In the last tie of Tuesday’s Premier League matches, Liverpool were defeated 1-0 by Leicester City.
The Reds were hoping to cut Manchester City’s lead at the top of the log to three points, but lost for the first time in 11 games in all competitions at the King Power Stadium.
Walsh saw a first-half spot-kick saved by Schmeichel and the Reds seemed to let it affect their overall play.
Leicester took the lead thanks to Lookman’s brilliance shortly after the hour mark, moments after being introduced off the subs’ bench.
Liverpool, who knocked Leicester out of the EFL Cup in the quarter-finals last week, were unable to respond as their club-record scoring streak of 34 consecutive matches in all competitions came to a halt.
Before halftime, Schmeichel denied Salah once more, palming the forward’s angled effort over the crossbar as Leicester, who had conceded nine goals in their previous two games, held strong at the backline.
With 55 minutes played, Sadio Mane missed a good chance, lifting the ball over the bar after being put through on goal, and not converting these chances came back to haunt Liverpool shortly after.
Lookman, who had just been on the pitch for three minutes, was sent in by the excellent Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, and the RB Leipzig loanee shot past Alisson at his near post after getting away from Joel Matip’s challenge.
Despite losing James Maddison to injury, Leicester showed good defensive resilience to keep only their second clean sheet in the league since the opening weekend of the season, handing Liverpool another another major title blow.
It is only Liverpool’s second Premier League defeat of the season, though a very significant one. Klopp and his team would have been able to stay up with Manchester City if they had won. They are now down by six points. To keep this race in sight, the Reds will need Pep Guardiola’s team to slip up somewhere along the line.
Leicester will open off 2022 this weekend against Norwich, while Liverpool will face a considerably more difficult assignment in a heavyweight match against Chelsea.
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