BRENTFORD, England — Liverpool beat a Brentford side that finished with nine men on Saturday, and the afternoon still cost them two players. Andoni Iraola confirmed he will be without Dominik Szoboszlai and Jeremie Frimpong “for some time.”
Szoboszlai, back after missing two matches, lasted 32 minutes before his hamstring trouble returned, according to Goal.com. Frimpong came on at half-time and was forced off seven minutes later. Liverpool still took the 2-1 win, which lifted them above Brentford into fifth and answered the defeat when Manchester City beat Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield.
The game turned before half-time. Keane Lewis-Potter headed Brentford in front in the 44th minute, moments after referee John Brooks overturned a Liverpool penalty because Dango Ouattara had touched the ball. Then Yehor Yarmoliuk headbutted Liverpool’s Jeremy Jacquet before a corner, and after a pitch-side monitor check Brooks sent him off for violent conduct.
Liverpool made the extra man count. Iraola had moved Victor Munoz to right-back after Frimpong went off, and in the 62nd minute Munoz cut inside to finish Florian Wirtz’s pass. Eight minutes later Alexander Isak, back from a thigh problem, got a snapshot away from Bradley Barcola’s knockdown, Sky Sports reported. It was his fifth goal in five games against Brentford, and one of only two shots he took before being substituted in the 79th minute.
Iraola did not read the afternoon as a triumph. He said he was “probably more disappointed after we score because you score for 2-1 and then you feel like you have something to lose,” and that Liverpool “missed clear counters to finish the game.”
Brentford’s Keith Andrews saw it from the other side. The sending off, he said, “changes the dynamics of the game and it’s more of a challenge.” He added: “We gave them a real advantage.” Sky’s report called it Brentford’s first defeat of the campaign.
Frimpong’s problem was new, Iraola said, and he thought the full-back “finished cramping the other day,” which Goal.com reported in a transcript that ties the remark to the game where Liverpool beat LASK 6-3. Szoboszlai’s was “probably not healed enough, so we will need more time with him.” Liverpool host Villarreal in the Champions League on Tuesday. How long “some time” lasts, neither Iraola nor Sky’s match report says.
