Roberto Firmino maintained Liverpool’s Champions League push with a win at West Brom.

The Brazilian powered home a header on the stroke of half time on Easter Sunday when compatriot Lucas Leiva had helped on a James Milner free kick.

An otherwise scrappy game was almost settled beyond doubt in stoppage time but Alberto Moreno’s long-range attempt sailed away from an empty goal mouth.

Here were the key talking points from the Hawthorns:

Only the Reds can stop themselves now

 

The previous eight days have provided a seminal moment in Liverpool’s planned road to Champions League redemption.

Few of the Reds’ travelling support will have greeted the prospect of travelling to the Midlands on successive weekends towards the tail end of the campaign.

West Brom, and Stoke City before them, represented banana skin fixtures in Anfield’s attempts to return to its most synonymous club competition.

For a club so ingrained in its fabric, Liverpool and the Champions League have been at odds in recent times with only one appearance in six previous seasons.

But its operatic chords will be gracing Anfield once again next season as it stands.

Only late capitulation, their age-old friend, could derail that pathway.

Firmino’s influence has finally returned

It was generally accepted that Roberto Firmino had gone off the boil midway through the campaign due to factors beyond his control.

The downfall of arguably Liverpool’s second-most influential player coincided with Philippe Coutinho’s period on the sidelines heading into 2017.

With his compatriot’s return, however, nothing appears to faze Firmino again.

His stoppage-time header ultimately decided this scrappy encounter at the Hawthorns and set a new personal best in his fledgling Anfield career.

Surpassing his tally of 10 from the previous campaign has been achieved with five games to spare. It is only a case of when, rather than if, he adds to that.

Mignolet can solve ‘keeper conundrum

 

There may be hope for Simon Mignolet as Liverpool’s number-one after all.

Granted, he could have perched a deck chair in his penalty area for large parts of this game but the Belgian was on hand when the occasion dictated.

Denying Matt Phillips prevented the Baggies from snatching an equaliser and preserved his side’s second clean sheet in the league since the turn of 2017.

Damningly it was also their first away from Merseyside since mid-December.

Mignolet has been here before, of course. His enforced return in the 2014/15 season coincided with an impressive run of form under Brendan Rodgers.

A fresh spell on the fringes appears to have served him well again this term.

If he can marry that form with an overdue level of consistency, Jurgen Klopp may not need to seek reinforcements this summer.

Snapshot sums up Moreno’s ending

 

It will be a moment that haunts Alberto Moreno for the rest of his days.

Charging down a West Brom attack in the final minute of the game, everything appeared geared towards the Spanish full-back to offer something tangible.

Ben Foster’s walkabout had allowed him to break downfield with options aplenty and an empty goal mouth to put Liverpool’s victory beyond reasonable doubt.

Instead, Moreno allowed himself to be dazzled by the prospect of his name up in lights and chose to go it alone with an audacious 40-yard snapshot.

Far too often he has been guilty of favouring glory over grit and that snapshot encapsulated everything that has been wrong with his three years at Anfield.

Few will be sad to see the back of a player that has been kept out of his preferred role by a 31-year-old midfielder for the majority of the campaign.