Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho scored for his side on Saturday afternoon, but could not prevent a timid 3-1 defeat to relegation threatened Southampton.
It could, though, have been even better for the young Brazilian as he squandered a simple one-on-one opportunity just moments before eventually getting on the scoresheet.
By that stage, though, Southampton were 2-0 up. French midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin opened the scoring from a knock-down header in the opening ten minutes, before Rickie Lambert’s deflected free-kick doubled the advantage.
Then came Coutinho’s minutes in the spotlight. First, having been played through one-on-one he was denied by Artur Boruc. Shortly afterwards, though, he was on hand to turn home a saved Daniel Sturridge effort.
Despite their lifeline, though, Liverpool failed to come on strong in the second half and Southampton were allowed to strengthen their survival hopes.
With Liverpool struggling to find any incision in front of goal, Jay Rodriguez compounded their misery as he danced past his marker before scoring past goalkeeper Brad Jones on the second attempt.
Guly do Prado appeared as a late subsitute for the hosts as they looked to play out the final minutes of the encounter.
