Sadio Mane scored twice as Liverpool sealed a third-placed finish and Champions League football with a 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace in front of 10,000 fans at Anfield on the final day of the season.
Liverpool started the final day fourth in the table and knew victory would all-but secure another season in Europe’s elite-club competition.
There were nerves early on, as Crystal Palace threatened through Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend, and top-four rivals Leicester took the lead against Tottenham to knock the Reds down into fifth spot, but Liverpool roared to an imperious victory.
Mane bundled in his first on 36 minutes as Liverpool took a deserved lead after spurning a host of gilt-edged opportunities and added a second 16 minutes from time to wrap up a vital three points for Jurgen Klopp’s side.
The Reds’ Premier League title disintegrated after Christmas and they fell timidly to Real Madrid in the Champions League but rallied to win their final five Premier League games to claim a prize that looked unlikely until the penultimate weekend of the season.
“Outstanding. We wanted this feeling, this game, this atmosphere. Finishing the season in third is incredible,” said Liverpool manager, Klopp.
“Credit to the boys – I can’t believe how it worked out in the last few weeks, incredible.”
A top-four spot looked beyond Liverpool when they sat eighth in early March after a campaign undermined by injuries and a catastrophic run of home form including six successive Anfield league defeats.
Even at the end of April they, remained four points off fourth place with just five games to go but won each of those to not only seal a place at Europe’s top table again, but also leapfrog Chelsea into third.
“It’s big. If someone told me five, six, eight weeks ago we can finish the season in third – it was out of reach, barely possible,” added Klopp.
Liverpool have not come close to silverware but the scenes when Mane scored his second and at the final whistle – muted celebrations at best – hinted at a mixture of delight and relief that Klopp and his players had made the best of a bad job this season.
