Liverpool's Ibrahima Konate scores own goal as Reds trail Brentford 2-0 at half-time
Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate turned the ball into his own net to gift Brentford the lead in the Premier League on Monday
Liverpool found themselves 2-0 down to Brentford at half-time in their first Premier League clash of 2023 following an Ibrahima Konate own goal and a second by Yoane Wissa which was just over the line later in the half.
The Reds will have been relieved to see Brentford's star man Ivan Toney miss out through injury, but Jurgen Klopp's side struggled after an early miss by Darwin Nunez and went behind after 19 minutes when Konate inadvertently turned the ball into his own net from a corner.
Wissa replaced Toney in the Brentford line-up and the Congo forward saw a strike ruled out for offside after 39 minutes, after he had scrambled the ball home from close range.
But the 26-year-old made it 2-0 with a header shortly afterwards, which it initially looked like Allisson had saved, only for replays to confirm that the ball was over the line when the Brazilian pushed it back out.
That left the Reds with work to do in the second half in west London in order to suffer another setback in an inconsistent campaign so far.
Klopp's side have already lost four and drawn four in the Premier League this season, but had won four on the bounce ahead of the trip to Brentford.
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Ben Hayward is a European football writer and Tottenham Hotspur fan with over 15 years’ experience, he has covered games all over the world - including three World Cups, several Champions League finals, Euros, Copa America - and has spent much of that time in Spain. Ben speaks English and Spanish, currently dividing his time between Barcelona and London, covering all the big talking points of the weekend on FFT: he’s also written several list features and interviewed Guglielmo Vicario for the magazine.