What a moment and what a reaction.
Alisson, the Liverpool goalkeeper, was full of emotion after he scored a brilliant match-winning goal against West Brom on Sunday.
In what was one of the most dramatic finishes to a Premier League game in recent history, the Brazilian incredibly glanced a header home with seconds remaining to snatch a 2-1 win for Liverpool – and keep their Champions League hopes alive.
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The Reds are battling Leicester and Chelsea for the final Champions League spots and just a point would have given their top-four rivals the advantage as the race goes down to the wire.
But Alisson rode to the rescue in dramatic fashion to become the first Liverpool goalkeeper to score in a competitive match for the club in their 129-year history.
The 28-year-old was in tears as he celebrated and dedicated his goal to his late father, who tragically died in a drowning accident in February, as he declared: “God put his hand on my head today”.
“I’m too emotional these last months for everything that happened with me, with my family,” he said, speaking to Sky Sports.
“But football is my life, I played since I remember as a human being with my father. I hope he was here to see it but I’m sure that he’s seeing with God on his side and celebrating.
“It’s for my family, for the boys. What a fight, sometimes we are fighting and fighting and things are just not happening as this afternoon here.
“Just scoring this goal, I’m really, really happy to help them because they fight a lot, we fight a lot together and we have a strong goal to achieve the Champions League because we won it once and you know that everything started with qualification.
“I can’t be more happy than I am now.”
Alisson, who has been unable to return to Brazil following his father’s death due to the coronavirus pandemic, also said his goal was for his family, fans and teammates and thanked rival clubs and players for the support they have shown him.
“I have been away from interviews for a long time,” he said.
“It was a difficult time because always when I talk about it I get emotional on that. But I just really want to thank all of you, all the Premier League, all the players I received letters from, managers from teams – for example, Everton and Ancelotti, all the players, Man City, Chelsea.
“I don’t want to be not fair with the others that I don’t remember but I just want to say thank you to everybody for the support. If it wasn’t for you, I could never get through this because I’m just away from my family since the thing happened.
“My wife has been amazing with me, my kids give me energy and this is what we feel, the love from God. This is the way God loves us – through people and we should do that every time, every day. But I just want to say thank you for this moment.
“And the celebration, I don’t know how to celebrate! And hopefully I don’t need to come so many times to the box to score a goal – hopefully our players will do that for me. I just have to think and defend and to help them.
The Brazilian joked it was the best goal he had scored, adding: “It was the perfect time. The cross was brilliant again. I just tried to put my head on the ball and I think it was one of the best goals I’ve scored!
“I’m really happy. I don’t have too many words, I just have to say thank you to the players because they fight a lot. We fight a lot.”
With the goal, Alisson became just the sixth goalkeeper in Premier League history to score a goal, after Peter Schmeichel, Brad Friedel, Paul Robinson, Tim Howard and Asmir Begovic.
Jurgen Klopp was unsurprisingly delighted to see Alisson score a last-gasp winner, describing the moment as ‘touching’.
“We are really close so I know exactly what it means to him and what he thought in that moment,” he said.
“It’s outstanding and it’s touching, it’s only football but it means the world to us.
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“If Olivier Giroud is scoring that everyone says it’s a world-class goal. With Alisson doing it, we have to say the same.
“We created chances and it needed to come in the last second. What a goal, what a worldie and unbelievable goal, the technique was insane.
“It couldn’t have been a better moment, it’s just perfect for today. If he is never doing it again, I’m fine – it’s a perfect moment.
“We didn’t have a lot of moments in this season so we shouldn’t take it for granted. My part of the goal is I didn’t shout to stay back.
“He went there and what a goal, it’s incredible we have already seen it 10 times back in the dressing room.
“He’s a wonderful person, funny, smart, thoughtful and intense in moments. He is just a great guy. It couldn’t have been for a better person after what he went through.”
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