West Ham United vs Liverpool. Premier League.
London StadiumAttendance62,473.
Report and free match highlights as Matip heads in winner after Lucas Paqueta and Cody Gakpo struck from distance in first half; Jarrod Bowen had counter-attack effort ruled out by VAR for offside and Hammers had penalty shout against Thiago waved away; Liverpool now sixth, West Ham 14th
Thursday 27 April 2023 12:30, UK
Thiago survived a late handball scare as Liverpool beat West Ham 2-1 to move up to sixth in the Premier League table thanks to Joel Matip's headed second-half winner.
The two teams at the London Stadium had enjoyed a recent upturn in fortunes and demonstrated their re-found confidence in an entertaining encounter - but also showed the vulnerabilities which have caused both to have largely frustrating campaigns.
"The hardest thing to take is the disrespect from VAR," said David Moyes, referring to VAR Neil Swarbrick and assistant VAR Daniel Cann's view of the potential handball. "Somebody in VAR didn't have enough football knowledge to understand this could be close. They might need to apologise to the football club. We need to win points to be a Premier League team."
It was Liverpool, who have now won their last three in the league, who eventually came out on top, but they fell behind to a wonderful Lucas Paqueta strike on 11 minutes. The Brazil midfielder showed his class by firing past Alisson after combining with Michail Antonio.
Cody Gakpo quickly responded in the 15th minute with a long-range effort of his own and when Jarrod Bowen's breakaway goal was ruled out by VAR, Matip was able to grab the decisive second goal for the visitors, heading in unmarked from a 67th-minute corner.
There was late drama, though, with a handball shout against Thiago in the box waved away by the officials in the 88th minute.
The ball was kicked against Thiago from close range by Danny Ings but his arm was away from his body as he fell. There were arguments for and against it being given in a season when the handball interpretation has been in the spotlight but it was a decision which left West Ham boss Moyes infuriated as he confronted referee Chris Kavanagh at full time.
Jurgen Klopp said he understood Moyes' frustration but his Liverpool side are now just a point behind fifth-placed Aston Villa with a game in hand - and six off the top four. West Ham stay 14th, five points above the relegation zone having played a game less than third-bottom Leicester.
West Ham won this fixture 3-2 last season and from the early moments it seemed more goals were on the way, with Liverpool gifting the home side the ball in and around their penalty area twice inside the first 10 minutes, with Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson fortunate not to be punished. There was no stopping Paqueta soon after, though.
His run in from the left was classy, the one-two with Antonio created space and his finish was too fierce for Alisson. A third goal in three games to underline the quality of the Hammers' Brazilian.
Liverpool showed they have their own marksman from long range soon after, though, with Gakpo arrowing in a low shot from distance, although Lukasz Fabianski will feel he should have done better.
Trent Alexander-Arnold will claim the simple assist for his short pass in the build-up but, operating in the holding role, he was pulling the strings for his side. With Liverpool now in control, Jota and Fabinho sent shots over before the Reds' forward was just unable to reach a flick-on from Jordan Henderson at the back post.
Out of nowhere West Ham came back to life at the end of the half, with Van Dijk forced to prod Said Benrahma's low cross behind with Antonio waiting to turn it in. Antonio then glanced a header wide from the resulting corner before Paqueta saw another dig from 25 yards blocked on the whistle for the interval.
Ten minutes after the restart they thought they were ahead. The move was as much about Declan Rice's last-ditch tackle on Jota which kick-started the counter as Bowen's cool finish but a VAR check spotted the West Ham winger going just too soon as he raced onto the through ball.
Liverpool responded well, with Alexander-Arnold shooting over and sub Luis Diaz causing problems. But it was a couple of corners which proved West Ham's undoing. From the first, Matip forced a crucial block from Fabianski. From the second, he evaded Benrahma and Antonio to powerfully head home.
West Ham continued to threaten with their lightning transitions and Alisson had to sweep at the feet of Danny Ings before Maxwel Cornet shot over from a Rice defence-splitter. But it was their late handball shout they will look back on with frustration.
West Ham fans directed their boos at the officials at the final whistle, which confirmed an 11th win for Liverpool in their last 13 meetings with West Ham, with this one maintaining their revival.
West Ham boss David Moyes: "You'll probably hear them come out with some rubbish about, 'he needed to break his fall'. Well if you lunge at the ball it's your own fault for lunging and being out of control in the tackle. He lunged for the ball so for me that completely nullifies anything about breaking the fall. I think it's a penalty kick.
"The hardest thing to take is the disrespect from VAR, that VAR wouldn't of at least said to the referee this might be worth having a look. That's telling me they don't see that even close to a decision. I'm surprised. Somebody in VAR didn't have enough football knowledge to understand that this could be close.
"I actually think we played well. We didn't get any points. We did a really good job. It was a really tight game. We gave away two sloppy goals from our point of view - we could have blocked the first one then the second one we got out done on the corner. We had other close calls that went against us. I can't complain how the players performed at all."
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp: "I can't see the race [for top four] yet. We're not in a position for a race. The only thing we can do is win football games. If that puts pressure on other teams, we don't play them, apart from Tottenham. I want us to finish the season as good as possible, to take something out for next year. If that's European competition great, if not we have to accept that as well.
"I want us to show our real face - the nice one, ugly one, nice one, ugly one is really tough. We've [shown our best face] for three and a half games. I liked the first half the most for a long, long time. It's always tough here. We controlled the game in a way we'd never done against West Ham and I really liked that."
On the penalty call: "I heard now about the handball. I thought he just fell on the ball but I can understand that Moyesy sees that completely different but at the end if you look at the game I think we're the deserved winner."
West Ham face a difficult away trip to Roy Hodgson's Crystal Palace on Saturday, kick-off 12.30pm, while Liverpool host Tottenham at Anfield on Super Sunday, live on Sky Sports Football, kick-off 4.30pm.
April 29: Crystal Palace (A) - Premier League, kick-off 12.30pm
May 3: Man City (A) - Premier League, kick-off 8pm, live on Sky Sports
May 7: Man Utd (H) - Premier League, kick-off 7pm
May 14: Brentford (A) - Premier League, kick-off 2pm
May 21: Leeds (H) - Premier League, kick-off 1.30pm
May 28: Leicester City (A) - Premier League, kick-off 4.30pm
April 30: Tottenham (H) - Premier League, kick-off 4.30pm, live on Sky Sports
May 3: Fulham (A) - Premier League, kick-off 8pm
May 6: Brentford (H) - Premier League, kick-off 5.30pm, live on Sky Sports
May 13: Leicester (A) - Premier League, kick-off 3pm
May 20: Aston Villa (H) - Premier League, kick-off 3pm
May 28: Southampton (A) - Premier League, kick-off 4.30pm
