The Sunday Times May 1, 2022 329yrs 44days
Average age of
Liverpool’s starting
XI, the second-oldest
selected during
Jürgen Klopp’s time
in charge. The oldest
was 29 years 129
days, away to Atletico
Madrid in October.21
Liverpool
clean
sheets in
the Premier
League,
more than
any other
sideBefore being replaced, a tired-look-
ing Mané missed a golden chance
after being set up by Gomez. Salah
was foiled by Dubrakva on one coun-
terattack, then was pressured into a
miscontrol by Targett on another.
Dubravka, easily Newcastle’s man of
the match, made excellent late stops
from Jota, and another from Díaz.
Howe was sanguine. Newcastle can
play much better and the head coach
felt it was useful for his players to
understand the gulf between
themselves and the very top sides.
Klopp, having calmed down, was in
cracking form. Part of his reason for
resting stars was Tuesday’s Champi-
ons League semi-final second leg
away to Villarreal, and he noted that
Villarreal, in La Liga, were also forced
to kick off at lunchtime.
“They are playing at 1pm, they
must have BT over there as well!”
Klopp quipped.Keïta’s
19th-minute
goal, only his
fourth of the
season, was the
difference for
LiverpoolANDREW POWELL/LIVERPOOL FC/ GETTY IMAGESMATCH
OF THE
DAYSOUTHGATE DOUBLES UP
England manager Gareth Southgate
sat with Newcastle United co-owner
Amanda Staveley at St James’ Park,
then made the near two-hour trip to
Elland Road to watch Leeds v CityTHE HEAT ON
Lage berates players
after Brighton stroll
The Wolverhampton Wanderers head
coach Bruno Lage appeared to
question the desire of his players,
after they capitulated to the heaviest
defeat of his tenure against an utterly
dominant Brighton & Hove Albion.
This was Wolves’ third straight
defeat, all without scoring, their
fourth loss in five and seventh in ten.
European aspirations are now gone.
“I need to understand who wants
to go to war and continue to put the
club at a different level because it’s
not enough for anyone else to relax,”
Lage said. “I need to smell it if the
guys want to continue to put the club
at a different level.
“It’s hard and easy to talk about
this game — it was 90 minutes where
we watched Brighton play. We have a
lot of work to continue to do.”
By contrast, Graham Potter, the
Brighton manager, thought it was his
team’s most complete performance.
“In some ways, yes, just out of
respect for Wolves and how hard it is
to score against them,” Potter said.
“So I thought we were the
dominant team, which isn’t easy to
do. We missed a penalty but Alexis
[Mac Allister] showed great character
to take the second one and score.
“In the second half I thought we
stepped up again and deserved to
win.”
Wolves will have to play a lot better
than this to have any hope of offering
the European football that might
convince Ruben Neves to stay put at
Molineux.
They failed to produce an effort on
target until Willy Boly’s weak header
in the 85th minute, and Neves lasted a
planned 45 minutes, by which time
Wolves could have been further adrift
than a 1-0 deficit.
Instead it was another midfielder,
Brighton’s Mac Allister, who helped to
settle the destiny of this game.
Mac Allister kept his nerve to open
the scoring from the spot in the 42nd
minute after his first penalty nineminutes earlier had struck the post.
Leandro Trossard and Yves
Bissouma gave Graham Potter’s
superior side the extra goals they
deserved after the Wolves goalkeeper,
Jose Sá, made several saves to keep
his team alive.
Brighton’s Enock Mwepu twice
tested Sá, before the Wolves
goalkeeper held Danny Welbeck’s
curling, rising effort. Wolves livened
up briefly but soon conceded their
first penalty.
The 33rd-minute spot kick was
awarded after the referee, Simon
Hooper, had been invited to view the
pitchside monitor by VAR when Solly
March’s cross caught the left forearm
of Romain Saiss.
Mac Allister’s kick struck Sá’s right-
hand post and bounced away.
Nine minutes later, Willy Boly
tripped Welbeck, and Mac Allister
dispatched his kick to the same side,Trossard, left, is congratulated by his team-mates after making it 2-0Tim NashWOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
0
BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION
Mac Allister 42 (pen), Trossard 70, 3
Bissouma 8644
Brighton’s points tally
is their most for a PL
season since they
came up in 2017but this time inside the post.
Booed off at half-time, Wolves
made a double substitution, with
Raul Jimenez and Pedro Neto on for
Fabio Silva and Neves, but it made
little difference as Brighton tightened
their grip.
Moises Caicedo and Mac Allister
forced further saves from Sá before
Trossard made it 2-0.
The forward turned Conor Coady
before firing home into the opposite
corner for his third goal in four games
after Jiménez had lost the ball upfield
and Brighton broke.
Bissouma completed their victory
in the 86th minute with a low drive
that evaded Sá.Star man Leandro Trossard (Brighton)
Wolves (3-5-2): J Sá 7 — W Boly 4, C Coady 4,
R Saïss 4 – N Semedo 5 (Jonny 53min, 6),
L Dendoncker 5, R Neves 5 (P Neto 46, 5),
J Moutinho 5, R Ait-Nouri 4 – F Silva 5 (R Jiménez
46, 5), Hwang Hee-Chan 4. Booked Coady.
Brighton (3-4-3): R Sánchez 7 – J Veltman 7,
L Dunk 7, M Cucurella 7 – S March 7 (T Lamptey
87), Y Bissouma 7, M Caicedo 7, L Trossard 8 (P
Gross 88) – E Mwepu 7 (A Webster 63, 6), D
Welbeck 7, A Mac Allister 7. Booked Cucurella.
Referee S Hooper.
Attendance 31,243.TONY OBRIEN/REUTERS