Luis Díaz spares the Reds blushes
Luton Town 1 Liverpool 1, 5th November 2023.
LUTON TOWN 1 (Chong 80)
LIVERPOOL 1 (Díaz 90+5)
On an evening where there were far more fireworks outside Luton Town’s Kenilworth Road stadium than inside its quaint if crumbling confines, the facts must be faced that this was a Premier League point gained against the odds and against the run of play. The newly promoted “Hatters” of Luton Town were well worthy of their 1–0 lead given to them by Tahith Chong on 80 minutes from a lightning quick breakaway and, rather ridiculously, from a Reds attacking corner that less than 10 seconds later saw the home team race the length of the field to take a deserved lead. Darwin Núñez may have had a plethora of goal scoring chances early in the first half as well as grazing the top of the home team’s crossbar before forcing Luton goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski into sharp near post saves in both halves of this disappointing game, but this was as good as it got for an underwhelming and under par Reds who were 3 injury time minutes away from defeat.
In truth and facing facts once more, the Reds in their alternative away kit of green and white quarters were a beaten team until Harvey Elliott’s cross was met by a leaping Luis Díaz and his header looped into the far corner of the home team’s net. Both substitutes had combined to drag Liverpool level from nowhere and whilst Elliott was again impressive it was his great off field mate Díaz who will garner the headlines and in a far more positive fashion than in recent weeks. Granted compassionate leave due to the kidnapping (yes, kidnapping) of his parents at home in Colombia, his mother may be safe and well but at the time of writing his father is still missing and one cannot imagine the pain and distress the 26 year old is going through.
Following his transfer to Liverpool in 2019 from FC Porto I have fallen in love with the kid or Colombian wizard who plays football from another world at times and I’ve seen this kid grow from a thin and somewhat lightweight figure recovering from a horrific injury into a robust, bulkier young man. He’s grown before my Red supporting eyes into the very prime of his career and with the grace and luck to avoid any further long term injuries he’s sure to mature into a truly world class footballer in the seasons ahead.
My self-published book on Liverpool FC
All of which is for the future and for the here and now his father remains kidnapped in the country he calls home on the other side of the world and celebrated his last gasp equaliser today by raising his shirt to display a homemade shirt underneath with the message “Libertad Para Papa”.
Freedom for Dad.
So say all of us.
A final word from The Boss
“It’s wonderful, it’s emotional and it’s fantastic. But the real problem is not sorted. We wanted to give — and he wanted as well — Lucho the opportunity to be a little bit distracted from the other things. He cannot do nothing, he is waiting all the time, the whole family is waiting all the time. And so he trained now a few times with us and he was then in a good mood, and that’s good for him. I think the signs from Colombia are rather positive, optimistic but the one thing we all want to hear, it didn’t happen yet”.
“Strange game. Strange feeling after the game. I think we should have won, but I think the draw is the deserved result — and we could have lost, so that’s how it is. Credit to Luton, they did really well but even with all what they did, we created chances and didn’t finish them off with the last conviction, to be 100 per cent honest”.
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