Liverpool and Aston Villa drew 1-1 at Anfield, severely damaging their chances of finishing in the top four. In the 27th minute, Jacob Ramsey headed in a Douglas Luiz cross to give the visitors the lead.
In the 89th minute, Roberto Firmino struck a remarkable equalizer to save a point for Liverpool after it appeared like Aston Villa would seal a hard-fought 1-0 victory. This prevented the Reds from losing all hope of qualifying for the Champions League.
Earlier, last week, the club announced that Firmino, Naby Keita, James Milner and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will all leave Anfield upon the expiry of their contracts this summer.
Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp spoke glowingly of the four players and described their last home game at Anfield as an emotional match.
“Definitely emotional, we spoke already with the boys earlier this week about it, it’s super important for us and it’s kind of Super- emotional as well for different reasons because we really say goodbye, from my point of view four Liverpool legends,” he said to the press.
Klopp also admitted that this season has not been good enough but said that he was happy with the recent run of form for the Merseyside.
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“I think we made it pretty exciting. I didn’t think that was possible seven weeks ago, the boys did really well in that period, I think our people enjoyed it as well, you could see today they are not angry with us, they are looking forward to a new premier league season and Europe league season.” he explained during the post-match interview.
Emotional match for Milner, Firmino
After the final whistle for the match, James Milner and Firmino were in tears. They were both at the club when Klopp arrived and are the two players with the most appearances under the manager in his career, with 322 and 354 appearances respectively while playing for the German.
The draw against Aston Villa leaves Liverpool three points behind the top four, as Newcastle United and Manchester United just need one win to wrap up their champions league qualification next season.
