SOUTHAMPTON:
Liverpool made it two successive wins to start their Premier League title bid
as goals from Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino clinched a hard-fought 2-1 victory
over Southampton yesterday.

Jurgen Klopp's
tired team were ragged in their passing and lacked organisation in defence, but
still showed enough mental strength to come away with three points. It was
completely against the run of play when Senegal winger Mane put Liverpool ahead
against his former club just before half time at St Mary's.

Brazil forward
Firmino scored a clinical second but a dreadful error by Reds goalkeeper Adrian
gifted a goal to Danny Ings that set up a tense finish. Former Liverpool
forward Ings should really have equalised to give Southampton what would have
been a well-deserved point.

The reason for
the Champions League winners' lacklustre display was not hard to find. While
Southampton were recovering from their defeat at Burnley on the opening weekend
of the season, Klopp's men were in Istanbul, playing extra-time against Chelsea
in Wednesday's European Super Cup victory.

That gruelling
trip seemed to take its toll against Southampton and Liverpool, who also faced
Manchester City at Wembley in the Community Shield 13 days ago, looked out on
their feet at times.

Liverpool soon
began to struggle against a lively home side, who should have gone ahead after
21 minutes when Maya Yoshida got above Virgil Van Dijk to reach a corner from
James Ward-Prowse, only to see Adrian parry his header to safety.

The Spanish
goalkeeper was in action again just short of the half-hour, pushing out a low
cross from Ryan Bertrand and for a few seconds all was chaos in the Liverpool
penalty area as defenders tried in vain to clear the ball.

And neither Joel
Matip nor Van Dijk dealt with a first-time cross by Ward-Prowse from the right,
Che Adams getting between them to nod the ball over the crossbar.

Mane gave
Liverpool the lead in first half stoppage-time when he took a pass inside from
James Milner before sidestepping a defender and curling a shot inside the far
post.

That and the
interval seemed to give Liverpool their second wind.  Mohamed Salah had an excellent chance to
double their lead 10 minutes after half-time when he raced clear of defenders,
but the Egypt striker failed to disguise his shot, allowing Angus Gunn to
spread himself and save.

Firmino sliced
the ball wide of goal after Mane had outpaced the defence and swept the ball in
low from the left. Southampton sent on Ings and he faded a shot just over the
crossbar from distance.

But after 70
minutes Liverpool showed again how deadly they can be when teams relax against
them even for a second.

Mane won the ball
from Southampton's own throw-in and found Firmino, who danced inside along the
edge of the penalty area, waited his moment and shot low past Gunn.

Andrew Robertson
was denied a goal-of-the-month contender when Gunn dived to his right to block
the Scotland left-back's volley after a quick exchange of passes with Mane.
Adrian had to save well when Matip deflected Stuart Armstrong's cross towards
the corner of his own net.

But the
goalkeeper blundered badly with seven minutes left, hitting an attempted
clearance against Ings' right foot and back into goal under no pressure at all.
And Ings miskicked from six yards when any sort of contact would have produced
an equaliser in the closing moments. - AFP