Liverpool midfielder James Milner’s injury-time penalty prevented Leicester City from clinching a point at Anfield against Premier League table toppers Liverpool on Saturday night.
Brendan Rodgers returned to Liverpool and his Leicester City side produced a courageous late fight-back when English playmaker James Maddison tucked home with 10 minutes to play, and the Foxes looked set to leave Anfield with at least one point.
However, Liverpool forward Sadio Mane was tripped by Marc Albrighton late in added time and James Milner converted from the spot to extend the Reds’ winning run to 17 league matches.
In the opening 35 minutes, Jurgen Klopp’s Reds had mustered up only two good chances to show for their control of possession, both created by young full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold from the right-hand side. James Milner fired over from 10 yards after the England right-back flummoxed a struggling Ben Chilwell on the touchline, and then Brazilian striker Roberto Firmino could not stretch enough to connect with another wicked cross into the box.
The game looked set to head into half time at 0-0 as the visitors began to build momentum. But on the 40-minute mark came the sucker punch for Leicester City when Milner curled a perfect ball around Leicester’s backline to set Mane one on one and the 27-year-old Senegalese opened the scoring slotting the ball coolly past Kasper Schmeichel.
The second half began in the same manner with Liverpool dominating ball possession and creating most of the chances in the game. However, the Foxes were growing not giving up the fight in pursuing an equalizer and the Reds’ profligacy came back to haunt them in the 80th minute when Maddison’s shot was not well saved by Adrian in front of the Kop.
That looked to have sealed a point for Leicester to take away from Liverpool and put a halt to their winning start in the Premier League but a calamitous error from Albrighton denied them from achieving that feat. The English midfielder got into a mix-up with Schmeichel and ended up tripping Mane inside the box. And veteran Englishman Milner made no mistake from the spot just moments before the full-time whistle to keep Liverpool’s 100 percent win record intact.
