Following a superb victory that hurt Liverpool's chances of making the Champions League for the following season, Mohamed Salah's egregious penalty miss assisted Bournemouth in escaping the relegation zone. Following last week's 7-0 demolition of Manchester United, the Reds were dragged back to earth as the bottom-of-the-table Cherries improved their hopes of surviving.
After excellent work by Dango Ouattara, Philip Billing, who was unmarked, scored his sixth Premier League goal of the year from eight yards out to punish Liverpool for shoddy defence. At 0-0, Virgil van Dijk's effort was cleared off the line, and substitute Diogo Jota was denied by a brilliant save from Neto before Liverpool was awarded a penalty after Adam Smith handled the header from the Portugal forward.
But, Salah, who last week passed Henry Best as Liverpool's all-time leading Premier League scorer with 129 goals, fired the penalty wide to the joy of Bournemouth supporters. Although Bournemouth completed the day in 17th place thanks to the victory, Jurgen Klopp's team's sluggish performance cost them the potential to go up to fourth place for the first time this season.