Christian Benteke scored a second winner in as many games to help Liverpool eke out a 1-0 win over Sunderland in the English Premier League on Wednesday.
Benteke was the hero for Liverpool in their last game against Leicester City, scoring a vital winner, and the Belgium international popped up yet again, firing home from seven yards on 46 minutes to take his team level on points with Manchester United and well back in contention for the Champions League places.
It was not the prettiest of games and not something you will want to keep on your DVR for too long, but Liverpool did what they had to do against an expectedly physical and robust Sunderland side under Sam Allardyce.
"It's better if you decide the game early and things like this but we are not in wonderland," Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said. "We had to wait for the special moment and work for it, and that's what we did.
"We took the right information from the first half to try to do better in the second half. We started with better pressing in different situations.
"In the first half, obviously we had a lot of possession, no real chance or opportunity for Sunderland. They had some setplays and one counter-attack, I think, but it was a big challenge for us.
"After halftime we forced this goal and could have scored the second one and the decision would have been made, but we didn't. So we had to stay concentrated until the end. We were and it was a deserved win."
Apart from the Benteke goal, tucked in after the ball came to him rather fortuitously off a miscontrol from Adam Lallana, the most exciting bit of the game came when Klopp lost it against Allardyce and the home team's bench following a nasty tackle from Jeremain Lens on Mamadou Sakho, which, luckily for the player, only earned him a yellow.
"I am not too sorry," Klopp said of the altercation which forced a police officer to tell the Liverpool manager to calm down. "Please, it was a foul. Of course, I was angry. For me, that is a red card, finished.
"So my staff were emotional, the staff of Sunderland were emotional but, if you look on your ticket, that is included. If nothing happens on the pitch, you can watch the bench. But it is over and Mamadou Sakho is OK."
