Late Andre goal a huge blow to Liverpool's Champions League qualification hopes

SPKENDID FINISH: Wolverhampton Wanderers' Rodrigo Gomes celebrates. Pic: Nick Potts/PA Wire.

Andre’s deflected goal showed there is still life at Wolves as Liverpool blew a chance to move back into the top four that was as golden as the hosts’ shirts.

Mo Salah cancelled out Rodrigo Gomes’ opener for a side that knows they are still going to get relegated but it remained a night to forget for those of a Kop persuasion thanks to a Wolves winner that was deflected in by a Gomez - Liverpool’s Joe Gomez.

Liverpool had only themselves to blame, too.

Robert Plant was at Molineux the day after Liverpool boss Arne Slot declared he did not possess a Whole Lotta Love for set-pieces and their effect on this season’s Premier League entertainment levels.

The Liverpool manager could not believe his eyes when Curtis Jones somehow failed to convert from one from a distance previously calibrated as ‘unmissable’ and Liverpool failed to move into the top four.

Plant was Led Zeppelin’s frontman in the 1970s when Bill Shankly was busy making Liverpool great. Slot in contrast appears to be doing nothing but dismantling a dynasty - Jurgen Klopp’s - as the Reds failed at the home of the Premier League’s bottom club to get the three points they needed to out Aston Villa from fourth spot.

Last season’s champions failing to qualify for the Champions League? It has happened before - and fifth will almost certainly be enough yet again - but this was another chapter in an underwhelming second season under Slot.

Led Zeppelin had an album called In Through the Out Door. Slot might be exiting through that come the end of this term.

Jackson Tchatchoua’s pace fashioned an early Wolves chance that David Moller Wolfe could not turn into a shooting opportunity.

That was also the case when Mo Salah, played in by Virgil van Dijk, allowed two home defenders to converge upon him. The Egyptian had seemed to be well offside but replays confirmed the officials had got it spot on.

Cody Gakpo fired a 20-yarder at Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa before Frimpong smashed an attempt from greater distance well over the bar to waste the hard yards - all 70 of them - that Hugo Ekitike had put in to set him up.

Alexis Mac Allister’s unpunished studs-up challenge hurt Angel Gomes, the loanee hoping to jump on England’s World Cup bandwagon, but the little guy was OK to continue.

Slot hates a low block as much as he dislikes set-pieces and Wolves were keen to get everyone bar Adam Armstrong behind the ball when the visitors had possession and the half-hour mark passed with last season’s champions looking short of bright ideas.

Dominic Szoboslai, whose cornrow hairstyle did not go down well with the Molineux faithful, tried his luck from distance but the Hungarian, capable of genius from range, produced only a tame trundler at Sa.

Ryan Gravenberch, having been booked earlier for one foul too many, did not pick up another card for a late one on Moller Wolfe, to the annoyance of home players as well as fans.

Gravenberch was replaced by Curtis Jones at the break and it was not long before VAR got involved, briefly, to confirm that Ladislav Krejci’s arm was not in an unnatural position while blocking a Frimpong delivery into the box. Wolves only just survived the corner that followed too as Jones, on the line, somehow chested on to bar not net, with Gakpo’s boot also getting involved.

It proved costly as substitute Rodrigo - one of a gaggle of Gomeses at the Midlands club - kept his cool to fire the host ahead on the break.

Another replacement - Tolu Arokodare - was hugely influential by getting hold of a long ball, holding off van Dijk and sending Gomes away for a clever dink past Alisson.

Liverpool almost levelled through substitute Rio Ngumoha but Sa got a glove tip to the teenager’s goal-bound shot and diverted it onto a post.

Sa let Salah’s shot - fired off via the outside of his left boot - beat him but Wolves, 2-0 victors over Villa on Friday, were not to be denied.

Andre took aim from outside the box and substitute Gomez was left with his head in his hands after his fateful deflection settled a contest that had come alive when Rodrigo scored.

The game was also played exactly eight months after Diogo Jota died in a car crash that also claimed the life of his brother Andre Silva.

The Portugal forward, who was 28, played three seasons at Wolves from 2017 to 2020, including an initial promotion campaign while on loan, before joining Liverpool in a €47m deal.

There, he won all three domestic trophies and picked up a Champions League runners-up medal. Jota’s children had been mascots when Wolves lost 2-1 at Anfield in December and this time applause erupted in the 18th minute.

That was the number he had worn at Molineux before swapping that for the number 20 shirt that Liverpool retired as a tribute and the clapping reignited in that minute as well.

Wolves (3-4-2-1): Sa 7; Doherty 6 (Mosquera 59, 5), S Bueno 6, Krejci 6; Tchatchoua 6, Andre 6, J Gomes 6, Moller Wolfe 6; Mane 6 (R Gomes 70, 4), A Gomes 6 (Bellegarde 60, 5); Armstrong 5 (Tolu 59, 5).

Liverpool (4-2-3-1): Alisson 6; Frimpong 6 (Gomes 72, 4), Konate 6, van Dijk 7, Kerkez 6 (Robertson 65, 5); Mac Allister 6, Gravenberch 6 (Jones 46, 6); Salah 6, Szoboszlai 6, Gakpo 6 (Ngumoha 65, 5); Ekitike 7.

Ref: Thomas Bramall (Sheffield).