Aston Villa 3 Liverpool 3: Jhon Duran double seals dramatic late point for hosts in rollercoaster night for top 4 race
DURAN DURAN used to be a famous band from Birmingham.
On Monday night a kid from Colombia gave it a whole new meaning as Jhon Duran hit a deadly late double to stun Liverpool and claw back what could be a priceless point for Unai Emery‘s men.
When Emery sent him on after 79 minutes Villa trailed 3-1, but boy did his Hail Mary work a treat!
Duran struck twice in three extraordinary minutes to become a cult hero in B6 – and ‘Notorious,’ on Merseyside!
Live on Sky TV Duran dished up an extraordinary finale which even Jurgen Klopp has rarely witnessed in his eight and a half years in charge.
His side were looking good for three points until Duran Duran took centre stage in front of Hollywood A-lister and Villa fan Tom Hanks with his ‘Goals on film!’
Klopp packed his overnight bag for the final time as Liverpool boss and headed for Villa Park for his 238th and final away game – eight years and 209 days after his first one at Spurs.
It’s generally been a happy hunting ground for Klopp and Liverpool had won eight of their last nine top-flight visits to B6.
However the exception remains one of the rare occasions that Klopp got it spectacularly wrong during his time as Anfield boss.
A Premier League club record 7-2 defeat at the hands of Dean Smith’s Villa in October 2020 has to go down as an unexpected stain on the German’s copybook.
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That freak result must be one of the craziest of Klopp’s reign and, for a while, it looked as if we were in for a similarly bonkers night here.
Hollywood A-lister Hanks had barely settled into his seat when the nonsense began.
It started from the unlikeliest of sources as Emi Martinez dropped a rare clanger to gift Liverpool the lead in their first attack.
Hanks once starred in the hit movie Catch Me If You Can – and how Martinez must have wished he had achieved that simple feat with the ball!
Harvey Elliott started the move rolling when he worked a neat one-two with Mo Salah on the right and made ground behind Lucas Digne.
Elliott’s cross nicked off Pau Torres but it was the faintest of deflections and should have led to a bread and butter adjustment for such an assured keeper.
Instead, Martinez fumbled at it like a drunk man chasing a balloon and let the ball slip through his gloves as he fell back.
Even then you would have backed the World Cup winner to recover.
But, as he reached back to try and recover the loose ball he somehow managed to fumble it with his outstretched glove and knocked it agonisingly over his own goalline for an extraordinary own goal.
While Youri Tielemans buried his head in his hands, Elliott looked too embarrassed to even celebrate the freakish own goal he had unwittingly assisted with.
Villa were understandably rocked and Liverpool smelt blood.
Salah cut inside Digne as if the former Everton man wasn’t there but his shot glanced off Torres for a corner.
Cody Gakpo then headed over as Liverpool piled on the pressure.
Moussa Diaby managed to get Villa up the park to set Leon Bailey up with a cutback but the Jamaican winger fluffed his shot under pressure from Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Martinez did his best to make some kind of amends with a fingertip save to keep out Luis Diaz’s header from Salah’s cross.
Then, out of nowhere, Villa were suddenly level.
Elliott played a wayward pass which struck a Villa defender and the ball landed at John McGinn’s feet who threaded a pass through to Ollie Watkins.
The England striker surged forward menacingly and fronted up young Jarrell Quansah, slowing the kid down before suddenly speeding up again with an electric burst of pace to leave him dead.
Once around the back of the Reds defence Watkins had the good sense to pull the ball back beyond the penalty spot.
And Tielemans was steaming in to slam the ball low past three defenders and Alisson.
It was a breathtaking equaliser and Watkins’ 13th Premier League assist of a stunning season.
Villa Park was rocking and Quansah did well to block Bailey as he twisted and turned in the box.
But midway through this extraordinary half Liverpool regained their lead – eventually.
Salah played in Diaz who worked the ball wide to Joe Gomez and the left-back swept in a low cross which Martinez could only get the merest of touches to.
That left the in-rushing Cody Gakpo with the simplest of tap-ins.
But Liverpool were made to sweat it out for a couple of tense minutes as VAR Chris Kavanagh checked for TWO possible offsides in the build up before finally awarding the goal.
Villa really should have struck back swiftly but incredibly they passed up the chance of a lifetime – 32 years after Ronnie Rosenthal’s miss of the century at the same venue.
Konsa flicked the ball to Bailey who took out Alisson and the ball was heading to Watkins for a simple tap-in at the far post.
But to the striker’s horror Diego Carlos nipped in front of him to poke the ball wide of a gaping goal from one yard!
According to Opta the XG factor was 0.96, meaning Carlos would have been expected to score 96 times out of 100 attempts from that range.
Having survived that scare Liverpool gave themselves the security of a two-goal lead three minutes after the restart.
Elliott swung in a deep free kick and Digne was guilty of ball watching as Quansah stole in behind him to head past Martinez.
Villa thought they had hit back after 52 minutes when Tielmans sent Bailey and Diaby scampering clear.
Bailey centred for Watkins to score and the striker celebrated becoming the first Villa player to score 20 goals in the Prem – or so he thought – until VAR intervened.
It ruled that Bailey was fractionally offside and the Jamaican lashed out in fury that no-one had informed him Diaby was better placed to take the ball.
Watkins tried to catch Alisson out with a backheel which didn’t come off.
Then Diaz broke free and squared to Elliott who just beat Salah to bundle the ball home – only for VAR to rule out yet another ‘goal’.
Incredibly Villa kept fighting and pulled one back to make it 3-2 with five minutes remaining.
Sub Callum Chambers robbed Alexis Mac Allister and the ball flew to Jhon Duran whose brilliant first touch set him up to drill his shot beyond Alisson from the edge of the box.
Darwin Nunez then raced clear to net at the other end – but VAR ruled it out for offside.
And amazingly the last word went to Duran who added a second to draw Villa level after 88 minutes.
Bailey broke upfield and his pass crashed off Duran to fly past Alisson for a sensational late leveller.
Here is how the match unfolded on our live blog…