Florian Wirtz had waited 12 Premier League games this season to open his account, and when the answer came on Sunday at Selhurst Park, it was delivered by Bradley Barcola.

Liverpool’s British-record signing swept Barcola’s low pass into the far corner on 54 minutes to double a lead Alexis Mac Allister had already given them from a Dominik Szoboszlai free-kick. Alexander Isak, fed by Wirtz, added a third late on. Eddie Nketiah’s stoppage-time penalty gave Crystal Palace nothing more than a consolation, and Liverpool left south London 3-1 winners.

The timing mattered. Wirtz arrived from Bayer Leverkusen for £116m in the summer of 2025, a then-British record that overtook the £115m Chelsea had paid for Moisés Caicedo in 2023. His output in the league has been the one number that would not move, and his previous Premier League goal had come against Crystal Palace too, back in April. The venue was the same; the wait between goals had stretched across the end of one season and the opening third of another.

The German had gone close in recent weeks without reward, and the scrutiny on him had become the loudest sub-plot of a Liverpool season settling well below the pace Arsenal had set at the top. Sunday’s finish, worked at pace from Liverpool’s own half after a counter through Barcola, was the kind of moment his early-season performances had been building towards without quite finding.

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Sage’s Palace stay in the drop zone

For Crystal Palace, defeat kept them in the relegation zone with the worst defence in the Premier League. Pierre Sage was already under heavy pressure heading into the weekend, having lost his previous three league matches without a goal of his own.

The Frenchman, appointed in June 2026 as Oliver Glasner’s successor and last season’s Ligue 1 manager of the year at Lens, had already called the defeat to Tottenham “a disaster”. Wirtz’s goal was the kind Palace have been shipping all autumn.

Alisson Becker had held his clean sheet together with one strong first-half save before Palace were awarded the 94th-minute penalty for the consolation. Liverpool sit fourth, nine points behind Arsenal, and go into the international break after a midweek trip to Fenerbahce.

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