Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker rose highest and powered home an incredible last-minute winner against West Brom on Sunday evening.
The Brazil international stopper went forward for Trent Alexander-Arnold’s 95th-minute corner and met the cross with his head, directing his effort past the helpless Sam Johnstone and into the corner of the West Brom net.
It was an incredible scene and a goal that could be huge in terms of Liverpool’s pursuit of a top-four finish and Champions League qualification for next season.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, a clearly emotional Alisson said:
“I’m too emotional these last months for everything that happened with me, with my family.
“But football is my life, I played since I remember as a human being with my father. I hope he was here to see it but I’m sure that he’s seeing with God on his side and celebrating.
“It’s for my family, for the boys. What a fight, sometimes we are fighting and fighting and things are just not happening as this afternoon here.
“Just scoring this goal, I’m really, really happy to help them because they fight a lot, we fight a lot together and we have a strong goal to achieve the Champions League because we won it once and you know that everything started with qualification.
“I can’t be more happy than I am now.”
About the emotional celebration, Alisson commented:
“I have been away from interviews for a long time. It was a difficult time because always when I talk about it I get emotional on that. But I just really want to thank all of you, all the Premier League, all the players I received letters from, managers from teams – for example, Everton and Ancelotti, all the players, Man City, Chelsea. I don’t want to be not fair with the others that I don’t remember but I just want to say thank you to everybody for the support. If it wasn’t for you, I could never get through this because I’m just away from my family since the thing happened. My wife has been amazing with me, my kids give me energy and this is what we feel, the love from God. This is the way God loves us – through people and we should do that every time, every day. But I just want to say thank you for this moment. And the celebration, I don’t know how to celebrate! And hopefully, I don’t need to come so many times to the box to score a goal – hopefully, our players will do that for me. I just have to think and defend and to help them.”
Alisson’s winning header leaves Liverpool just one point behind Chelsea and three behind Leicester with all teams now having two games each remaining. It’s worth noting that Chelsea and Leicester play each other this Tuesday night in the league.
Liverpool travel to face Burnley on Wednesday night before then rounding off their campaign in front of 10,000 fans at Anfield next Sunday.
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