LONDON, England – Liverpool easily defeats Luton 2-1 thanks to a goal from Cody Gakpo. Barcelona will always be a part of Liverpool’s 2019 vintage. Luton appears in the 2024 edition. It is evident that Jürgen Klopp was forced to make analogies between the two four-goal comebacks due to the circumstances, the character, and the “thunderstorm” that occurred within Anfield, rather than the opposition or the occasion. He hopes that when the silverware arrives, the parallels also apply.

Before Luton’s visit, the Liverpool manager had stated that he had no excuses when listing his injuries. When the league leaders fell behind Rob Edwards’ inventive squad after a nervous 45 minutes, the statement appeared to need revising, but in the end, there was no need for justifications. With a dominant second-half performance and the conviction that it will take more than a few injuries to important players to end Liverpool’s championship challenge, the team regained its four-point advantage at the top.

More than any other Premier League team, Klopp’s team has salvaged 22 points from deficits thus far this season. The most recent victory seemed extremely important as Manchester City had cut the deficit to one the night before. After conceding a header to Chiedozie Ogbene in the first half and worrying both on and off the field, Liverpool battled back to defeat the team without Mohamed Salah, Darwin Núñez, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson, and others.

Not just the four goals and the fight brought back memories of the 2019 Champions League semi final for Klopp. Liverpool’s second goal was reminiscent of Divock Origi’s historic winner on that historic night and was the product of fast thinking by his outstanding replacement, Conor Bradley, close to “Alexander-Arnold’s corner.”

The manager of Liverpool declared, “I will mention this game quite a few times from now on,” with even more fervent fist-pump celebrations than normal.

“I broke my commitment to my squad a few months ago when I said I would never use the Barcelona game as an example, and I did so again tonight. At the time, this team disregarded the idea that someone was absent, and I wanted them to do the same. They now use this as an example. Now this is Barcelona for them. Yes, it was against Luton, but it was still a challenging position with several opportunities to give up—but not tonight. The only fighting I observed was a huge bunch. The guys demonstrated that you can soar if you don’t let negative ideas hold you back.

Naturally, all issues are relative, and Luton would give anything for an injury crisis that would have allowed Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo, Colombia’s best player, Luis Díaz, and Harvey Elliott, the captain of the England Under-21 team, to score in a second straight 4-1 victory. By the time World Cup-winning midfielder Alexis Mac Allister provided two assists in two minutes for the Dutch pair, Luton’s impressive first-half performance had been long forgotten.

A head start was given to Luton by Chiedozie Ogbene. Liverpool had a great start, so they were taken aback when the visitors scored on their first meaningful assault. Cauley Woodrow was inside the box when Alfie Doughty made a deft pass, and he placed the ball in Tahith Chong’s path. The low shot from the former Manchester United player went between Caoimhín Kelleher’s knees and looped up to the back post, where Chiedozie Ogbene was in the ideal position to score.

After Mac Allister’s corner, Van Dijk headed in ahead of Ogbene and sent a powerful header past Thomas Kaminski to start the comeback. Bradley saw the Argentina international running and quickly threw one in to get him involved once more. With the first cross of the game, Gakpo headed another fierce header into Kaminski’s net. After a series of misses, Díaz made up for it by beating Kaminski at the near post and dribbling past the excellent Teden Mengi.

Elliott sealed the victory by poking in a loose ball after Jayden Danns, an 18-year-old rookie, had set Gakpo free with a deft pass. Elliott made his 100th appearance for Liverpool, and the team scored their 100th goal of the season in all competitions. In Europe’s top five leagues, no other team has scored as many goals. Klopp’s group advances to Wembley.