He has his critics, but Simon Mignolet has been superb during a difficult first half at Sunderland today.
The big Belgian had already made three saves, including an athletic diving stop to keep out Jack Rodwell, by the time he came up with this goal-saving interception to pinch the ball of the toes of Jermain Defoe with the scores at 1-1.
Mignolet’s brilliance was in stark contrast to Liverpool’s static defending which allowed Defoe to breach their offside trap while jogging.
It had earlier taken a very precise Defoe penalty to get the better of Mignolet, whose instinctive dive almost got to the spot-kick (as the photo above shows).
All this came after Daniel Sturridge, assisted by Dejan Lovren, had headed the Reds in front at the Stadium of Light.