{"id":293740,"date":"2026-02-12T06:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T06:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/293740\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T06:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T06:54:09","slug":"liverpool-overcome-sunderland-to-boost-hopes-of-top-4-finish-%c2%b7-the-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/293740\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool overcome Sunderland to boost hopes of top 4 finish \u00b7 The 42"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                    Sunderland 0<br \/>\nLiverpool 1<\/p>\n<p>VIRGIL VAN DIJK lifted Liverpool back into the race to qualify for the Champions League as the defender sealed a 1-0 win at Sunderland on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Reds captain Van Dijk netted in the second half to inflict Sunderland\u2019s first home defeat in the Premier League this season.<\/p>\n<p>Sixth-placed Liverpool\u2019s second win in their last eight league games moved them within two points of fifth-placed Chelsea and three behind fourth-placed Manchester United.<\/p>\n<p>Draws for United and Chelsea on Tuesday opened the door for Liverpool to revive their spluttering bid to reach Europe\u2019s elite club competition, and they seized the opportunity with a gritty victory on rain-lashed Wearside.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in the aftermath of last weekend\u2019s 2-1 home defeat against Manchester City, Liverpool boss Arne Slot admitted this has been the toughest season in his career \u201cby a mile\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Slot has faced mounting speculation about his position, less than a year after leading Liverpool to the English title.<\/p>\n<p>He conceded it would be unacceptable if Liverpool failed to qualify for the Champions League, admitting they need to be \u201cclose to perfection\u201d to secure a berth in it.<\/p>\n<p>    <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@TNTSportsFootball\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TNT Sports Football<\/a> \/ YouTube<\/p>\n<p>While this was far from a perfect performance, Slot\u2019s men did enough to keep themselves in the hunt for the top-five finish that is likely to guarantee Champions League qualification.<\/p>\n<p>Sunderland kicked off with the Premier League\u2019s only unbeaten home record this season, with leaders Arsenal and second-placed City both forced to settle for a draw at the Stadium of Light.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike Arsenal and City, Liverpool were able to grind out a hard-fought success.<\/p>\n<p>Florian Wirtz provided the bulk of Liverpool\u2019s most menacing moments.<\/p>\n<p>Wirtz\u2019s deflected shot trickled narrowly wide before his long-range blast forced a fine save from Robin Roefs.<\/p>\n<p>The German playmaker went even closer with a low drive that flashed through a sea of Sunderland legs before cannoning back off the far post.<\/p>\n<p>Roefs denied Wirtz again, spreading himself to block a header at point-blank range.<\/p>\n<p>Sunderland appealed in vain for a penalty when Ibrahima Konate hauled down Brian Brobbey on the stroke of half-time.<\/p>\n<p>The Black Cats went close through Trai Hume, who drilled just over from 25 yards soon after the interval.<\/p>\n<p>But Liverpool responded well, and Mohamed Salah\u2019s goal-bound shot was blocked by Sunderland\u2019s Reinildo Mandava before Van Dijk netted in the 61st minute.<\/p>\n<p>Van Dijk met Salah\u2019s corner with a powerful header that Sunderland\u2019s Habib Diarra nodded into the roof of the net in a failed attempt to clear off the line.<\/p>\n<p>With Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong injured and Dominik Szoboszlai suspended, Slot was forced to use Japan midfielder Wataru Endo at right-back in his first league start this term.<\/p>\n<p>But Endo was stretchered off in the second half as Liverpool\u2019s injury woes mounted.<\/p>\n<p>Slot\u2019s side coped with that blow well enough, holding Sunderland at bay to secure a valuable victory.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.afp.com\/en\/home\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2013 \u00a9 AFP 2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunderland 0 Liverpool 1 VIRGIL VAN DIJK lifted Liverpool back into the race to qualify for the Champions&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[7572,61,60,1101,1102,9331,3405,112,4039,140199,27030],"class_list":{"0":"post-293740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-epl","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-premier-league","13":"tag-progress","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-sunderland","17":"tag-top-4-finish","18":"tag-virgil-van-dijk"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}