There are few sights more pleasing to Liverpool fans than that of Ibrahima Konate passionately celebrating a dramatic late goal for the Reds.
The French defender was among those in the thick of the celebrations after Alexis Mac Allister struck in the seventh minute of stoppage time to give the Premier League champions a last-gasp victory away to Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
The match-winning moment came a few minutes after our number 5 performed a celebratory cartwheel at seeing the Argentine finish to the net, only for that effort to be disallowed because of a controversial VAR decision that John Aldridge angrily described as ‘corrupt’.
Konate celebrates wildly as Mac Allister strikes at the death
Thankfully, the gleeful scenes which accompanied the actual winning goal wouldn’t be in vain, even despite a lengthy check for offside in the build-up before the semi-automated technology confirmed that Virgil van Dijk was being played onside by Ola Aina.
As Liverpool’s players raced towards the part of the stadium where their fans were located, Konate climbed on top of the perimeter advertising and shook his fist in delight at the rapturous Kopites, before then being helped back onto the turf and grabbing Mac Allister in a jubilant embrace.
Konate’s redemption arc continues with outstanding performance
Having been heavily criticised for some below-par performances earlier in the season, the Frenchman’s redemption arc continued on Sunday with a man-of-the-match display at the City Ground.
Liverpool Echo writer Ian Doyle gave the defender 9/10 in his post-match player ratings, writing that the 26-year-old ‘appeared to be playing against Forest by himself for much of the first half in [a] superb show of defending and maintained his level throughout’.
The underlying numbers also illustrate the defensive shift that our number 5 put in yesterday – as per Sofascore, he won six duels and two tackles against Vitor Pereira’s side, along with making three interceptions and one block.
While Konate has been culpable of defensive lapses during the current campaign, one thing he certainly can’t be accused of is not caring about the club he represents, as we witnessed in his particularly passionate celebrations of Mac Allister’s winning goal on Sunday.
We still don’t know whether or not he’ll agree a contract extension beyond the expiry of his current deal in the summer, but his performances since returning from compassionate leave last month should hopefully go a long way towards a renewal being confirmed.
On a day when Liverpool were collectively nowhere near their best, the same couldn’t be said of the French centre-back, whose efforts throughout the game were a huge reason for the Reds coming away with all three points.
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