Luis Suárez scored 12 of his 82 goals for Liverpool FC against Norwich City FC and this was one of his best. Not only was it the longest-range goal that the Uruguayan netted in a red shirt, it also completed his first hat-trick for LFC.
Sir Kenny Dalglish's side were 2-0 up at half-time thanks to a brilliant Suárez double, but nobody could have anticipated what would happen in the 82nd minute. The Canaries were in the Liverpool FC penalty area, looking to get back into the game, when right-back Glen Johnson won a tackle on the byline and blasted the ball clear.
Spotting that it was flying towards Norwich City FC's Elliott Ward on the half-way line, Suárez darted across from the centre-circle to put the defender under pressure. Elliott met the ball with his left foot, but in wet conditions and with Suárez in close attendance he only managed to strike it against the Uruguayan's shin.
As Suárez nudged the ball forward with his left foot he glanced towards the Norwich City FC goal, took a touch with his right and then struck a looping shot from just inside the Canaries' half – over 45 yards from goal.
The ball sailed through the East Anglian air and although Norwich City FC goalkeeper John Ruddy, who had been stood on the edge of his penalty area, frantically back-pedalled and flung out an arm as he desperately dived backwards towards his goal, there was nothing he could do.
Liverpool FC's mercurial No.7 had completed his hat-trick with an incredible long-range finish that very few other players would have even attempted, let alone execute to perfection.
A crazy finish to a mad game deserves a wild celebration and that's precisely what it got when Adam Lallana volleyed a 95th minute winner to give the Reds a 5-4 victory at Carrow Road. It was an even more remarkable finish given Norwich City FC had equalised in the 90th minute after Liverpool FC turned a 2-1 half-time deficit into a 4-3 lead.
Lallana's dramatic winner came when on-loan centre-back Steven Caulker caused chaos in the Canaries box and from his header Robbie Brady could only clear the ball to Lallana, who struck a left-footed volley that bounced and spun into the Norwich City FC net.
The Reds' midfielder whipped off his shirt in celebration and ran towards the touchline where a delighted Jürgen Klopp was running towards him! Lallana jumped into his manager's arms before the rest of the team – and the substitutes – joined them in a joyous group huddle.
But when Christian Benteke arrived on the scene and jumped onto the back of James Milner, he accidentally caught Klopp's trademark glasses with a stray arm and smashed them, leaving the Liverpool FC manager unable to see the final seconds of an epic match.
“I don’t know, I saw nothing,” joked Klopp when asked about the celebrations. “Usually I have a second pair, but I couldn’t find them. It’s really difficult looking for glasses without glasses!”
It was the second time that Jürgen's glasses had been damaged during a goal celebration with a pair of his shattered specs already in 'Das Borusseum' [Borussia Dortmund's museum] after ex-Reds midfielder Nuri Sahin broke them when BVB beat FC Bayern Munich for the first time under Klopp's management in 2011.
The last time Liverpool FC travelled to East Anglia to play Norwich City FC at Carrow Road, Sadio Mané came off the bench to be the Reds' match-winner. Mané's goal was his 75th for LFC – and his 100th in English football – and came thanks to an extraordinary piece of control.
With Storm Dennis making the windy conditions tricky for both sets of players, the Canaries had frustrated the 22-points clear Premier League leaders until Mané came on for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the 60th minute.
He'd been on the pitch for 18 minutes when skipper Jordan Henderson, who'd moved into a more advanced role when Fabinho was also brought on, pinged a high diagonal ball from inside the centre-circle towards Mané, who was just outside the Norwich City FC box.
Mané brushed off centre-back Christoph Zimmerman as the pair jumped for the ball and, while still-in mid-air somehow, stretched out his right leg to bring the ball down.
In the blink of an eye the Senegalese international swivelled onto his left foot as he landed on the turf and, under pressure from right-back Max Aarons, drilled a low shot past Tim Krul at his near post to send the Champions elect 25 points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Eighteen months later, Mané's strike remains the last goal scored by a Liverpool FC player with the travelling Kop inside an away ground so perhaps it is fate that the Reds' 2021/22 campaign kicks off at the same venue...
