Wirtz Scores First League Goal as Liverpool Beat Crystal Palace 3-1

Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 3-1 at Selhurst Park on Sunday, with Florian Wirtz scoring his first league goal of the season. Alexis Mac Allister headed Liverpool ahead in the 40th minute, Wirtz made it 2-0 in the 54th minute, and Alexander Isak added a third in the 89th minute before Eddie Nketiah scored a stoppage-time penalty for Palace.

The win takes Liverpool to 18 points and up to fourth place. Palace's only goal came in the fifth minute of added time, too late to change a match that Liverpool had settled one minute earlier through Isak.

Mac Allister breaks through

The first half stayed goalless until the 40th minute. Mac Allister headed Liverpool in front from a Dominik Szoboszlai cross, the goal coming from a set piece.

The header gave Liverpool a lead to protect at half time in a match where the opening goal took forty minutes to arrive. Once it came, Liverpool never gave the lead back.

Wirtz scores his first league goal

Wirtz doubled the lead in the 54th minute, assisted by Bradley Barcola. The goal was Wirtz's first league goal of the season, and it put Liverpool two clear early in the second half.

A first league goal matters for any attacking player, and this one arrived at a useful moment. At 2-0, Palace had to chase the game, and the space that opened up late in the match is where Liverpool scored their third.

Isak seals it, Nketiah replies from the spot

Isak made it 3-0 in the 89th minute, assisted by Wirtz on the counter-attack. The goal ended the match as a contest with a minute of normal time left.

Palace did score. In the fifth minute of stoppage time, Milos Kerkez fouled Osorio and Nketiah converted the penalty to make the final score 3-1. It was a consolation only: the penalty came after Isak's goal, with no time left for Palace to build on it.

Fourth place for Liverpool

Liverpool finish the day on 18 points and in fourth place, with three different scorers and a goal from a set piece, a goal in open play and a goal on the counter-attack.

For Palace, the home defeat rests on the forty minutes before the first goal and the fourteen minutes after half time. They held Liverpool until the 40th minute, conceded again in the 54th, and by the time Nketiah scored in stoppage time the result had already been decided by Isak's counter-attacking goal in the 89th minute.

The scoreline records all of it in order: Mac Allister 40, Wirtz 54, Isak 89, Nketiah 90+5 from the penalty spot.