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Liverpool suffered their second defeat in four days as Swansea ran the Reds ragged at the Liberty Stadium. Andre Ayew and Jack Cork gave Liverpool a two-goal lead at the half-time mark as Liverpool’s heavily rotated defence struggled in the rain.

Christian Benteke halved the lead after the break but Ayew got his second of the game two minutes later before Brad Smith received his marching orders for a second yellow card. Jurgen Klopp bemoaned the noon kick off time and it seemed like he had good reason to with Swansea firing out of the blocks and creating the Reds problems from the offset. The Liverpool boss made eight changes to his team, clearly having an eye on overturning their 1-0 defeat to Villarreal in the Europa League but it was one of Swansea’s changes, Jordi Amat, who should have scored but skied his header over the bar from five yards.

However, Ayew did give the Swans the lead after 20 minutes when he was left all alone inside the six-yard box to thump his header past back-up goalkeeper Danny Ward. And Cork doubled the lead 13 minutes later when the Reds gave the ball away high up the pitch before the former Southampton man drove through the heart of the Liverpool defence and bent a lovely effort into the top corner. Liverpool changed their tactics at the break with Benteke replacing Philippe Coutinho but as the rain continued to pour in South Wales the game began to get very sloppy.

But the change paid off after 65 minutes when Benteke found space from Sheyi Ojo’s corner to pull a goal back for the Reds. Two minutes later Ayew took advantage of some terrible Liverpool defending and buried a soft shot into the bottom corner to restore the Swans’ two-goal advantage. It got worse for Liverpool when Australian left back Smith was dismissed for a clumsy challenge as Swansea looked to break from the edge of their area. The result means Liverpool must win the Europa League if they want European football next year with the opportunity missed to put pressure on the top six.