Cardiff City's Callum Paterson. (Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)

Bluebird Callum Snatches Liverpool Record From Klopp

Neil Warnock praised the 3,000 Bluebirds fans who made the trip to Anfield, saying: “They were fantastic again.”

The Bluebirds manager was frustrated that mistakes again cost his team in a 4-1 defeat, but happy that a team he is in charge of has finally scored against Liverpool away.

“That’s my first goal at Anfield,” said Warnock, whose are the first Premier team to score at the intimidating stadium for eight months.

Jurgen Klopp’s team would have set a new Liverpool club record – 10 Premier home games without conceding – if they had kept a clean sheet, but City denied them when Callum Paterson scored with 13 minutes left.

https://twitter.com/CardiffCityFC/status/1056230087421509632

Cardiff scored where others, including Manchester City, failed.

For all the success Liverpool have had over many, many years no Liverpool team have ever achieved that.

Michail Antonio was the last player to score against Liverpool at Anfield before Paterson – and between those two goals the Reds fired 28 goals without reply.

Klopp’s team had gone well over 15 hours without conceding a Premier League goal at Anfield – and it was Scottish international Paterson who snatched that potential club record out of their grasp.

Sol Bamba had found the net earlier only for Sean Morrison to be judged offside when he headed back across goal.

“The scoreline was a bit harsh,” said Warnock. “We were punished for mistakes. There were great opportunities for us during the first half when we were breaking, but made wrong decisions too many times. 

“I had to make changes which I didn’t want to do, but they were forced on us. It’s a intimidating place, but the lads gave me everything.

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“Cardiff fans were fantastic again. At 2-1 the place seemed eery, so quiet apart from our fans. Fixtures don’t come much tougher, but there have been a lot of plusses over the last few games. 

“We played well against Burnley, did ever so well against Tottenham and won against Fulham.

“The fans were with us and there are two games to come.”

Liverpool, one of the best attacking teams in the Premier League, went top with this win and dominated for long spells, but there was a spell when Cardiff had them rattled.

When Paterson scored the Reds did not look at all comfortable and, at that stage, there seemed to be hope for Neil Warnock and his team.

The quality of Liverpool’s clinical finishing left Cardiff down and out, but there were genuine positives for the Bluebirds.

They sat back too much in the first half, setting up in a 4-5-1 formation, but came out hard in the second. City fired up energy levels, looked far more organised and their never-say-die character shone through.

Cardiff man of the match Bruno Manga. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Cardiff are the first Premier League team to score against Liverpool at Anfield for eight months.

They must take heart and confidence from the way they battled and competed. Warnock’s team have now played all of the top teams apart from Manchester United and are outside the bottom three.

Hope is still alive. Believe.

Some of the stats show how good Liverpool were at times. During the opening 45 minutes the home team completed 412 passes, while Cardiff’s total was a miserly 35.

It has to be said the Bluebirds were far improved in terms of passing after the break,

The home team enjoyed 80 per cent of possession over the 90 minutes, while they outshot their visitors 19-2. Seven of those were on target – against one from Cardiff.

Liverpool goals were scored by Salah (10 mins), Sadio Mane (66, 87) and Xherdan Shaquiri (84) and they were good value for the win, but Cardiff can move forward with confidence.

Bring on Leicester next Saturday.

Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Moreno, Wijnaldum, Fabinho, Lallana (Shaquiri 61), Mane, Salah, Firmino. (Milner 71). Subs not used: Gomez, Sturridge, Mignolet, Robertson, Matip.

Cardiff City (4-5-1): Neil Etheridge, Bruno Manga, Sean Morrison (capt), Sol Bamba, Joe Bennett, Junior Hoilett, Aron Gunnarsson (Loic Damour 73), Victor Camarasa, Josh Murphy (Kadeem Harris 74), Bobby Decordova-Reid (Kenneth Zohore 83), Callum Paterson. Subs not used: Alex Smithies (gk), Matthew Connolly, Greg Cunningham, Gary Madine.

Referee: Stuart Attwell

Attendance: 53,373

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