You need not be a body language expert to work out how much this victory meant for Liverpool, under-pressure manager Arne Slot and his troops.
Virgil van Dijk’s reaction to scoring a match-winning goal may have been rather low-key but the skipper and his colleagues soon made up for it by celebrating every block, tackle and clearance thereafter as if they had scored.
There were five green Liverpool shirts around Van Dijk to mob him for a last-gasp intervention, more thanking the imperious Wataru Endo who injured himself in stretching for a clearance and then a queue to high-five Joe Gomez for a composed header when under pressure.
Everyone, not least Slot, knew this was a momentous evening in their season after Van Dijk’s 61st-minute header saw them become the first team to come to Sunderland and leave with a victory since their promotion back to the Premier League.
Slot had said on Tuesday that his team would need to be ‘close to perfection’ if they were to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
In terms of performance, this was far from that perfection – but it was full of fight, resilience and patience that will stand them in good stead in the battle for top five.
Virgil van Dijk scored the winner just after the hour mark as his header went in off Habib Diarra
Arne Slot suffered a huge blow when Wataru Endo was taken off in a stretcher with injury
Victory provides a huge boost to Slot, who has been under pressure amid the club’s struggles
This victory helped them gain two points on rivals Manchester United and Chelsea who both only drew this midweek.
‘I am pleased with how we defended, there were a few times we had to throw bodies in front of the ball,’ said Slot. ‘Wata (Endo) I am picking him out because he had an injury and stayed on, challenged for other duels. That mentality, I saw it through the whole team.
‘It was also really helpful that our fans were so loud, especially the last 20 minutes when the team needed them. Maybe they thought it had gone wrong so many times in the final part of (games) and maybe now it is up to us to help the team.’
He is right. After seeing eight points fall away in stoppage time this season – six games have changed against Liverpool in that period – there were certainly nerves coursing through veins as seven minutes were added on and the Stadium of Light was soon rocking with noise.
Seeing games out is one of the so-called small margins that will not be small at all and in fact define the remainder of the Reds’s season. So too will be changing a torrid set-piece record that was one of Slot’s biggest bugbears in the early months of their sorry title defence.
The Reds had seen set-piece coach Aaron Briggs pay the price for a torrid dead-ball record just after Christmas and it is unfair on him to say his exit has been the catalyst for change. But they have certainly improved in that area since New Year.
Van Dijk’s header was one of eight goals scored from set-pieces since the beginning of 2026, with just two conceded in that time. From the relegation zone of the ‘set-piece table’ to the top half in five weeks, Liverpool are much better in that regard.
Again, small margins that will have a huge bearing on whether they achieve ambitions or not.
Van Dijk’s goal proved enough for three points as the Reds became the first team to win at Sunderland this season
The goal here was one the experts are calling the ‘meat wall’ where teams pack the six-yard box with bodies and then fizz in an inswinging corner. It is incredibly tough to defend, as Sunderland found here as Mohamed Salah’s cross was met by captain Van Dijk.
Salah has been quiet of late, not scoring in the league since November 1 – he did, of course, miss a month at the Africa Cup of Nations in that time – but his off-the-ball work and creative output is still pleasing Slot. He was unlucky to miss a late chance for 2-0.
Florian Wirtz, too, is only getting better and better and should have had at least one goal to his name here. The German hit the post in the first half as he pulled a shot past Robin Roefs, minutes after the Dutch goalkeeper had palmed Wirtz’s venomous strike wide.
As the game ticked over the hour-mark there were fears this was going to be another night of all bark no bite for Liverpool, who were in the ascendancy without creating any clear-cut chances. Van Dijk soon put paid to those worries with a powerful header.
This was just Liverpool’s second win in six fixtures against the promoted teams this season and this threatened to be a bigger banana skin than all, not just because nonstop downpour had soaked the area around the atmospheric fortress of the Stadium of Light.
Florian Wirtz had the best chance of the first half but his effort struck the post
Some car parks on site had to be closed and a precautionary pitch inspection was needed given the relentless rain. That would not have stacked up as an excuse for Slot, though, who came here under mounting pressure due to just one league win in seven in 2026.
He knew three points were the only thing that would have been deemed a success on this trip to Wearside. Ultimately, he had several unsung heroes to thank for Liverpool returning to winning ways.
Endo, the Japan captain who started his first league game of the season, summed up the resilient Reds with several big blocks, while Ibrahima Konate and the lesser-spotted Andy Robertson also put in big shifts.
‘We showed a great character and identity but it was not enough,’ said Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris, whose team did not really turn up in an attacking sense. ‘Four days after (losing to) Arsenal, we had to go again against a monster.’
Liverpool are not the monster they once were but this was a crucial win in their pursuit for Champions League qualification.
