Some things never change in this city. New stadium, same heartbreak for the Blues.

Virgil van Dijk proved why he wears the armband with a towering 100th-minute header that sent the away end into raptures and kept Liverpool's Champions League hopes very much alive. The captain rose highest from a Dominik Szoboszlai corner to break Everton hearts at their shiny new Hill Dickinson Stadium.

It was the kind of moment that defines derbies. For 90 minutes this looked destined for a dreary stalemate that would have helped nobody. Liverpool had huffed and puffed without finding the breakthrough, trying the same corner routine time and again without success.

But patience is a virtue in football, and persistence pays off. In the tenth minute of eleven added on, Van Dijk finally got the better of James Tarkowski to nod home what could prove a season-defining goal.

The noise from the Liverpool end told its own story. This wasn't just three points, it was three massive points. Arne Slot's side are now firmly in the mix for European football next season, and momentum like this can carry teams over the line.

Everton will be gutted. Their new home deserved better than another late Liverpool sucker punch, but that's football in this part of the world. The venue changes but the script stays depressingly familiar for the blue half of Merseyside.

For Liverpool, games like this separate the good seasons from the great ones.

*Original reporting by Andy Hunter, The Guardian*