Becoming a goalscorer in the final stages of this year's Premier League season, Liverpool have seen their familiar scenario reversed. The Kop suffered a 1-2 defeat to a rising Crystal Palace.
Completely overwhelmed in the first half, with Ismaila Sarr scoring in the 9th minute, Arne Slot's team seemed to have regained a valuable point after Federico Chiesa's goal in the 87th minute. However, Palace took the decisive blow with a substitute's goal in the final seconds by Eddie Nketiah.
This victory took Palace to second place in the Premier League and extended their unbeaten streak to 18 matches in all competitions. However, their biggest success came last month, when President Steve Parish blocked the sale of captain Marc Guehi to Liverpool.
This match once again affirmed Guehi's importance to Palace, while exposing Liverpool's weaknesses in defense. In fact, the home team's dominance in the first half was so great that Slot and his team could completely consider the loss when they just came close at half-time as a fortune.
Sarr - who has scored five goals in eight meetings with Liverpool - opened the scoring for Palace just nine minutes after the visitors were confused in a corner kick. Before that, both Yeremy Pinoz and Daniel Munoz forced Alisson Becker to show his save to keep the game from falling into the hands of the home team.
At Selhurst Park, Liverpool fans probably understand why Guehi is so admired. The England centre-back has made almost no mistakes, while Ibrahima Konate has struggled to deal with the constant threat from Jean- Philippe Mateta.
In a week where 18-year-old centre-back Giovanni Leoni suffered an ACL injury to make Liverpool's defense the focus of attention, Guehi's excellent and quiet performance made the Reds regretful for what they could not have achieved. On the other side of the pitch, Liverpool, despite having a strong attack, are still struggling to find a way to break through.
In the first half, the expensive rookie Alexander Isak only completed one of his four passes. Despite his significant impact after the break, Isak was withdrawn amid the cheers from the Palace stands.
Florian Wirtz, another summer signing, also had a chance to show his ability, while Mohamed Salah's most notable contribution was just Dominik Szoboszlai's shot wide of the goal.
Instead, the comeback player Federico Chiesa has given Liverpool hope. The Italian striker finished close to the goal to defeat Dean Henderson, equalizing and opening up an escape in the final minutes.
This was Liverpool's fifth goal in the last 10 minutes of this season - an outstanding achievement as no other team in the Premier League has scored more than 2.
Whether that number reflects quality, perseverance or simply luck, reality still shows that Liverpool always know how to create magical moments at the last minute. But this time, the opposite thing happened.
Former Arsenal player Nketiah gave his former team a big boost in the championship race. He scored almost in the final shot of the match, after Liverpool failed to neutralize Jefferson Lerma's long throw-in, leaving Selhurst Park in a trance.
