In what seemed to be a third successive draw in the Premier League for Arne Slot's side, substitute Darwin Núñez, had other ideas as the Uruguayan scored twice in injury time to take Liverpool six points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Despite an early Brentford chance after five minutes which saw Mikkel Damsgaard miss a glorious opportunity at the far post, Liverpool recovered well to gain control of the game in what proved to be a difficult evening infront of goal for the Reds.
Liverpool's closest opportunity came from Dominik Szoboszlai whose swerving and dipping long shot hit the underside of the bar. That combined with numerous poorly executed chances from the Liverpool forward line brought the first half to a close with a whopping 19 recorded shots.
This made the Liverpool manager look to his bench yet again to help make the difference, with Darwin Núñez brought on in the 65th minute.
It looked to be another frustrating performance for the Liverpool number nine however in the 91st minute he tapped home a Trent Alexander-Arnold cross to send the Liverpool fans crazy.
That wasn't the end of the script for Núñez in this match as Liverpool countered from a desperate Brentford attack and fellow substitute Harvey Elliott, teed him up for his second with a confident finish past Flekken.
The win takes Liverpool six points clear at the top of the table, with a game in hand above Arsenal.
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Darwin Núñez the Liverpool hero
The Liverpool forward has been suffering immense pressure in recent times this season as the forward had only 4 goals in his previous 26 appearances coming into the Brentford game.
The January transfer window has added further speculation to the Uruguayan’s future with rumours of Liverpool rejecting a £70million offer from Saudi Arabia.
However his two stoppage-time goals has provided a massive moment in Liverpool’s season and the title race with Liverpool’s lead at the top back to six points after Arsenal’s 2-2 draw vs Aston Villa on Saturday evening.
His brace will certainly give the striker a massive boost, as during his Liverpool career so far he has shown when he’s confident he can really contribute for Liverpool in whatever role he is asked of.
That wasn’t all for Núñez as he become the first player in Premier League history to score three 90th-minute winners away from home (Newcastle 23/24, Nottingham Forest 23/24, Brentford 24/25).
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Trent back to his best
With all the speculation over his Liverpool contract and future, Trent Alexander-Arnold put all that to one side, during his brilliant display at Brentford, as the right-back recorded his fifth assist in the Premier League this season setting up the Nùñez winner.
It wasn't just his influence up the pitch, as Alexander-Arnold eliminated a lot of the Brentford threat down his right-hand side, having the most interceptions for Liverpool and 100% tackle success (fotmob).
The scouser's performance just highlights the importance he has for the team in both ends of the pitch being pivotal in creating the winning goal and showing the defensive quality he has despite recent criticism. Liverpool fans will know more performances like this from Alexander-Arnold will significantly boost their Premier League title chances.
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Slot gets his substitutions right again
It has been a huge week in context of the title race for Liverpool, with a 1-1 draw away to Nottingham Forest and the 2-0 victory vs Brentford.
A key factor to those results being swung in favour, of the Reds was Slot's subsitutions. On Tuesday night it was Kostas Tsmikas and Diogo Jota combining to equalize straight away from their introduction.
This was followed against Brentford as Slot got it right again with Núñez scoring two in stoppage time. However the brilliance of this overshadows some of the other substitutions and tweaks the Liverpool manager made.
The introduction of Harvey Elliott in the 80th minute completely changed the dynamic for Liverpool going forward, with the Englishman heavily involved in the winner as well as assisting Nùñez for his second.
The impact by Liverpool's substitutions just highlights the importance of everyone in the Liverpool squad has, with many players not playing nowhere near as much as they'd like, but still contributing massively towards Liverpool's season.
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Biggest Day in the Title Race?
In any title race, there will always be games you look back on, where some games feel bigger than others and in this case, the Brentford game certainly has that feeling.
With the score being 0-0 in 90 minutes it looked like it would be a third draw in a row for Liverpool, which would have given Arsenal major confidence going into the Aston Villa game with the chance of closing the gap to two points,
But with the two late Liverpool goals the dynamic in the Title race faced a massive swing in momentum for Liverpool, with many parallels to Liverpool in the 2019/20 season with their late winners such as away to Aston Villa when Sadio Mané scored a late winner.
Liverpool currently sit six points clear of Arsenal due to their draw on Saturday night, with the chance to make it nine clear when they face Everton for their game in hand in the middle of February.
There may be a fair few twists and turns to go but Liverpool have put themselves in a great position for the rest of the season.
