Liverpool on Wednesday was able to pull off a surprise last-minute victory over Karlsruhe in a friendly at the BBBank Wildpark Stadium to walk away with a sudden, but expected 4-2 win. It was Dioga Jota whose twin goals past the 90-minute mark helped the Red clinch the victory which was otherwise turning out to be a fighting draw for the opponents.
While the Reds walked into the match as obvious favorites, expected to win the match in convincing fashion, Karlsruhe put up a stellar performance in front of the home crowd, taking their opponents to the wire and almost sealing a 2-2 fighting draw, only for Jota to spoil the party at the last moment.
The match began with Liverpool rolling the ball and it was not long enough that we got to witness the opening goal of the match. Darwin Nunez opened the scorecard for the Reds with a left-footed finish when he first passed the ball to teammate Mohamed Salah who passed it straight back to him to score, putting Liverpool ahead 3 minutes into the first half. Thereon, Liverpool pretty much dominated the proceedings with Szoboszlai showing some neat touches.
However, Lars Stindl broke through the shackles and came in with the equalizer in the 39th minute following a left-wing corner that pulled back to him. Stindl made no mistake, converting it into a swift volley that crashed into the Liverpool nets past the helpless Caoimhin Kelleher. The first half eventually ended with a 1-1 level score.
Just five minutes into the second half, Sebastian Jung pulled off a stunner to give Karlsruhe a surprising lead over the Reds much to the delight of the fans at the Wildparkstadion. Stindl provided a crucial assist this time as he sent in a smart pass to Jung away on the right, who converted it into a high shot finding the net at the near post. At 50 minutes, Karlsruhe was leading 2-1.
The jubilation was however short-lived as Cody Gapko came to the party with the much-needed equalizer in the 69th minute when he collected the leaping Jota’s knockdown just yards from goal and swiveled to calmly beat the goalkeeper. As the match progressed toward the close, both teams kept fighting for an opening to take the decisive lead, but both failed as the referee called for the closing time, adding 3 minutes of stoppage time.
The three minutes of extra time was enough for Portuguese star and Liverpool striker Dioga Jota to put his side in the lead as he found the net twice, gliding through for the first goal in the 2nd minute, and then quickly before following up with the second one a minute later to seal the victory for his side. With the referee’s whistle, Liverpool celebrated an emphatic 4-2 victory against a much valiant Karlsruhe side.
