Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool missed a chance to reduce the gap between them and league leaders Manchester City after losing 1-0 at the King Power Stadium to Leicester City.

Ademola Lookman’s goal in the 59th minute of the encounter separated both sides.

Jurgen Klopp’s side had walked into the encounter as favorites and also welcomed back four players of which two were starters on the night (Van Dijk and Fabinho) while Leicester who were trashed recently by City 6-3 on Boxing Day had to makeshift at Centre back pairing Wilfred Ndidi and Daniel Amartey.

The Reds began the game on a wrong foot even though they had heavily dominated from start as league topscorer Mohammed Salah was brought down in the box by Wilfred Ndidi but the Egyptian who is well known for hitting the target from 12 yards failed to make it count as he saw his effort saved by Kasper Schemeichel. Also, the Egyptian headed home the rebound but his effort was only good for the cross bar.

The first half saw no much fuss from Liverpool as the side kept wasting the flurry of chances that came their way. Jurgen Klopp’s side again continued the abysmal form infront of goal in the second half as Sadio Mane was in a position to give them the lead off a Jota through ball but the Senegalese instead chose the crowd to send his strike.

Up stepped Ademola Lookman from the bench and the Nigerian made Liverpool pay the price when he found space off Joel Matip before beating Alisson at his near post.

Liverpool who have scored 50 league goals (level with Man City) failed to score for the first time in as 35 games and are now six points behind leaders City and could become nine before the end of the year if Manchester City avoid a loss at Brentford.

The loss is Liverpool’s second in the league this season.

After the game Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said his side played ‘a really bad game’ and said his side deserved to lose:

“We played a really bad game, so it was well deserved [to lose],” Klopp told Amazon Prime.

“Our decision-making [was poor], maybe a little bit of luck [was missing]. That’s how it is. We should have had more of those moments. We had enough to get the win, but if you lose you need more of them.”

Meanwhile, Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers lauded his side for executing the daunting task labelling their performance ‘heroic’:

“When you play against the two teams we have played, it was going to be a huge test of our mentality and spirit and physicality,’ Rodgers told Amazon Prime.

‘There’s probably not a team more physical in the league than Liverpool so to come through with a clean sheet and in the way we played showed our resilience.

I am lost for words really as it was such a heroic performance in the context of the two games.” The former Liverpool boss added.

Liverpool will still be on the road in their next game and it will be at Stamford Bridge when they take on fellow title chasers Chelsea.

Leicester’s next game is at home (King Power Stadium) when they take on Norwich.

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