Virgil van Dijk rose to head home a corner in the 100th minute to give Liverpool a dramatic 2-1 win over Everton in the first Merseyside derby ever staged at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday afternoon. It was a result that moves Arne Slot’s side seven points clear of sixth-placed Chelsea in the race for Champions League qualification with five games remaining.
Liverpool began sluggishly and went nearly 20 minutes without registering a shot, with Everton’s Beto causing early problems and Giorgi Mamardashvili needing to produce a sharp save to keep it level in the opening exchanges. The pattern changed in an instant when Iliman Ndiaye thought he had broken the deadlock, only for VAR to detect an offside in the build-up and chalk off what would have been the opening goal.
Within moments, Liverpool had taken full advantage. Cody Gakpo read the situation perfectly and slid a perfectly weighted ball through to Mohamed Salah, who swept his finish past Jordan Pickford with an ease that made it look far simpler than the move required. It was a bittersweet moment in a broadly fitting way, as Salah was playing his final Merseyside derby for the club he has served since 2017.
With that goal, Salah drew level with Steven Gerrard as the highest-scoring player in Premier League Merseyside derbies, matching the nine goals of an Anfield legend across an era that defined the fixture for a generation. The Egyptian’s composure in the moment spoke to a player acutely aware of the significance of the occasion and unwilling to waste it.
Everton came back strongly after the break and levelled through Beto in the 54th minute, the striker bundling home after Kieran Dewsbury-Hall got in behind an uncharacteristically sleepy Ibrahima Konate down the left flank. Mamardashvili was injured in the collision and had to be replaced, introducing further uncertainty into Liverpool’s defensive unit at a critical stage of the game.
With Everton growing in confidence and the match drifting towards a draw that would have suited neither side particularly well, Liverpool required a moment of inspiration. It came from Dominik Szoboszlai, who swung in a perfectly weighted corner from the right, and Van Dijk outjumped every defender in the area to power a header into the net with time almost entirely expired.
Van Dijk’s winner was logged at 99 minutes and 53 seconds, making it one of the latest goals ever recorded in a Premier League match. Liverpool have now scored six stoppage-time winners against Everton in the Premier League era, which is more than any side has managed against a single opponent in the entire history of the competition.
The significance of the result is considerable for Slot, whose team had lost to PSG in the Champions League quarter-finals midweek, ending their European campaign in frustrating fashion. Maintaining a push for the top five in the league is now the season’s defining objective, and this win, secured in the most dramatic circumstances, gives them a platform to build on with five fixtures to play.
David Moyes has built something genuinely competitive at Everton since they moved into Hill Dickinson Stadium, and a European run is still possible from their position of 47 points in eighth place. However, their failure to hold on at the death is a recurring problem and one their manager will want to address before the campaign reaches its conclusion.
For Salah, playing his last game in a fixture he has dominated for nearly a decade, the goal was a farewell gift to himself. How Liverpool will replace his output next season remains among the most complex questions facing the club’s recruitment team in the coming months.
