Van Dijk heads in a 100th-minute winner at Hill Dickinson Stadium as Liverpool edge Everton 2-1
Virgil van Dijk rose above everyone in the 10th minute of stoppage time to head Liverpool in front at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday evening, ending the first Merseyside derby at Everton’s new ground with a 2-1 win for the reigning champions. Dominik Szoboszlai’s inswinging corner found the captain on the six-yard box, and the Liverpool bench emptied onto the pitch as he turned away in celebration.
Van Dijk’s goal came at 99 minutes and 53 seconds on the game clock, the third-latest winning goal in Premier League records since 2006-07. The added time stretched that far because Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili had been stretchered off earlier in the half, leaving Arne Slot’s side to defend a point they never really settled for.
Salah equals Gerrard
Mohamed Salah had opened the scoring in the 29th minute, a low finish that extended his derby record in a final meeting with Everton in this fixture. It was his ninth Merseyside derby goal, which draws him level with Steven Gerrard for the most by any Liverpool player in the Premier League era. For a forward approaching the back end of his career, hitting a marker of that size in what will be his last derby at this stadium is about as fitting as the script gets.
Salah’s half-time lead did not last. Beto equalised in the 54th minute to lift a Hill Dickinson Stadium crowd who had been waiting all season to celebrate a derby goal inside their new home. For more than half an hour after that, Everton looked the likelier side to find a winner, with David Moyes’s team pressing hard into wide areas and exploiting Liverpool’s gaps behind the full-backs.
Liverpool keep Chelsea at arm’s length
The win matters for the table as much as the mood. Liverpool are now seven points clear of sixth-placed Chelsea with five matches remaining, a buffer that keeps the Champions League places in their hands even as the title race has slipped away. Slot’s side have had a scratchy few weeks around their European run, and a derby of this tone, decided by a late set-piece header from their captain, will do more for belief than the points alone suggest.
Everton finish the weekend on 47 points and still have enough on their plate to care about where they end up, but this was the result they will replay the longest. Beto’s equaliser and the long chunks of the second half they controlled felt like the platform for a proper derby upset at their new home. Losing it to a corner in the 100th minute is the kind of night that sits with a club for months.
A derby that decided itself on character
This was a game Liverpool should probably have wrapped up earlier. They had enough of the ball in the first hour to put more than one goal on the board, and the penalty area play that has been a weakness all season showed up again when Beto scored. What they kept, for all the wobble, was the willingness to push for a winner after the Mamardashvili injury disrupted their rhythm.
Van Dijk delivered. He has been asked to carry this team in a handful of moments this season, and he produced the biggest one at the Hill Dickinson. A first derby victory at Everton’s new stadium, a Salah goal that drew him level with a Liverpool legend, and three points that keep the top of the table honest. Sunday evening in Liverpool does not often deliver all three.
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