Liverpool 2-0 Wolves: Virgil van Dijk has prevented another downer for Liverpool. Fifteen minutes before the end, he made the redeeming goal in the match against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Mohamed Salah later also scored the second goal.
Five defeats, three draws and only three wins. That was Liverpool’s harvest in the new year. Last Saturday, after the painful 5-2 defeat against Real Madrid, it played a goalless draw against Crystal Palace and for a long time it seemed that that scenario would also play out against Wolverhampton.
Unlike Van Dijk, Cody Gakpo was not in the starting line-up for Liverpool on Wednesday evening. He saw from the reserve bench how Liverpool created the necessary chances, but also destroyed them. The relief was only there fifteen minutes before the end when Van Dijk opened the score for the home team.
He sent the ball from a standard situation with the shoulder towards the far corner. José Sá had a good answer to that bet, but after Diogo Jota passed the ball again, Van Dijk still scored. In the meantime Gakpo had also entered the line and a few minutes later it also became 2-0. Former Willem II player Konstatinos Tsimikas broke through on the left. He led the ball and Salah was responsible for the second goal of the evening.
With the three points in their pocket, Liverpool can finally look up again. They climbed to sixth place in the league and are only six points behind number four Tottenham Hotspur, which also played one game more. A duel with Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United for Liverpool awaits next Sunday.
Leeds United’s failed move for Cody Gakpo
Speaking of Liverpool, Leeds United came very close to the arrival of Cody Gakpo last summer. At least, that’s what Andrea Radrizzani claims. However, according to the chairman, Louis van Gaal put a stop to the transfer.
“We were really, really close to signing Gakpo,” Radrizzani told DAZN. According to earlier reports from then technical director John de Jong, Leeds would have had about thirty million euros plus thirteen million in bonuses that were very difficult to realize before the arrival of Gakpo. Where it was said in Eindhoven that De Jong did not want to sell his star player, Radrizzani contradicts that.
Leeds, currently engaged in a heated battle for survival in the Premier League, already believed that Gakpo was on a plane to England with one leg. “It came full circle on Deadline Day. We were also completely done with PSV,” he adds.
“Until the then national coach of the Dutch national team also got involved,” says Radrizzani. “The deal was canceled by Louis van Gaal. Van Gaal called Gakpo and told him to wait with a transfer because of the World Cup. And then he went to Liverpool in the winter.”
