Liverpool win 3-1 at Crystal Palace as Isak adds late third
Mac Allister, Wirtz and Isak scored for Liverpool at Selhurst Park before Nketiah's late penalty, and how the result fits the recent run of meetings.
By Harvey Watkins,
Liverpool won 3-1 at Selhurst Park on Sunday afternoon. Alexis Mac Allister, Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak scored to put them three goals clear before Eddie Nketiah's penalty in the 95th minute gave Crystal Palace a late consolation. Liverpool led from shortly before half-time, and Palace's goal came too late to change the outcome of this Matchday 10 fixture.
How the goals came
The opening goal arrived in the 40th minute, when Mac Allister put Liverpool ahead. That was how it stood at the interval. The timing mattered: a side that goes in level at the break still has a game to manage, while one that goes in behind has to come out and chase.
Palace did not get the chance to reset. Wirtz made it 2-0 in the 54th minute, not long after the restart, and that second goal changed the shape of the afternoon. From then on Palace needed two goals simply to draw level.
The score stayed at 2-0 until the 89th minute, when Isak added Liverpool's third. Whatever hope Palace had of a late rally ended there.
Nketiah's penalty
Palace's reply came in the 95th minute, when Nketiah scored from the penalty spot. It denied Liverpool a clean sheet and put a goal on the board for the home side. Coming so late, and with Liverpool already three ahead, it altered the margin rather than the match.
Against the recent meetings
This fixture has swung back and forth over the past couple of seasons, and the result is best read alongside the five previous meetings:
- 25 Apr 2026: Liverpool 3-1 Crystal Palace
- 29 Oct 2025: Liverpool 0-3 Crystal Palace
- 27 Sep 2025: Crystal Palace 2-1 Liverpool
- 25 May 2025: Liverpool 1-1 Crystal Palace
- 5 Oct 2024: Crystal Palace 0-1 Liverpool
In the autumn of 2025 Palace beat Liverpool home and away, winning 2-1 at Selhurst Park in September and 3-0 at Anfield in October. Liverpool's 3-1 win at Anfield in April turned that around, and this result repeated the same scoreline on Palace's own ground. Before this, the most recent Liverpool win at Selhurst Park among these meetings was the 1-0 in October 2024.
Two consecutive wins by the same margin do not settle a fixture that has been this changeable. They do suggest the run Palace put together in 2025 has, for now, given way.
What the result shows
A scoreline and the times of the goals tell only part of the story. They do show that Liverpool took the lead before half-time and extended it soon after the restart, and that Palace did not score until the match was effectively over. On that sequence, Liverpool were in front for the large majority of the afternoon and never had their lead seriously threatened on the scoreboard.
How evenly the play was contested between those goals is another question. The final score cannot answer it, and it would be wrong to read more into a 3-1 than it holds. What it does record is a clear away win, a second successive 3-1 for Liverpool in this fixture, and a late goal for Palace that came too late to matter.