For 69 minutes, almost exactly two thirds of the hundred-minute football match that transpired Saturday at Elland Road, Liverpool looked like a competent team.
Not scintillating, flying forward and creating chances every five minutes. But competent. Demonstrating stability without the ball and reasonable decisions with the ball. Keeping one of the league's most raucous crowds quiet.
Hugo Ekitike’s brace had the Reds on course for a pretty simple three points, then a rash challenge unravelled their mature performance and chaos ensued. Here are the highlights (and lowlights) from how it all played out.
Minutes 1 through 69
16’ | Cody Gakpo drops the ball to Curtis Jones just outside the top left corner of the box. His delicious curler from 20 out leaves Leeds GK Perri clutching at thin air, but it rattles the bar. Liverpool wins the second ball and Ekitike’s resulting strike is deflected just over.
27’ | Szoboszlai whips in a stunning dead ball from the right; Virgil creates an open lane for himself and heads over from just outside the six. Even with some last-second pressure, he should score.
40’ | Szoboszlai’s ball over the top leaves Gakpo with space to exploit and only Rodon to beat for a 1v1 with Perri, but his cut inside is too slow. The Leeds backline swarms and deflects his cut-back effort just wide of the near post.
48’ | The second half has just gotten underway when Rodon misplaces a square ball to Ampadu. Ekitike is on hand to accept the gift, taking one touch to brush past Ampadu and a second to set himself before coolly stroking the ball inside the near post.
50’ | Konate finds Ekitike with an excellent ball along the floor that bypasses the midfield and leads Ekitike into the box with Leeds center back Bijol on his shoulder. His clumsy challenge sends Ekitike to ground for what looks like a could-be penalty; before there’s time to see a replay, Conor Bradley wins the ball back brilliantly and fires a low cross to the top of the six. Ekitike has backed into an onside position and bravely stretches for the ball, colliding with Perri and bundling it over the line for his second goal in two minutes.
67’ | Searching for the knockout blow, a sweeping team move with Ekitike once again at the center creates space for Gakpo; Perri gets down to his left to tip Cody’s effort wide of the far post.
Minutes 70 through 100
70’ | At this point, Leeds hasn’t registered a big chance. The crowd is frustrated and falling asleep. That changes when 66th-minute substitute Wilfried Gnonto drives into our box. As he prepares to cross from the left, Konate needlessly slides in, and Gnonto cleverly forgoes the cross to take the contact and hit the deck. After a two-minute review, Anthony Taylor gives a penalty. It's another Konate calamity that completely changes the complexion of the game.
73’ | Calvert-Lewin converts the penalty high to Alisson’s left. Game on.
75’ | The crowd smells blood and the stadium is rocking. With a setback to deal with and momentum to halt, Liverpool does what they’ve done for ten weeks straight: crumble under the weight of the moment. Brenden Aaronson is allowed to carry the ball past a jogging Szoboszlai. Gomez doesn’t get tight enough and Aaronson finds Anton Stach in the box, who has gotten goalside of Gravenberch. Stach easily wrongfoots Curtis Jones, carves out space, and scores.
80’ | Having given up their lead the same way they won it — two goals in quick succession — Liverpool actually responds. Gravenberch turns silkily and caresses the ball into Mac Allister’s feet; he dummies it, taking the two nearest Leeds defenders out of the play and leaving Szoboszlai alone with the goalie. His touch to set himself is perfect, and he passes it into the far corner to make it 2-3.
90’ | The fourth official’s board shows nine minutes of added time.
90 + 6’ | Corner, Leeds. Liverpool fails to attack the looping in-swinger and it falls to the far post, hitting the unsuspecting Gravenberch on the hand. Before the stadium can explode with cries of handball, Ao Tanaka lashes the ball off the turf and into Alisson’s goal. It’s bedlam.
90 + 10’ | Full time.
Post-match reflection
This is the fourth time Liverpool has blown a two-goal lead this season: Bournemouth, at Newcastle, Atletico Madrid, at Leeds.
This is the third time Liverpool has dropped points after conceding in stoppage time this season: at Crystal Palace (loss), at Chelsea (loss), at Leeds (draw).
This is yet another game that's been turned on it's head by an individual error or a succession of errors from Ibou Konate. Even blunders that haven't led straight to goals have put the team under periods of prolonged pressure. Slot himself was finally forced to admit Konate's constant involvement in the goals we're conceding.
🚨 Arne Slot on Ibou Konaté: “Unfortunately for him he does a lot of things well… but he has been a bit too much at the crime scene”. 👀
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) December 6, 2025
“Today it was a tackle that came from effort, he tried everything to block the cross”. pic.twitter.com/XDpbW5WCrK
Slot is far from blameless himself. While he can't account for individual mistakes, from poor challenges to missed chances, he can foster an environment that breeds more confidence. It's his job to prevent the team from shattering when things go wrong — and things will go wrong. That's sports.
The frailty defending set pieces falls at the feet of the head coach, too. That's ten set-piece goals conceded in all competitions this season. It's December. We conceded nine set-piece goals in the whole of the 2024/2025 campaign.
We haven't even gotten to the worst part of LFC's visit to Elland Road: the Mo Salah interview that took place after the game. When the focus should be on Inter and Brighton, and finding any semblance of positivity so we can save at least some of our season, the focus will now be on the Egyptian for the foreseeable future.