In one of the most remarkable match-winners in recent memory, Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson made Premier League history, and may have saved the storied club’s season with his 95th-minute headed goal.
With a languid Liverpool tied at one against already relegated West Brom, Alisson ran forward to join a last-second corner kick. West Brom left the Brazilian keeper unmarked as Trent Alexander-Arnold whipped a sharp cross to the near post. Alisson rose and flicked the ball across goal for a winning goal that keeps Liverpool in Champions League contention.
With the rain pouring down at the Hawthorns, the team mobbed Alisson as tears poured down his face while he pointed to the sky. Since the keeper’s father died in a drowning accident in Brazil earlier this year, Alisson had yet to make a media appearance; that is, until he became the first Liverpool goalkeeper in the club’s 129-year history.
“I’m too emotional,” Alisson told Sky Sports in a post-match interview. “These last months for everything that happened to me and my family, football is my life. I play [as long as] I can remember as a human being, with my dad. I [wish] he was here to see it but he is.”
The former AS Roma star, who celebrated the birth of his third child this week, became the sixth keeper in Premier League history to score a goal, but the first to score a winning goal.
“I saw it coming and just tried to run into a good place and be in a good position to try to help my players, and bring a defender but no one was following me,” Alisson said. “I was lucky and blessed to score.
“Those kinds of things you can’t explain. You can’t explain a lot of things in life. The only reason for those things is God, and he put his hand on my head today.”
With the win, Liverpool moves just one point behind fourth-place Chelsea, who plays third-place Leicester City in an FA Cup final rematch on Tuesday. Liverpool can qualify for Champions League at the expense of either Leicester or Chelsea by winning its final two games, making Alisson’s goal a potential season-defining moment.
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