Two Faes bizzare own goals give Liverpool win over Leicester

Mueez Ajao

– Liverpool came back from an early deficit to beat Leicester City 2-1 at Anfield on Friday courtesy of a quickfire pair of own goals from Wout Faes.

– Faes became just the fourth player in Premier League history to score two own goals in the same game with two defensive blunders in the space of seven minutes at the end of the first half to overturn Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s early strike.

– Liverpool stay in sixth position in the Premier League table but close to within two points of fourth-placed Tottenham. Leicester, meanwhile, are down in 13th after suffering their 10th defeat from their opening 17 matches.

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– Fresh from a humbling 3-0 home loss to Newcastle United on Boxing Day, Leicester got off to a dream start when taking the lead in just the fourth minute. Dewsbury-Hall took advantage of a missed tackle by Jordan Henderson and a gaping hole in the middle of Liverpool’s defence to run through into the box and beat Alisson with a composed finish.

– Liverpool, without the previously ever-present Fabinho, initially struggled to mount a meaningful response to the early concession. It took until the 23rd minute for the hosts’ first meaningful effort at goal when Mohamed Salah shot wide following a pull back from Darwin Nunez.

– But two extraordinary gifts meant Liverpool went into the half-time interval in front.

– The first came in the 38th minute when a seemingly harmless cross from Trent Alexander-Arnold appeared destined for the grasp of goalkeeper Danny Ward only for Faes to slide in at the near post and send the ball spinning over his goalkeeper’s head and into the far corner of the net.

– Stunningly, Faes repeated the trick less than seven minutes later. After surging into the Leicester box, Nunez’s dink over Ward came back off the post and Faes failed to adjust his body quickly enough, shinning the ball into his own net and surely wishing the ground would swallow him up.

– Liverpool could have made the result more comfortable but Nunez missed a glorious chance to get on the score sheet when being put through on goal but side-footing over the crossbar.