Chapter 656: Diaz At Last! [GT - !]

Wigan tried to slow things down after the restart.

Leo dropped towards the centre-backs, asking for the ball and directing his teammates into position.

They passed across the back before working it into Carlo, hoping to draw Liverpool forward and open a lane through midfield, but Liverpool refused to give them one.

With no way to play through, much of Wigan’s possession went through their backline.

"Wigan haven’t had time to recover from the equaliser," Drury said.

"Liverpool are straight back at them."

"And they’re not letting them breathe," Beglin replied.

"The press we saw at the end of the first half is still there. Wigan need to find a way around it, not keep trying to force the same passes through the middle."

Dawson called Carlo closer to Leo, trying to give the first pass forward an extra option.

For a few minutes, it helped.

Wigan kept the ball and worked their way into Liverpool’s half, but whenever they approached the final third, the hosts compressed around them.

At the other end, Liverpool were more direct.

Trent continued to look for Salah’s runs, while Díaz stretched Wigan’s defence on the opposite side.

Even when the first attack broke down, Liverpool pressed the loose ball and kept Wigan pinned back.

Klopp barely stayed still.

He called his midfielders into position, urged his full-backs higher, then gestured for the press to begin again. E

ach adjustment gave Wigan another problem to solve.

Dawson answered by shifting his players, but every change seemed to come after Liverpool had already forced the issue.

By the hour mark, Wigan had regained some composure, but they still struggled to build sustained attacks.

Leo began moving wider to escape the congestion.

Once or twice, he slipped past the first challenge and drove forward, drawing roars from the home crowd as Liverpool’s defenders scrambled to contain him.

He was still capable of making something happen, and that was what unsettled them.

Whenever Leo received the ball facing forward, the stands grew restless.

A pass could split the defence; a change of direction could take him past two players; a run might pull Liverpool’s shape apart.

The home fans had seen enough to know that one moment of space could undo forty minutes of work.

But Liverpool kept closing that space.

As the match entered its final fifteen minutes, Wigan began pushing more players forward.

Dawson wanted a second goal before Liverpool found one of their own, and his full-backs advanced to give the attack width.

It brought Wigan closer to the penalty area, but it also left more ground for Liverpool to exploit if possession changed hands.

Díaz had been probing all afternoon, running at defenders and chasing balls that seemed destined to go out.

He had been blocked, crowded out, and forced to start again.

Yet he kept coming, refusing to let Wigan settle and in the eightieth minute, that persistence finally paid off.

Liverpool recovered the ball near the touchline and worked it through a crowded midfield.

Wigan tried to squeeze the space, but the ball escaped the first challenge and reached Díaz on the left.

He drove towards the box, feinted inside, then pushed the ball beyond the defender’s outstretched leg.

A second Wigan shirt arrived to cover, but by a sheer moment of luck, the ball bobbled against him, spilling towards Díaz and without hesitation, the latter struck low and hard across goal.

The goalkeeper stretched, but the ball flashed beyond his hand and buried itself in the far corner.

"LUIS DíAZ! AT LAST!" Drury bellowed.

"Liverpool have turned this around! They have kept coming, kept asking questions, and Díaz has delivered when Anfield needed him most!"

The stadium exploded with Díaz sprinting towards the corner flag, shouting while his teammates chased him.

Some distance away, Klopp sprang from his technical area.

He punched the air, jumped, and sprinted several steps along the touchline before turning to roar towards the crowd.

Across the pitch, Wigan’s players stood stunned, but they couldn’t let themselves off at the end.

Meanwhile.....

"Look at what that means to them," Drury continued, his voice rising above the noise.

"For eighty minutes they have had to work for every opening, and now Díaz has given them the lead!"

Beglin was already looking at the shape of the teams.

"It’s a nasty affair for Tilt, who will feel he should have gotten that ball away but he wasn’t lucky."

Eventually, the referee called the players back towards the centre circle.

Liverpool’s celebrations finally broke apart, while Wigan hurried into position.

There was still time to influence the game in their favour.

Jake took the ball from the centre spot and passed it backwards.

As soon as play resumed, Leo threw caution to the wind and began actively searching for the goal himself, and that began to cause trouble for Liverpool.

With Wigan a goal down and nothing to lose other than conceding possibly another goal, the away side began to mount through Leo.

Wigan’s supporters rose whenever he found the ball.

They had watched him turn difficult situations into chances too many times to give up now.

Leo drove through the middle, released Ezra on the right, then sprinted into the box for the return.

Liverpool cut out the cross, but Leo recovered the loose ball and kept the attack alive.

He was everywhere Wigan needed him, chasing second balls and forcing Liverpool to retreat up until he went up for a high ball near the edge of the area.

A Liverpool defender challenged him in the air, and Leo got his head to it, but his landing was awkward.

His boot caught the turf, and he came down off balance before dropping to one knee.

The referee blew his whistle before awarding the foul, but Leo stayed down for a bit.

Seeing this, Dawson reacted quickly.

They could afford to lose a game but not one of their most vital players at this stage of the season.

"Willian! Power! Get warm!"

Both substitutes jumped up and began stripping off their training tops.

Dawson watched Leo carefully as the midfielder rose, testing his footing before jogging back into position.

He wanted him off.

With the match entering its final minutes, however, Liverpool were giving Wigan no opportunity to stop play.

Every time the ball went out, a throw-in or restart came quickly.

Leo kept playing, and in the eighty-ninth minute, he finally created the opening Dawson needed.

Receiving the ball just outside Liverpool’s midfield line, Leo shifted it across his body and drove at the space between two players.

He avoided two only to slip into three more red shirts, but before any of them could manage, Leo slid the ball behind the red defensive line.

Liverpool’s supporters rose in anticipation, urging their defenders to stop the ball while the Wigan end surged to its feet, sensing one last chance.

But it all rested on Jake.

The striker, who hadn’t been effective as he would have liked throughout the game, kept Konate at an arm’s length and then hammered the ball into the roof of the net past the reach of Allisson.

Instantly, the Wigan section erupted.

GOOOOAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!

"JAKE HAS DONE IT!" Drury shouted. "Wigan thought they had been beaten, but Leo Calderon has carved a way open once again, and Jake has smashed the finish beyond Alisson!"

But the celebration barely had time to gather.

A sharp whistle cut through the noise, and the moment they turned back, the assistant referee’s flag was raised.

Offside.

Jake stopped in his tracks while his teammates instantly turned towards the official, some with their arms spread in protest.

Leo stood near the edge of the box, staring at the flag as the Wigan end sank back into their seats.

He hadn’t even gotten to join the celebrations yet.

The Liverpool’s players, on the other hand, exhaled and began moving back into position.

It was an offside, and there was nothing to debate about it.

After this, the change was realised with Leo coming off for Max Power.

The former walked towards the touchline, breathing hard.

As he passed Dawson, the manager caught his shoulder and spoke briefly to him before sending Max Power on.

Leo glanced once towards the pitch before taking his seat, a blank stare masking his thoughts as his face appeared on the screens in the stadium.

The fourth official raised the electronic board for added time.

Seven minutes.

And seven minutes later, Liverpool could finally breathe with all three points in their bag.