English Premier League: Late Llorente header earns Leeds draw with Liverpool amid Super League uproar

Leeds United players came out for their warm-up wearing shirts emblazoned with the slogan ‘Earn It’ under the Champions League logo – a reference to the fact that the proposed 20-club Super League will have 15 permanent members with no relegation.

Leeds United's Diego Llorente celebrates after equalising against Liverpool in their English Premier League clash. (Photo: Reuters)

An 87th-minute header from defender Diego Llorente gave Leeds United a 1-1 home draw with Liverpool in the Premier League on Monday (April 19) after the home side staged a protest against the breakaway Super League prior to the kickoff. Leeds players came out for their warm-up wearing shirts emblazoned with the slogan ‘Earn It’ under the Champions League logo – a reference to the fact that the proposed 20-club Super League will have 15 permanent members with no relegation.

The result left Liverpool sixth on 53 points from 32 games, one behind fifth-placed Chelsea who have a game in hand and two adrift of West Ham United in fourth. Leeds stayed 10th on 46 points.

Sadio Mane fired Liverpool ahead in the 31st minute when he steered the ball into an empty net from 15 metres after Trent Alexander-Arnold beat Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier to a long Diogo Jota pass and squared it to the Senegalese forward.

Roberto Firmino came close to adding a second shortly after the break but Leeds then pegged back the visitors and missed several chances before Llorente rose above his markers to head home a Jack Harrison corner. Substitute Mohamed Salah had scuffed a close-range shot wide for Liverpool moments before Llorente scored his first goal for Leeds and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain spurned a gilt-edged chance to snatch a stoppage-time winner for the visitors.

Don’t blame the players for Super League, says Liverpool coach Klopp

Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said he and his squad had found out about the club`s involvement in plans for a breakaway Super League only on Sunday and urged angry fans not to blame the players. The German, who has spoken out in the past against a European Super League, told Sky Sports television that his opinion had not changed since 2019 when he said he hoped it never happened.

“I heard first hand about it yesterday,” he said ahead of Monday’s Premier League game at Leeds United. “We got some information, not a lot to be honest. Most of the things you can read in newspapers or wherever.

“It’s a tough one. People are not happy with that, I can understand that. But I cannot say a lot more about it because we were not involved in any processes, not the players, not me. We didn’t know about it.”

Twelve of Europe’s top football clubs announced on Sunday they were launching a breakaway Super League in the face of widespread opposition from within the game and beyond. Liverpool have won the Champions League, or previous European Cup, six times with Klopp celebrating success in 2019.

Klopp said his aim as a manager was always to coach a team in the Champions League and he liked the fact that a club like West Ham United, not one of the 12, could play in the tournament next year if they finished in the top four in England.

“I don’t want them to, because we want to do that, but I like that they have the chance,” said Klopp, whose side have struggled to reproduce the form that earned them the Premier League title last season.

The German said Liverpool was ‘much more than some decisions’ and the supporters and the team were the most important part of the game. “We have to make sure that really nothing gets in between that,” he added. “I heard we took banners down at Anfield but I don’t understand that because the players didn’t do anything wrong. The boys didn’t do anything wrong apart from not winning all football games. I really want to make sure that everyone knows that.”

Klopp said he recognised some things had to change in soccer, and governing bodies UEFA and FIFA should not just decide things. “FIFA wants a Club World Cup, whenever that should be. That’s about money, nothing else,” he said. “It happens, it’s not only these (breakaway) clubs.”