The most remarkable match of an extraordinary Premier League season…
On Saturday, 23rd January 2016, Carrow Road would be the venue for the return match between Norwich City and Liverpool in the 23rd round of the 2015-16 Barclays Premier League season. Eight points and seven table placings separated the Canaries and the Reds going into this match. However, in what was already turning out to be the most extraordinary of top-flight campaigns, Norwich and Liverpool would add their case to the proceedings, producing one of the most topsy-turvy encounters the Premier League has seen in recent years. For one team, defeat would further complicate an already demanding league season. For the other, this match would serve as a template that the team would successfully follow for years to come.
Barclays Premier League Table Before 23rd January 2016
| Position | Team | Played | Wins | Draws | Losses | GF | GA | GD | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8th | Crystal Palace | 22 | 9 | 4 | 9 | 23 | 24 | -1 | 31 |
| 9th | Liverpool | 22 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 25 | 28 | -3 | 31 |
| 10th | Southampton | 22 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 31 | 24 | +7 | 30 |
| 15th | Bournemouth | 22 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 26 | 37 | -11 | 24 |
| 16th | Norwich City | 22 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 24 | 38 | -14 | 23 |
| 17th | Swansea City | 22 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 20 | 30 | -10 | 22 |
Pre-match
It is fair to say that neither Norwich nor Liverpool fans were thoroughly enjoying the 2015-16 Premier League season, with neither side in a position that they would want to occupy. The hosts Norwich sat in 16th place on 23 points, two above the relegation zone after six wins, five draws and eleven defeats from their 22 league matches. Meanwhile, just past the season’s halfway point, Liverpool found themselves 9th on 31 points, six points away from European football after eight wins, seven draws, and seven defeats. However, a win at Carrow Road on 23rd January would improve either team’s spirits, moving them up the table and closer to their intended goal. The reverse fixture at Anfield on 20th September 2015 had ended in a 1-1 draw, with both goals coming in the second half. Danny Ings had given Liverpool the 48th-minute lead, only for Canaries captain Russell Martin to equalise for Norwich thirteen minutes later. After this earlier tie, a win for Norwich or Liverpool in this reverse fixture would provide ample bragging rights and slightly improve how each team’s fanbase viewed this season at its conclusion.
Norwich City
The 2015-16 season saw Norwich City begin their eighth Premier League campaign. The 2013-14 season had seen the Canaries drop out of the top flight after a three-year stay. However, the Norfolk club would immediately yo-yo back into English football’s top division as EFL Championship play-off winners. After missing out on automatic promotion by three points, Norwich would dispatch regional rivals Ipswich Town in the play-off semi-finals to set up a final date with Middlesbrough at Wembley Stadium. On 25th May 2015, early goals from Cameron Jerome and Nathan Redmond would help Alex Neil’s team secure a comfortable 2-0 win and earn immediate promotion back to the Premier League.
The man behind Norwich’s promotion campaign was 34-year-old manager Alex Neil. Neil had begun the 2014-15 season as coach of Scottish Premiership team Hamilton Academicals. However, after Norwich sacked incumbent coach Neil Adams on 5th January, the top-flight chasers would call for the young Scotsman’s services. After Neil’s hiring on 9th January 2015, the Canaries would lose just three of their final twenty-two Championship matches, achieving top-flight promotion. Now, one of the UK’s youngest coaches would steer Norwich into a brand-new Premier League endeavour that would hopefully (for them) end in survival.
Hoping to attain Premier League survival, Norwich would sign seven players during the summer transfer window. West Brom midfield duo Graham Dorrans and Youssouf Mulumbu would arrive first. The pair would be followed by recently-relegated Hull City midfielder Robbie Brady for £7m and young Liverpool right-back Andre Wisdom on a season-long loan at the end of July. After Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper Jake Kean came in to fill out Norwich’s goalkeeping ranks, Alex Neil would strike a pair of season-long loan deals on transfer deadline day. First, West Ham United winger Matt Jarvis would add further Premier League experience to the Canaries’ midfield. Then, Neil would take a chance on 29-year-old Dynamo Kyiv striker Dieumerci Mbokani, who had scored 16 goals in 33 matches over the previous two seasons in the Ukrainian Premier League, to lead his team’s English Premier League frontline.
Later, in the January transfer window, with Norwich now in a relegation battle, Alex Neil would sign a further five players before the Liverpool match on 23rd January 2016. First, he would turn Matt Jarvis’s season-long loan into a £7.5m permanent deal. Then, Dinamo Zagreb defender Ivo Pinto, York City teenager Ben Godfrey, Wolfsburg centre-back Timm Klose and Everton striker Steven Naismith would complete Norwich’s transfer business to this point.
Norwich City would have an encouraging start to their new Premier League campaign. A pair of 3-1 wins over Sunderland and Bournemouth and draws with Stoke, Liverpool, and West Ham would give the Canaries nine points from their first seven matches, putting the team 12th. However, following this start, Norwich would quickly find themselves among the Premier League’s relegation candidates. After ending September with a 2-2 draw against West Ham, Alex Neil’s team would win four of their next fifteen matches before the Liverpool match, earning 14 points from a possible 45.
However, Norwich would still earn some impressive results despite their overall poor form. On 29th November, the Canaries would draw 1-1 against 4th-placed Arsenal at Carrow Road. Two weeks later, another home draw would arrive against Everton, with Canaries veteran Wes Hoolahan equalising after Romelu Lukaku had given the Toffees the lead. However, the team’s most impressive result would arrive away from home at Old Trafford. On 19th December, goals from Cameron Jerome and Alex Tettey would see Norwich defeat Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United 2-1, with Alex Neil’s team earning their first victory at Old Trafford since 1989. Norwich would later follow up this win with back-to-back home victories over Aston Villa (2-0) and Southampton (1-0) as 2015 turned into 2016. However, despite these results, Norwich City would enter the Liverpool home match on 23rd January on the back of successive three-goal losses to Stoke (3-1) and Bournemouth (3-0).
Liverpool
Meanwhile, the 2015-16 season would mark the beginning of a new era for Liverpool Football Club. For the first time since 1997, the Reds would begin a Premier League campaign without talismanic club captain Steven Gerrard. The 35-year-old would call time on his Liverpool career after making his 710th and final appearance in an embarrassing 6-1 defeat to Stoke City on the last day of the 2014-15 Premier League campaign. With more years of his career behind than ahead of him, Gerrard would move to MLS side LA Galaxy, joining up with fellow veteran superstar names Ashley Cole, Robbie Keane and Nigel de Jong.
With Steven Gerrard’s departure, the 2015-16 season would see Liverpool hope to rediscover their fortunes after disappointing the previous campaign. In 2013-14, Liverpool was a Gerrard slip away from winning their first English top-flight title since 1990, eventually finishing three points shy of Manchester City. After losing top scorer Luis Suárez (31 goals in 33 matches the previous campaign) to Barcelona and some inadequate signings, Brendan Rodgers’ team would fail to kick on from the last season, finishing 6th in the Premier League and exiting the Champions League at the group stages. With the 2015-16 season now approaching, Rodgers would find his position as Liverpool manager come under pressure from the fans, despite nearly delivering the club to Premier League glory one year earlier. To correct those opinions and turn the club’s fortunes in a more positive direction, the Northern Irish manager would have to build a squad that could again challenge the Premier League’s top four placings.
The summer of 2015 would see Liverpool add a bunch of talented youngsters and some Premier League experience to the squad while casting off unused players and past failed signings, with one notable exception. Charlton Athletic wonderkid Joe Gomez would begin Liverpool’s summer transfer business. The 18-year-old centre-back would join for £3.5 million on 20th June 2015, a just reward for a breakthrough season with the Addicks. James Milner, a former wonderkid himself, would be the next through the door, joining on a free transfer from Manchester City. The tireless midfielder would leave the blue half of Manchester with Premier League (x2), FA Cup and League Cup medals, along with 203 first-team appearances. In a bid to restore quality to Liverpool’s attack following the loss of Luis Suárez, one other and the injury absences of Daniel Sturridge, Brendan Rodgers would plump £6.5 million on 22-year-old Burnley striker Danny Ings. Ings had impressed for Sean Dyche’s Clarets, scoring 11 goals in 35 matches in a season that would see Burnley suffer immediate relegation back to the Championship.
After Brendan Rodgers added Bolton goalkeeper Ádám Bogdán to serve as a potential second-choice behind Simon Mignolet, Liverpool would land their first big-money signing of the window in the form of Hoffenheim forward Roberto Firmino. Aged 23, Firmino had been the shining light of a Hoffenheim team that rarely featured in the upper echelons of the Bundesliga. Firmino’s 16 goals in 33 games during the 2013-14 season had helped his team to their first top-half finish in five seasons and earned the Brazilian the Bundesliga Breakthrough Player of the Season award. All this, plus his performances during the subsequent 2014-15 campaign, were enough for Liverpool to put down £21.3 million to sign the Brazilian playmaker as part of a new-look Liverpool attacking line.
Southampton right-back Nathaniel Clyne would become the next new Red, joining for £10 million. The 24-year-old had become one of the Premier League’s most impressive full-backs during his three years on the South Coast. He was almost ever-present in Southampton’s back four as the Saints secured three successive top-ten league finishes and qualified for the UEFA Europa League. His performances had even earned him England recognition, with Clyne now having made five appearances for his country.
Liverpool’s last signing of the summer transfer window would come on 22nd July 2015, with Brendan Rodgers getting his transfer business done early. However, Rodgers would leave his most high-profile signing to last, as Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke would join Liverpool for £32.5 million. Benteke had been one of the few highlights of a struggling Aston Villa team slowly falling toward Premier League relegation. Despite Villa producing woeful Premier League finishes of 15th, 15th and 17th over the past three campaigns, Benteke had still managed an impressive goalscoring record of 42 goals in 89 league matches. The Belgian striker had also scored the opener in Aston Villa’s 2-1 win over Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-finals the previous May as the West Midlands team scored an upset victory. Now, Brendan Rodgers wanted the powerful Benteke to lead his new forward line and reproduce his Aston Villa form for a team positioned higher up the Premier League standings.
With Liverpool fans already knowing that Steven Gerrard was leaving the club for greener grass elsewhere, the list of players leaving Anfield during the summer of 2015 did not arouse much emotion from the Liverpool fans, except for one. Along with Gerrard, backup goalkeeper Brad Jones and right-back Glen Johnson would be released by the club. Jones had spent his five seasons at Anfield serving as the understudy to Pepe Reina and Simon Mignolet. Hence, he had played just 27 matches in Liverpool colours. Glen Johnson’s departure was a bigger deal, considering that the England international had been the Reds’ first-choice right-back for five seasons until the 2013-14 season. However, he made just 28 appearances in all competitions during the 2014-15 campaign and had personally asked to leave the club before his release was granted. The 30-year-old would go with 200 appearances and 9 goals to his name, becoming England’s first-choice right-back during his time at Anfield.
Early July would see a trio of failed Spanish-speaking signings take their leave. Centre-back Sebastián Coates, forward Iago Aspas, and right-back Javier Manquillo would exit Anfield for Sunderland, Atlético Madrid and Celta Vigo. All three had been unable to make a significant positive impact on Liverpool’s fortunes during their time at the club. However, the next man out the door had made a significant impact at Anfield, and his exit would shock the Liverpool fanbase.
On 14th July 2015, Raheem Sterling would leave Liverpool for league rivals Manchester City for £44 million. After the departure of Luis Suárez, Sterling had become Liverpool’s main attacking star during the 2014-15 season, making 52 appearances in all competitions. However, Liverpool’s decline in fortunes had led the 20-year-old forward to consider his immediate future. Finding that tangible trophy success was more likely away from Anfield, Sterling took the option to move across the North West to the previous season’s Premier League runners-up Manchester City. After the departures of Luis Suárez and Steven Gerrard, Raheem Sterling’s exit made him the third key member of Liverpool’s title-chasing team of 2013-14 to grow tired of the club’s dusty trophy cabinet. Having come through the club’s academy, debuting at 17 and breaking through to make over 129 first-team appearances before the age of 21, Raheem Sterling would be a significant loss to Liverpool Football Club and showed how quickly the club had fallen over the past two years.
Following the headline-grabbing exit of Raheem Sterling, less attention was made to the sales of strikers Rickie Lambert to West Brom (£3m) and Fabio Borini to Sunderland (£8m). Lambert was a strange choice to replace the outgoing Luis Suárez in the summer of 2014. The Southampton striker had entered the spotlight as one of the key players in the Southampton team that had earned Europa League football under Ronald Koeman. He had also become a surprising England regular, earning 11 caps and scoring 3 goals for the national side in the past year. However, the 33-year-old had, unsurprisingly, struggled to make the grade at Anfield, scoring 3 goals in 36 matches. He was, therefore, a simple name for Brendan Rodgers to cut, as was Fabio Borini, who had a similarly poor record of 3 in 36. Signing from Parma in 2012 after an impressive loan spell at AS Roma, Borini had served his time warming the Liverpool substitutes’ bench while also spending the 2013-14 campaign at Sunderland, helping the Black Cats secure Premier League survival. With many fans forgetting that he was actually contracted to Liverpool, not Sunderland, Borini’s departure to Wearside drew few a raised eyebrow.
The 2015-16 season would see Brendan Rodgers begin his fourth campaign at Liverpool. After failing to follow up the 2013-14 campaign with another successful season, Rodgers was now under pressure to get the Reds back into the Champions League placings. He also needed a good start to this new Premier League season.
One-goal wins over Stoke and Bournemouth, plus a goalless draw with Arsenal, would put Liverpool 3rd after three matches. However, the rot would soon set into the club once more. Consecutive three-goal losses to West Ham (0-3) and arch-rivals Manchester United (1-3) on either side of an international break, plus the 1-1 draw with Norwich on 20th September, would put the Reds on a four-match winless run, dropping the team down to 13th and angering the fanbase. A penalty shoot-out victory over League Two Carlisle United in the League Cup plus consecutive draws against Bordeaux and FC Sion to start the club’s Europa League campaign would also contribute to this feeling of discontent surrounding Brendan Rodgers. A scrappy 3-2 league win over relegation favourites Aston Villa then did little to change things. Finally, after a 1-1 draw in the Merseyside derby on 4th October left Liverpool 10th after eight matches, Brendan Rodgers was sacked as Liverpool manager. Rodgers would exit with a 50% win ratio from his 166 games in charge, but the Northern Irishman would know that he had come the closest of any recent Reds manager to ending Liverpool’s 25-year league title drought.
Five days later, Liverpool found Brendan Rodgers’ replacement, announcing Jürgen Klopp as the team’s new manager. For the past few years, Klopp had been the envy of English football fans during his time as manager of Borussia Dortmund. Taking charge in 2008, Klopp would lead the BVB to glory within three seasons, winning the Bundesliga in 2011. After securing the team’s first league title in nine years, Klopp would do one better the following year, retaining the league and adding the DFB-Pokal for the team’s first-ever Double. Despite losing the Bundesliga title to Bayern Munich the next year, Dortmund would progress to their first Champions League final since 1997, again losing to the Bavarians. Klopp had left Borussia Dortmund in May 2015 following a 7th-placed Bundesliga finish. However, he had led the BVB to four successive top-two finishes and five trophies (2x Bundesliga, 1x DFB-Pokal, 2X DFL-Supercup) and had made stars of Robert Lewandowski, Shinji Kagawa, İlkay Gündoğan, Mario Götze and Mats Hummels. He also played an entertaining brand of football, with his main tactic of Gegenpressing (counter-pressing) becoming the template for other young managers to follow and the bedrock of Borussia Dortmund’s success.
In his first press conference as Liverpool manager, Jürgen Klopp would jokingly call himself ‘The Normal One’, a reference to José Mounriho famously calling himself ‘The Special One’ in his first press conference as Chelsea manager in 2004. However, he would more seriously set out his goal for Liverpool to succeed within the next few years. He stated his intention to deliver Liverpool fans a trophy within four years, saying, “We have to change from doubters to believers. Now.”
It can sometimes take time for a manager to implement his style and methods onto a team and for the players who have known one type of football for many years to suddenly adapt to a whole new way of playing football. That previous sentence can be a summation of Jürgen Klopp’s first three months in charge of Liverpool leading up to the Norwich game. In the fourteen Premier League matches that the German had overseen, Liverpool had won five, drawn four and lost five, producing 19 points from a possible 42. These results moved Liverpool from 10th place at Klopp’s arrival to 9th place before the Norwich match.
On the positive side, Liverpool had earned big away wins over ‘Big Six’ rivals Chelsea and Manchester City, triumphing 3-1 at Stamford Bridge on 31st October and 4-1 at the Etihad on 21st November. The Reds also became just the second team to defeat surprise Premier League leaders Leicester City, winning 1-0 at Anfield on Boxing Day. On the flip side, this three-month period under Klopp had also seen defeats to Crystal Palace (1-2, 8th November), Newcastle (2-0, 6th December), Watford (3-0, 20th December) and Manchester United (0-1, 17th January). In fact, Liverpool would enter their match against Norwich on 23rd January off the back of three winless games, with a 3-3 draw with Arsenal coming between defeats to West Ham (2-0) and Man United. However, the Reds still had a chance of winning three trophies. At the time of the Norwich match, Liverpool was in the 4th round of the FA Cup, in the first knockout round of the UEFA Europa League, and held a 1-0 aggregate lead over Stoke in a League Cup semi-final tie.
The Match
On 23rd January 2016, Norwich City vs Liverpool at Carrow Road would serve as the 12:45 lunchtime kick-off for a packed eight-match slate of Barclays Premier League action. Following this clash, Alan Pardew’s Crystal Palace (8th) would host Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham (4th), and Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City (2nd) would meet Mark Hughes’ Stoke City (7th). Then, Ronald Koeman’s Southampton (10th) would travel to Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United (5th), and Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth (15th) would meet Sam Allardyce’s Sunderland (19th). Finally, Quique Sánchez Flores’ Watford (12th) would host Steve McClaren’s Newcastle (19th), and Tony Pulis’s West Brom took on Rémi Garde’s Aston Villa in the West Midlands derby. Then, in the tea-time kick-off, Slaven Bilić’s Europa League-chasing West Ham (6th) would take on Manuel Pellegrini’s Manchester City, who entered the match one point off the Premier League summit in 3rd place.
With both teams coming into the match off the back of defeats, it would be no surprise to see Alex Neil or Jürgen Klopp change their starting line-ups. Alex Neil would make four changes to the team that lost 3-0 to Bournemouth the previous week. In defence, Neil would give new signing Ivo Pinto his Premier League debut in place of Ryan Bennett. In midfield, Alexander Tettey, Matt Jarvis and Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe would all drop out, with Graham Dorrans, Nathan Redmond and debutant striker Steven Naismith replacing them. Finally, in a positional change, Wes Hoolahan would drop back into central midfield from the ‘No.10′ role to make way for Naismith. Meanwhile, Klopp would make one change from the team that lost 1-0 to Manchester United the previous Sunday, with Jordon Ibe replacing Adam Lallana on the left, with Lallana taking Ibe’s place on the substitutes’ bench.
Starting XIs and Substitutes
| Norwich City | Liverpool | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Formation (4-4-1-1) | Formation (4-3-3) | ||
| Declan Rudd | GK 13 | GK 22 | Simon Mignolet |
| Ivo Pinto | RB 25 | RB 2 | Nathaniel Clyne |
| Russell Martin (capt.) | CB 5 | CB 17 | Mamadou Sakho |
| Sebastian Bassong | CB 6 | CB 4 | Kolo Touré |
| Robbie Brady | LB 12 | LB 18 | Alberto Moreno |
| Wes Hoolahan | RM 14 | CM 14 | Jordan Henderson (capt.) |
| Jonny Howson | CM 8 | CM 21 | Lucas Leiva |
| Graham Dorrans | CM 18 | CM 23 | Emre Can |
| Nathan Redmond | LM 22 | RW 7 | James Milner |
| Steven Naismith | SS 7 | CF 11 | Roberto Firmino |
| Dieumerci Mbokani | CF 9 | LW 33 | Jordan Ibe |
| Substitutes | Substitutes | ||
| John Ruddy | GK 1 | GK 52 | Danny Ward |
| Martin Olsson | LB 23 | CB 19 | Steven Caulker |
| Timm Klose | CB 17 | RB 38 | Jon Flanagan |
| Matt Jarvis | WG 16 | AM 20 | Adam Lallana |
| Youssouf Mulumbu | CM 21 | CM 24 | Joe Allen |
| Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe | MF 32 | AM 53 | João Teixeira |
| Cameron Jerome | CF 10 | CF 9 | Christian Benteke |
| Alex Neil | Coach | Coach | Jürgen Klopp |
After the kick-off, it would take until the 16th minute for either side to register a meaningful attempt on goal. Alberto Moreno would find Roberto Firmino in the centre of the Norwich penalty area, but the Brazilian forward would skew his shot high and wide of Declan Rudd’s net. However, Firmino would make no mistake from his next effort two minutes later. James Milner would slip a through-ball into the left inside channel of the Norwich box. Roberto Firmino would beat the offside trap before scuffing a first-time effort past goalkeeper Rudd into the Norwich net via the far post. In his 24th appearance of the campaign, the Brazilian had scored just his fourth Liverpool goal since arriving in the summer. However, this opener against Norwich was his third goal in three Premier League matches, as he had scored a brace in Liverpool’s 3-3 draw with Arsenal 10 days earlier. Eighteen minutes played, and Liverpool had taken advantage of their early pressure to take a 1-0 lead at Carrow Road. Norwich could now be in for a difficult afternoon at home with how easily the first goal was executed.
After taking the lead, Liverpool continued to have the better of things and had opportunities to quickly double their advantage. Jordan Henderson had a shot blocked from the edge of the box. A clever turn and pass from Firmino then sent James Milner into space and Liverpool into a two-on-one attack. However, once in the box, Canaries captain Russell Martin would recover well enough to flick the ball away from the winger before he could attempt a shot. Finally, left-back Alberto Moreno would send a teed-up shot sailing wide from a Liverpool free-kick. Liverpool was firmly on top in this match and was unlucky not to be 2-0 in front.
After surviving that, Norwich soon started to have some luck, with frontman Dieumerci Mbokani causing trouble in the Liverpool half. In the 28th minute, Norwich City would win their first corner kick. The Reds would deal with Robbie Brady’s initial delivery, but a header away would only reach Canaries midfielder Graham Dorrans, whose headed pass from outside the box would find Mbokani. Surrounded by red shirts, the Congolese striker would control the ball with one foot before quickly and skilfully backheeling the ball past Reds keeper Simon Mignolet with the other. Dieumerci Mbokani had drawn Norwich City level in the 29th minute of play at Carrow Road with just his fourth goal for the club. With the match’s momentum shifting towards the home side, the next goal in this game would be an important one, especially with 15 minutes of the first half remaining.
Mbokani’s equaliser had turned this match, which had threatened to be an easy Liverpool victory, into a more even affair. Fouls were being committed frequently, and shots were fired at either end of the pitch. In one minute, Liverpool’s right-back Nathaniel Clyne would have his attempt blocked by the Norwich City defence before City left-back Robbie Brady would try to send through Mobokani, only for the offside flag to come to Liverpool’s rescue. However, as the clock ticked towards the 40th minute, the team sitting 16th in the Premier League table was starting to control the match, with Mbokani leading the way. In the 41st minute, Norwich’s increasing influence on proceedings would pay dividends. Wes Hoolahan would move inside a Liverpool defender on the right-hand side of the box before deftly passing the ball to the on-rushing Steven Naismith. Naismith would catch up to the ball before unleashing a shot from the right channel and firing across Simon Mignolet. Despite the tight angle, the attempt would end up in the bottom-left corner of the Liverpool net. Naismith, who had made headlines earlier in the season with his hat-trick in Everton’s 3-1 win over Premier League holders Chelsea, had now scored 41 minutes into his Norwich City debut to give the Canaries a 2-1 lead over Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
In the remaining minutes of the first half, Liverpool would try to find an immediate equaliser, but to no avail. As the referee blew for the break, Norwich had recovered from an early Liverpool pressure to hold a surprise 2-1 lead over the visiting Reds. However, this one-goal advantage was no fluke, as Alex Neil’s men had grown into the game as the half had developed and looked the stronger of the two sides as the half-time whistle sounded. Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp would have to refocus his player’s minds before the second half. In contrast, Norwich manager Alex Neil would want his men to keep up their impressive performance thus far and not lose their composure.
Half-Time: Norwich 2 Liverpool 1
The second half would start evenly, as any forward momentum gained by each team was quickly ended by a foul and a free-kick. However, in the 53rd minute, Norwich would earn an opportunity to double their winning margin. Steven Naismith would get in behind Alberto Moreno in the right-hand channel of the Liverpool penalty area, and the Spanish left-back would twice clearly bring down the Scottish forward in a matter of seconds. Referee Lee Mason would have no other alternative but to give Norwich a penalty kick. Canaries midfielder Wes Hoolahan would step up to take it. Simon Mignolet would correctly guess the direction of Hoolahan’s effort, but the 33-year-old would score by placing the ball to the goalkeeper’s left. Eight minutes into the second half, Norwich City now led Liverpool 3-1, with all three goals coming without reply. Roberto Firmino’s 18th-minute opener now seemed like a long time ago.
However, the shock of falling 3-1 behind would spark Liverpool into immediate action. One minute after Wes Hoolahan’s penalty, Liverpool had already reduced Norwich’s advantage to one goal. Not long after the restart, Nathaniel Clyne would send a ball into the Norwich penalty area. The ball would bounce beyond Roberto Firmino and Russell Martin into the path of Jordan Henderson, who would lash a first-time effort into the net to quickly make the score 3-2 after 54 minutes. Henderson would pick the ball out of the net and call upon his teammates to keep the pressure on and not let Norwich take this match. Liverpool would need to capitalise on Henderson’s goal if they wanted the three points. However, with five goals already scored, thirty-six minutes plus potential added time left to play, and the overall pattern of this game thus far, there were more goals to come in this engaging encounter.
Jürgen Klopp would be the first of the two managers to call upon his substitutes’ bench. In the 59th minute, Klopp would bring on Adam Lallana for Jordon Ibe on the left flank, a reverse of the substitution Klopp made against Manchester United the previous week. After coming on, Adam Lallana would take four minutes to immediately impact the game. After beating two Norwich defenders to a ball on the run, the winger would deliver a first-time cross into the centre of the box, where Roberto Firmino was running in all alone. With Norwich’s defence behind him, Firmino would have time to control the ball and lift it over the on-rushing Declan Rudd to score his second goal of the match and Liverpool’s equaliser. The Reds had scored twice in eight minutes to cancel out Noriwch’s two-goal lead, bringing the game back to level terms at 3-3. Now, it was the turn of the Norwich City players to look and each other and wonder what had just happened. Liverpool was back in the ascendancy and would be looking to come away from Carrow Road with three points, not just one.
After providing a near-immediate assist after coming on, the offside flag would twice deny Adam Lallana a chance to get on the scoresheet himself. Then, Norwich would start to get some purchase inside the Liverpool half, and City defender Sébastien Bassong’s header would force a save out of Simon Mignolet. Then, Alex Neil would issue a double substitution, changing both of his wingers. Matt Jarvis would replace Nathan Redmond on the left, and Martin Olsson would replace goalscorer Wes Hoolahan on the right. However, despite these changes, Liverpool would accrue better scoring chances. In the 73rd minute, Alberto Moreno would find his effort blocked before James Milner would deliver what appeared to be the killer blow two minutes later. Midfielder Jonny Howson would attempt a long-range back-pass only for Milner to seize upon his weak effort, run unchallenged into the box and beat Declan Rudd one-on-one at his near post to score Liverpool’s fourth goal. In twenty second-half minutes, Liverpool had come from 3-1 down to lead Norwich City 4-3. By this point, the lead in this match had changed hands three times, from Liverpool being 1-0 up to Norwich going 3-1 ahead to now Liverpool taking a 4-3 advantage into the final 17 minutes of regulation time. A truly great match. However, there was still more to come.
Following his side re-taking the lead, Jürgen Klopp attempted to seal the victory by bringing on striker Christian Benteke for midfielder Jordan Henderson in the 76th minute. Six minutes later, his opposite number Alex Neil would have a similar idea, replacing supporting striker Steven Naismith with the more attack-minded Cameron Jerome. Considering their current plight and how the match had gone, Neil would feel that his side needed to come away from this game with something to show for their efforts. Liverpool’s new strike partnership of Benteke and Roberto Firmino would almost come good immediately, with the latter setting up the former for a shot that Declan Rudd would keep out.
In the 90th minute, Jürgen Klopp would use his last substitution, bringing on Steven Caulker for Alberto Moreno at the back. However, the fourth official would issue five additional minutes of added time. Two minutes into that time, Norwich would earn a free kick inside their own half. With every other player deep inside the Liverpool half for the free-kick, the ball would be launched forward by Ivo Pinto. The ball would find Cameron Jerome. Jerome would chest the ball into space, and Sébastien Bassong would re-adjust his body before letting the ball fly from nearly 25 yards. The ball would drag across the face of the Liverpool net past Simon Mignolet into the bottom-right corner. With probably the best goal of his career, Bassong had conjured up a late equaliser with three minutes of added time remaining to make the score 4-4 and send Carrow Road into raptures.
It had been 3 years, 1 month and 15 days since Sébastien Bassong last scored in the Premier League. The defender’s last goal had come in another highly-entertaining game on 8th December 2012, when Norwich beat Swansea City 4-3 away from home. For Bassong’s next goal to also come in the best match of its season is something special to behold. With the quality of the effort and the ending of his scoring duck, it was no surprise to see the centre-back wheel away in delight as his teammates followed him. It now seemed as if, thanks to their former captain, Norwich City had rescued a crucial point at the end of this topsy-turvy football game. However, there were still three minutes of added time left to play.
With time not on their side, Liverpool knew their chances of winning were running out. They would have one last attack on the Norwich goal in the fifth minute of added time. Even defender Steven Caulker was in the box as an emergency centre-forward. Caulker would have an attempted shot blocked when the ball was sent in, but the centre-back then quickly kept the ball alive with a header. Another Norwich defender would try to head the ball away from danger. However, his clearance would fall into the path of Adam Lallana. With the ball sitting up, Lallana would attempt a volley. His shot would hit the turf but would carry so much momentum that it would quickly bounce up and sail into the top corner of the Norwich net. Into the top corner to make it Norwich 4 Liverpool 5 in the fifth minute of added time. Lallana’s goal stood as the ninth goal in this incredible football match and the sixth in a genuinely bonkers second half.
Cue bedlam. Lallana would remove his shirt and run to the corner flag, followed by his teammates. However, Lallana would first be met by manager Jürgen Klopp, who had sprinted down the touchline to congratulate his midfielder. Klopp would hug Lallana before he found himself buffeted by the rest of the Liverpool team and substitute Alberto Moreno. Klopp would lose his glasses in the celebrations and would later have to use a backup pair to do his post-match interviews. While the Liverpool players and coach celebrated near the away supporters, who were also going crazy, the rest of Carrow Road was stunned. Three minutes earlier, many were cheering themselves hoarse in celebration of a last-gasp point. That point had been cruelly snatched away in the last minute of stoppage-time.
With no mandated time left to play, Lee Mason would blow his whistle to end one of the most dramatic matches in Premier League history. A nine-goal thriller where the lead had changed hands four times and had seen three equalisers. Liverpool had not been at their best in this game, and Norwich’s performance deserved a point. However, Jürgen Klopp’s time had managed to win out in the end, with a spirit that Liverpool had not had for a while. If the lunchtime kick-off was this good, how entertaining would the rest of the weekend be?
Full-Time: Norwich 4 Liverpool 5
In a match that saw the lead change hands four times, the final statistics for Norwich City vs Liverpool show how closely matched these two teams were despite their difference in league positions before the game. Liverpool would have more ball possession across the 90 minutes and would produce more shots on target compared to Norwich. However, Liverpool topped all of these statistics by small margins, registering 52% of possession to Norwich’s 48%, thirteen total shots to Norwich’s six and seven shots on target to the Canaries’ five. However, despite hitting fewer shots, the stats show that Norwich City was more clinical in front of goal than Liverpool, with four out of five shots on target hitting the back of Simon Mignolet’s net. Norwich also forced Jürgen Klopp’s side to make two more tackles (22 to 20) and commit four more fouls (14 to 10) across the entire game. Despite spending much of the match defending numerous Liverpool attacks, with players in red registering more touches (655) and passes (455) than those wearing yellow and green (615 and 401), Norwich’s defence would only be forced into one more defensive clearance compared to their opposite numbers (32 to 31). For a match that eventually finished 5-4 with two goals coming after the 90th minute, it is no surprise to see the main match statistics reflect such a close game of football.
The 5-4 away win over Norwich City would see Liverpool rise up two places in the Barclays Premier League standings to 7th and 34 points from 23 matches. The Reds were now three points off 5th-placed Manchester United in the Europa League placings and eight points off Tottenham in the final Champions League qualification spot. Meanwhile, defeat for the Canaries had moved them closer to the Premier League’s relegation zone. Stuck on 23 points at the end of 23rd January 2016, Alex Neil’s team were two points above the bottom three. The next day, a 2-1 win for relegation rivals Swansea City would see Norwich drop to 17th in the Premier League table.
Barclays Premier League Table-At End of Play on Saturday 23rd January 2016
| Position | Team | Played | Wins | Draws | Losses | GF | GA | GD | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6th | West Ham | 23 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 36 | 28 | +8 | 36 |
| 7th | Liverpool | 23 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 30 | 32 | -2 | 34 |
| 8th | Southampton | 23 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 32 | 24 | +8 | 33 |
| 15th | Bournemouth | 23 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 27 | 38 | -11 | 25 |
| 16th | Norwich City | 23 | 6 | 5 | 12 | 28 | 43 | -15 | 23 |
| 17th | Swansea | 22 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 20 | 30 | -10 | 22 |
Post-match
Norwich City
Nine days after the crushing loss to Liverpool, Norwich City would host Champions League-chasing Spurs at Carrow Road on 2nd February 2016. On the night, a 2nd-minute opener from Dele Alli and a brace from Harry Kane would see Mauricio Pochettino’s team dismantle the Canaries 3-0 in front of their own fans. The 5-4 defeat to Liverpool had put Norwich onto a three-match losing run, and this Spurs defeat would extend it to four. The next points for Norwich would come two matches later in a 2-2 draw with West Ham on 13th February. However, Alex Neil’s men would soon lose to Leicester City (1-0), Chelsea (1-2) and Swansea (1-0) and draw with Manchester City (0-0) before a 1-0 away win over West Brom on 19th March ended the team’s 10-match winless streak.
Norwich was in the thick of a relegation battle. The win over the Baggies and a 3-2 victory over Newcastle the following week would give the Canaries a 4-point buffer to the bottom three with six matches remaining. However, three consecutive defeats would drop the team down to 19th with three games left. A 1-0 loss to Manchester United would confirm Norwich City’s immediate relegation to the Championship on 7th May 2016. The Canaries would finish the season 19th with 34 points after nine wins, seven draws and twenty-two losses. The following season, Norwich would fail to earn immediate promotion to the Premier League. Alex Neil would lose his job in March 2017, and the Canaries would finish the campaign in 8th place. However, after another mid-table season the following year, Norwich City would eventually return to the Premier League fold in 2019.
Liverpool
After winning that nine-goal epic against Norwich City, Liverpool would fail to win their next five matches. Three days later, the Reds would require a 6-5 penalty shoot-out win to reach the League Cup Final after losing 1-0 to Stoke in the second leg of their semi-final. The team would draw 0-0 with West Ham in the FA Cup 4th round four days later. A Jamie Vardy wondergoal would help leaders Leicester City beat Liverpool 2-0 on 2nd February. Then, a 2-2 draw with struggling Sunderland at Anfield four days afterwards would drop Liverpool back down to 9th in the Premier League standings, undoing everything achieved by the Norwich win. To end this run of five games in fourteen days, Liverpool would lose 2-1 to West Ham in their FA Cup replay on 9th February.
Despite the Norwich victory, Liverpool’s Premier League form would remain inconsistent for the rest of the 2015-16 season. A three-game winning run would move them from 9th to 7th in the standings before a subsequent draw and defeat would drop them back to 9th, and the cycle would happen again. In their final fifteen matches of the league campaign, Liverpool would match impressive wins over Aston Villa (0-6), Manchester City (3-0) and Everton (4-0), draws against Newcastle United (2-2) and West Brom (1-1) and defeats to Southampton (3-2) and Swansea City (3-1). A tally of seven wins, five draws and three defeats from the fifteen matches played following the Norwich win (26 points from a possible 45) would see Liverpool finish the 2015-16 season in 8th place, two points away from Europa League qualification.
Despite ultimately failing to ensure European qualification through the league, Liverpool did have two other chances to achieve it through other competitions during the season. On 28th February, Liverpool faced Manchester City in the League Cup Final. The victor would also receive a place in the following season’s Europa League third qualifying round. After a goalless first half, Manchester City would take the lead through midfielder Fernandinho after 49 minutes. Liverpool would level the match in the 83rd minute, as Adam Lallana’s shot bounced off the post to Philippe Coutinho, who would equalise. The game would end at 1-1 after 90 minutes, and following extra time, the final would be decided by penalties. Emre Can would put Liverpool 1-0 up, and Fernandinho would miss City’s first spot-kick. However, Lucas Leiva, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana would miss Liverpool’s subsequent three penalties. Then, Jesús Navas, Sergio Aguero and Yaya Touré would all score for Manchester City, giving Manuel Pellegrini’s team the victory and the League Cup.
Liverpool’s other chance of European qualification and trophy success came in the UEFA Europa League. Whoever won the Europa League would receive automatic qualification to the following season’s Champions League group stage. After a slow start, Liverpool had topped their preliminary group and would face German side FC Augsburg in the first two-legged knockout round beginning. After a goalless first leg, a sole James Milner penalty after 5 minutes at Anfield would give Liverpool the 1-0 victory on the night and on aggregate. Their opponents in this next stage would be arch-rivals Manchester United. Goals from Daniel Sturridge (pen) and Roberto Firmino would give Liverpool the first-leg victory at Anfield and a 2-0 advantage heading into the return leg at Old Trafford. In the return match at Old Trafford, Manchester United would halve Liverpool’s advantage through Anthony Martial’s 32nd-minute penalty kick. However, Philippe Coutinho’s equaliser in first-half stoppage-time would end the second leg in a 1-1 draw and the tie in a 3-1 victory for Liverpool.
Now through to the Europa League quarter-finals, Liverpool would face another tricky test in the form of Jürgen Klopp’s former club Borussia Dortmund. Klopp had Dortmund to the Champions League final during his time in charge in Westphalia. His replacement Thomas Tuchel would now try to prove that his Dortmund team was better by eliminating Klopp’s Liverpool team on the road to Europa League glory. The first leg at Signal Iduna Park on 7th April would not decide much, ending in a 1-1 draw. Divock Origi would give Liverpool the lead with an away goal after 36 minutes, but Dortmund defender Mats Hummels would net the crucial equaliser three minutes into the second half. Once again, the second leg at Anfield would decide the fate of this Europa League tie.
The second leg, held at Anfield on 14th April 2016, would be one of the greatest European club matches of the decade. After all the pre-match talk about previous nights at Anfield and the power of the Kop ‘sucking the ball into the net’, the visiting Borussia Dortmund would quickly leave Liverpool and their supporters utterly shellshocked with two goals inside the first 10 minutes. Armenian playmaker Henrikh Mkhitaryan would put BVB one up after 5 minutes before the free-scoring Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang would double his team’s advantage four minutes later. It would remain like this until half-time, with Borussia Dortmund leading Liverpool 2-0 on the night and 3-0 on aggregate. Divock Origi would halve the deficit three minutes into the second half, but winger Marco Reus would re-establish Dortmund’s two-goal lead in the 57th minute. Again, Philippe Coutinho would bring the winning margin back to one goal (66′), and centre-back Mamadou Sakho would score a rare goal to level the tie on aggregate at 4-4. However, Borussia Dortmund was still heading through due to the away goal rule. Then, in the 91st minute of play, maligned defender Dejan Lovren would head home his first Liverpool goal to cap an excellent comeback and send Anfield into bedlam.
With no more goals scored, Liverpool would beat Borussia Dortmund 4-3 on the right and 5-4 on aggregate to head into the Europa League semi-finals. Klopp’s Reds had pulled out a victory at the 11th hour for the second time in three months. It was now starting to become a trend for this side.
After this famous result, Liverpool would face Villarreal in the semi-finals. After losing the first leg 1-0, Jürgen Klopp’s men would again deliver the goods at Anfield, triumphing 3-0 at home to reach their first European final since 2007. Their opponents at the St. Jakob-Park stadium in Basel, Switzerland, were serial Europa League winners Sevilla. Led by Unai Emery, the La Liga side had won four (2006, 2007, 2014, 2015) of the past nine Europa League/UEFA Cup competitions. However, Liverpool had never lost a final in this competition, having triumphed in 1973, 1976 and 2001. Liverpool would take the lead in Basel after 35 minutes through striker Daniel Sturridge and hold a one-goal through the half-time break. However, Sevilla would turn it on in the second half, scoring three times to take the victory. French striker Kevin Gameiro would level the score in the 48th minute before captain Coke would deliver a brace to give Sevilla their UEFA Cup/Europa League crown and third in succession. If only the final was still two-legged, then perhaps Liverpool would have won. However, despite their many comebacks, Jürgen Klopp’s first season at Liverpool would end trophyless.
The following summer, Jürgen Klopp would look to make his Liverpool side more competitive in all competitions ahead of his first proper season in charge. On the personnel side, José Enrique, Kolo Touré, Martin Škrtel, Jordon Ibe, Joe Allen, Christian Benteke and Mario Balotelli would all leave. In would come Schalke centre-back Joel Matip, Mainz goalkeeper Loris Karius, Southampton forward Sadio Mané, FC Augsburg pair Ragnar Klavan and Alex Manninger and Dutch international midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum from the recently-relegated Newcastle United. The following season, Liverpool would finish 4th in the Premier League, spending all but four weeks outside of the Champions League placings. The season after that would see the arrivals of Mohamed Salah, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Andrew Robertson and Virgil van Dijk.
Conclusion
Over the years, one of the features of Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool sides has been their never-say-die attitude, their refusal to give up the ghost when hope seems lost. The team showed it when coming from 3-1 down to beat Borussia Dortmund 4-3 in the second leg of the Europa League quarter-finals in April 2016. This attitude was also on display when the team overturned a 3-0 first-leg deficit to beat Barcelona 4-0 in the second leg of a Champions League semi-final at Anfield in 2019, one of the most incredible nights in the club’s history and one of the best comebacks in European football history. However, you can first trace this drive, this spirit and the overall attitude of Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool teams back to the Reds’ 5-4 thriller with Norwich City on 23rd January 2016.
The next time Liverpool and Norwich City would meet in the Premier League, the home side would run out 4-1 winners. At Anfield on 9th August 2019, the opening weekend of the 2019-20 league season, Jürgen Klopp would invite Daniel Farke’s Canaries to the home of the reigning European champions. An own-goal from Norwich defender Grant Hanley would give Liverpool a 5th-minute lead. Mo Salah would double the Reds’ advantage in the 19th minute, and Virgil van Dijk would make it 3-0 in the 28th minute. Finally, Divock Origi would complete Norwich’s first-half embarrassment with a fourth goal three minutes before half-time. All that Norwich could muster in response was a 64th-minute consolation from striker Teemu Pukki. At the end of that campaign, Liverpool were runaway Premier League champions. Norwich City had finished bottom of the table, relegated once again.
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