-0 victory over Wolves.
The lucky fans in the ground on Sunday evening were seeing the champions play in the flesh for the first time since their Premier League title win in June, and they weren't disappointed.
Mohamed Salah pounced on Conor Coady's error to open the scoring in the first half before goals from Georginio Wijnaldum (58), Joel Matip (67) and a Nelson Semedo own goal sealed the emphatic victory and extended their unbeaten league home record to 65 games.
The three points see Liverpool, who handed a Premier League debut to goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher in the absence of Alisson Becker, move back up to second in the table, level on 24 points with Spurs, who beat north London rivals Arsenal earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, Wolves stay 10th after suffering a fourth league defeat of the season.
With the Kop having 1,500 fans and 500 in the Main Stand, the atmosphere was good at Anfield.
There was warm applause for Kelleher early on as he showed good footwork to get to and claw away Daniel Podence's clever chip from the edge of the penalty area.
However, the biggest cheer of the half was reserved for Salah's 24th-minute opener.
Former Liverpool academy graduate Conor Coady made a mess of trying to control Jordan Henderson's long ball forward and Salah pounced, nipping in to win the ball and fire home his first goal in four matches.
Coady, who had a rare off night, was involved in the action at the other end too after going down in the penalty area after Sadio Mane's attempted overhead clearance. Referee Craig Pawson initially awarded a penalty but after being told to look at the pitchside monitor by VAR Jon Moss, he quickly reversed his decision after seeing no contact between Mane and Coady.
Liverpool upped the tempo after the break and a second goal wasn't long in coming.
Henderson was again the provider, launching a quick counter-attack with a long pass to pick out Wijnaldum, who curled a shot beyond the dive of Rui Patricio and into the top left corner.
Matip then added a third, emphatically heading home Salah's cross four yards out before Semedo got the final touch as Mane looked to bundle in substitute Trent Alexander-Arnold's cross to round off a perfect evening for Liverpool.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp: "Wasn't it the perfect night? Imagine 10 months ago people would have told us we would have a game and 2,000 people would turn up. When we came out we all had goosebumps. I had no idea how it would feel. It was perfect. The noise, what the people did, they were on their toes you could see and feel and smell. They had waited so long for it. It is so much more enjoyable with people involved."
Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo: "It was definitely a tough night. We could have done many, many things different - before the game, during the game... We didn't have enough of the ball. We didn't deal well with the pressing of Liverpool. We were organised until the moment of the first goal. We had a poor second half. I didn't see the images of the penalty decision."
Salah has scored 52 Premier League goals at Anfield for Liverpool - only Lionel Messi at the Camp Nou (63) and Robert Lewandowski at the Allianz Arena (59) have more at a single venue in the big-five European leagues since the Egyptian joined the Reds in 2017.
It was also the 17th time Mo Salah has both scored and assisted a goal in the same Premier League game for Liverpool; since 2017-18, this is five more times than any other player in the competition (Heung-min Son, 12).
Wolves host Aston Villa in the Premier League next Saturday at 12.30pm.
Liverpool ravel to FC Midtjylland for their final Champions League group-stage match on Wednesday at 5.55pm, before travelling to Fulham on Super Sunday at 4.30pm - live on Sky Sports Premier League.
