Liverpool find perfect matchwinner in intoxicating game that defied all logic

In a game that defied all logic, Liverpool's matchwinner on Wednesday night made perfect sense.

Gemma Bonner, the player who captained the Reds to back-to-back Women's Super League (WSL) titles almost a decade ago, crowned her record-breaking 150th appearance for the club with a brace against Chelsea that will go down in football folklore. Her 92nd-minute header in front of the Kop End earned Liverpool three points that meant very little in terms of tangible reward but which meant everything to the thousands of fans inside Prenton Park.

Many of those in attendance will have been here last term too, when the reigning champions were stunned by Matt Beard’s newly-promoted Reds on the opening weekend. But, while that result proved to be something of an anomaly in a season that was largely about consolidating Liverpool’s place in the top flight, this game - an intoxicating 4-3 comeback - feels like a line in the sand; the moment that saw the Reds resume their interest in mixing with the WSL’s elite.

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The evening had got off to the worst possible start for the hosts, with Chelsea - fresh from their Champions League semi-final defeat to Barcelona - taking the lead inside nine minutes thanks to a header from striker Aggie Beever-Jones. The former Everton loanee rose highest to divert Catarina Macario's corner delivery into the back of the net and put the Blues well on course for a win that would have breathed new life into their precariously-balanced title charge.

And Hayes’ side could have made it two when Sjoeke Nusken snuck in behind the Liverpool