Roberto Firmino scored twice in Liverpool's 5-0 win over Swansea on Boxing Day
Line-ups
Swansea
Substitutes
2. Bony
11. Narsingh
13. Nordfeldt
14. Carroll
27. Bartley
51. Mesa
62. McBurnie
Liverpool
Substitutes
7. Milner
17. Klavan
20. Lallana
22. Mignolet
28. Ings
29. Solanke
66. Alexander-Arnold
Referee: Neil Swarbrick
KICK-OFF
1 mins: Swansea get us started after a minute's applause for Cyrille Regis and Jimmy Armfield.
3 mins: Mane takes a sore one early on as Fer accidentally catches his face... and on replay that doesn't look sore at all. Swansea have started with energy.
5 mins: Swansea are defending deep but keeping those two strikers (Dyer and Ayew) pushed way up the pitch so they can aim long balls towards them and get out of their defensive shape. When Liverpool cross the half way line it becomes a 5-4-1 instead of the 5-3-2.
7 min: Mawson brings the ball out well and tries to slip Ayew down the left, but it’s not a good pass and runs out. The Swans are enjoying good possession so far though and look keen to use the wings.
9 min: First glimpse for Liverpool, as a delightful diagonal ball from – I think – Matip catches Mane running beyond a static back line and Fabianski is out alertly to smuggle the ball away.
11 min: Firmino plays the ball behind Salah as, for a second, Liverpool break menacingly. They’re finding some sort of rhythm now but it’s still been a pretty slow start to this one.
12 min: And now Liverpool win their new corner, Salah getting involved again to earn it. Van Dijk and the rest of the cavalry are up, but Clucas heads away unchallenged before Firmino puts a harmless ball back in.
14 min: Out on the pitch, Mawson is quick to clear a dangerous whipped cross from Robertson.
18 mins: Swansea are defending with buzz and bite, working hard to make sure Liverpool can't enjoy the ball in their half. The problem is that they can't then keep hold of it themselves when they do win possession.
20 min: There really isn’t a lot else to report at the moment. That Mane glimpse aside, Swansea have been comfortable. They look compact, and keen not to allow much space in behind – which is of course the key – without looking very likely themselves.
22 min: Salah basically wins himself a free-kick by stopping playing after a pull from Mawson. Think he was justified to though. It’s a free-kick on the right in a decent area, a chance to put one into the box anyway. Oxlade-Chamberlain does exactly that, and Naughton has to concede a corner.
23 min: from which Van Dijk rises like a salmon at the near post and glances the ball possibly off his shoulder, before seeing it fly across goal and just wide.
26 min: We’ve very much in a pattern of Liverpool dictating possession now, but there really aren’t many pockets of space once they reach the final third and nothing much is coming of. Swansea look very well drilled. It’s still very quiet out there.
29 min: Mane sweeps wide to Gomez and there’s a chance to deliver a teasing ball from the right. But Gomez doesn’t do that; rather, he trickles a terrible ball into Fabianski’s grateful embrace.
30 min: First big chance for Salah – and he should score! Van Dijk is allowed to maraud 20 yards into the Swansea half and chips over a straight, but well-weighted, ball that the back line can’t reach. Salah watches it over his shoulder 12 yards out and, with nobody between him and Fabianski, volleys over the top! It’s a difficult skill, that, but on his current form you expected the net to ripple.
34 mins: Can accelerates with all the lightning speed of a bus, failing to catch up with his own poor touch during another Liverpool attack which Swansea sprint full pace to thwart. There's no way Swansea can defend at this tempo all game - they're racing into tackles and closing down players.
37 mins: Swansea win a free-kick wide right. Clucas delivers... it's headed away... and Naughton balloons his shot from 20 yards, completely misreading it and swiping at his effort.
Liverpool beginning to find their feet. Matip is chipped in over the defence but cant improvise a use for the ball, which is behind him, and Oxlade-Chamberlain shoots from distance into the goalkeeper.
40 min: Goal! Swansea 1-0 Liverpool (Mawson 40)
Well! Clucas delivers the corner from the right, Van Dijk is up to meet it but can only head against Fernandez. It drops perfectly for Mawson, who has a decent nose for goal – he spins onto it and slams low into the corner, and Swansea have a big goal for their season!
45 min: HALF TIME
46 min: Peeeeeep! Second half underway.
No changes. Liverpool need to sharpen up. Swansea need to keep doing what they’re doing.
47 min: Swansea are doing precisely that so far. As are Liverpool.
49 min: Van der Hoorn does very well there, though, to bump Firmino off the ball as he looks to get onto an Oxlade-Chamberlain pass. Rock solid there, and he took a blow to the ribs. The resultant corner is cleared.
51 min: Olsson snakes out a toe to stop Salah bursting through on the right of the box. Liverpool are starting to come on strong.
52 min: Then Van der Hoorn is astute, again, in cutting out a Firmino through ball. Matip, looking frustrated, commits a foul in the aftermath. He’s on a yellow, remember.
54 min: Salah curls well wide after finding a bit of space around the D. Not good. By the way, I was thinking before that happened that Clucas has been exceptional for Swansea tonight. And I (sort of) mocked him at the start!
56 min: Oh what a tackle that is by Naughton, who tracks Robertson brilliantly and perfectly times his intervention just as the left back runs onto a Firmino flick and looks certain to score. Liverpool come again moments later and an inviting Robertson ball across goal just goes beyond his onrushing colleagues!
60 min: They’re finding a lot of those pockets in front of the box, now, and Ki bundles Mane over. Free-kick to Liverpool in a very dangerous area indeed. If only they had Coutinho! But Salah and Firmino are poised ...
62 min: Liverpool are hardly tearing Swansea apart but at some point this level of pressure is going to result in rather more than it currently is, if you see what I mean.
65 min: Here is Carroll, who replaces Nathan Dyer. Dyer’s last action was a very diligent recovery tackle on Roberton.
68 min: 68 minutes was the answer! Lallana is on for Oxlade-Chamberlain.
70 mins: Can tries to shoot from 30 yards. They're running out of ideas!
73 mins: ijnaldum off, Ings on. Klopp's just throwing forwards at this now.
74 mins: Mane keeps getting the ball deep and trying to play through the middle with it, when it seems like he'd be much better off sticking to the right wing and trying to stretch the pitch a bit. Swansea's back five aren't letting anyone through and the middle four are working hard to snap at the feet of Liverpool players who dare approach them.
78 min: Second Swansea sub, Ayew is replaced by Wilfried Bony.
80min: Final ten minutes of the game and Liverpool are no closer to scoring against the deep-sitting Swans. This has been a really poor and mightily frustrating night.
Gomez runs forward and hits one but its wide.
85 mins: Swansea keep showing Liverpool's players inside the pitch. They aren't giving each other enough options when on the ball - each player only really has one and Swansea have blocked it off. And so the ball goes back, left, right, back, left, right. There's no movement where they need it and Swansea can defend it easily.
82 mins: Gomez drives a powerful shot wide of the near post as he steps up from defence. Firmino has to bicycle kick... well he doesn't have to, but he does, and puts the ball back to the edge of the box. It sits up nicely for Van Dijk, who lines up the shot... and slices it high and wide. There was power on that though. A decent effort.
88 min: Firmino’s shot pings off a defender for the latest corner – again totally wasted. Liverpool have just hardly looked like doing anything. It’s been so unusually static.
90 min: Swansea’s half is where literally everything is taking place now, of course, but they just look so comfortable. It’s been a superb rearguard action and the three centre backs have been brilliant. Can they keep it going for FOUR added minutes?
90+1 min: They keep it going for the first one, after Firmino adjusts himself to sky a dropping ball high, high over the bar from 10 yards.
90 mins +2: Gomez chips into the area, the ball is headed up in the sky and Can can't get anything good enough on his shot to keep it from landing somewhere over the bar.
FULL TIME: A superb result is deserved for an outstanding performance by Swansea. To a man they were better here, working harder in every single bit of the pitch. Liverpool still have a lot of work to do.
