Swansea City 1

Liverpool 0

Alfie Mawson’s first half strike earned struggling Swansea City a workmanlike but precious victory over Liverpool at the Liberty Stadium.

Swansea led 1-0 at half time, thanks to Mawson scoring four minutes before the break. The second half saw Klopp’s Liverpool push hard to level matters, but the Swans battled for every scrap of possession, and their desire on the night earned them three precious points.

The last time both these teams met was on Boxing Day, where Liverpool ran out comfortable 5-0 winners at Anfield. This victory was quite a turnaround for the Swans, they played with a lot of fighting spirit and if they are going to avoid relegation this season, they will need more of that.

Virgil Van Dijk was making his first Premier League appearance for Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool outfit at the heart of the defence alongside Joel Matip - but it was at the other end where home keeper Lukasz Fabianski had to be quickly off his line early on to snuff out an early chance for Sadio Mane inside the box.

In the 16th minute Jordan Ayew found the net, but the ball had already gone out for a corner following a strong challenge by Liverpool right back Joe Gomez.

For Liverpool Van Dijk headed an Oxlade-Chamberlain in-swinging corner a yard wide, which proved the best chance of the opening 25 minutes.

The visitors then really should have taken the lead when Van Dijk’s lofted ball over the Swans defence fell perfectly to Mohammed Salah who struck a first time volley way over the crossbar, especially as the Egyptian had time to take a touch and finish.

Oxlade-Chamberlaine struck a wicked edge of the area shot that flew straight at Fabianski as the visitors pressed for an opening goal.

However, it was the Swans who took the lead against the run of play in the 41st minute, when Sam Clucas’ wicked corner in the box wasn’t dealt with by the visitors’ defence and Alfie Mawson swept his shot into the back of the net from eight yards, sending the Jack Army into raptures.

Minutes later the frustration got the better of Matip who clattered Clucas and earned himself a yellow card, then Firmino dispossessed Sung-Yueng and released Salah down the right and his cross in the box was met by Mane who guided his volley well wide of the target. Klopp’s men should have really levelled matters, but that summed up their first half as Carlos Carvalhal's side clung on for a slender one-goal cushion at the interval.

The second half started with Klopp’s men pushing forward in search of an equaliser, and Salah curled an effort wide from the edge of the box, and Naughton put in a superb last ditch tackle to deny Andrew Robertson. Fabianski then desperately took the ball from Firmino’s feet, as the striker tried to latch onto a clever Salah flick.

Sung-Yueng fouled Mane five yards outside the box, from the resulting free-kick Salah’s curling effort was heading towards the top corner, but Fabianski did superbly to tip it over.

The Swans sat back deep and as the clash wore on the visitors were increasingly getting frustrated, as Can fired skywards from distance.

Ayew struck a vicious left footed effort that warmed Loris Karius’ hands as the Swans tried to counter attack.

But Liverpool substitute Danny Ings drilled a low left foot shot which Fabianski saved at full stretch - but for the last ten minutes it was backs to the wall stuff for the Swans, and they hung on for a massive win after Firmino headed a Van Dijk cross against the post in the dying seconds of injury time.

Before kick-off everyone at the Liberty Stadium observed a minute’s applause for former West Bromwich Albion and England’s Cyrille Regis, and also Jimmy Armfield, ex-Blackpool and England, the latter died earlier today at the age of 82.

Swansea City: Lukasz Fabianski, Kyle Naughton, Mike van der Hoorn, Federico Fernandez (Captain), Martin Olsson, Ki Sung-Yueng, Leroy Fer, Sam Clucas, Nathan Dyer (64 Tom Carroll), Jordan Ayew (79 Wilfried Bony).

Substitutes not used:  Luciano Narsingh, Kyle Bartley, Roque Masa, Oli McBurnie.

Manager: Carlos Carvalhal.

Liverpool: Loris Karius, Joe Gomez, Joel Matip, Virgil Van Dijk, Andrew Robertson, Georgino Wijnaldum (73 Danny Ings), Emre Can (Captain), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (68 Adam Lallana), Sadio Mane, Mohammed Salah, Roberto Firmino.

Substitutes not used: Simon Mignolet (GK), James Milner, Ragnar Klavan, Dominic Solanke, Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Manager: Jurgen Klopp.

Referee: Neil Swarbrick.

Assistants: Daniel Cook & Constantine Hatziadakis.

Fourth official: Mark Jones.

Attendance: 20,886.