Dominik Szoboszlai’s Liverpool is now the top contender for this year’s Premier League title after the unexpected collapse of Pep Gaurdiola’s Manchester City, the winners in the last four seasons. The Reds travelled to London last Sunday, 22 December to face Tottenham Hotspur as league leaders.
As expected, Szoboszlai was in the visitor’s starting line-up in midfield. A little more surprising was that Fraser Forster was in Tottenham’s goal. After first-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario suffered a broken ankle, his understudy Forster stepped in for the League Cup game against Manchester United, and gave one of the worst performances of a professional goalkeeper ever televised. Perhaps because Spurs still pulled through with a 4–3 victory, the English goalie got another chance to prove himself in between the sticks.
This day did not go much better for him either, as he ended up conceding six goals. Of the six, Hungary captain Szoboszlai was directly involved in two.
In the first added minute of the first half, he received the ball unmarked in the opponent’s penalty box after a long sprint, then slotted it into the net through the keepers’ legs. In the second half, in the 61st minute, he then beat defender Archie Gray with his first touch, and laid the ball up for Mohamed Salah, who had an easy finish from eight yards out.
The game ended in 3–6 for Liverpool, a very unusual scoreline which is near and dear to Hungarian football fans’ hearts. The Ferenc Puskás-led Magic Magyars beat England with that score at Wembley Stadium, also in London, in November 1953. That game is often referred to as ‘the Game of the Century’.
As for today, Liverpool is now four points clear on the top of the table with one game in hand (their match against local rivals Everton was postponed due to a heavy storm). Szoboszlai can become the first Hungarian football player to win a trophy with an English team—and that trophy is the much-coveted Premier League title.
Szoboszlai stayed on for the full 90 minutes in the crazy game against Tottenham, and his performance was universally praised by the English press. Another Hungarian international, left-back Milos Kerkez also played a full game this past weekend. His side Bournemouth is doing surprisingly well this season, racking up another victory, this time beating Manchester United 3–0 at Old Trafford. Bournemouth is now in fifth place in the Premier League, outperforming all expectations.
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