KUYT ON TARGET BUT REDS HELD Craig Bellamy dealt a blow to Liverpool's title chances as Man City earned a 1-1 draw at Anfield on Sunday afternoon. The former Red opened the scoring early in the second half before Dirk Kuyt equalised to leave Rafa Benitez contemplating a seven-point gap to leaders Man Utd.
With United scraping victory over Blackburn on Saturday tea-time, the pressure was very much on Liverpool, who found themselves eight points adrift despite just one defeat all season.
Benitez responded by selecting perhaps his strongest available side. With Xabi Alonso suspended and Steven Gerrard hamstrung, South American duo Lucas and Javier Mascherano were charged with stifling 12-goal Robinho in midfield. Fernando Torres and Kuyt, who between them scored all three goals in Liverpool's 3-2 victory at Eastlands in October, returned up front.
The game was preceded by some moving words from Kop old boy Brian Hall in tribute to pitchside announcer Phil Easton, whose death earlier this month stunned everyone at Liverpool Football Club and many more besides. Fittingly, Phil's baton has been passed, for 2008-09 at least, to Radio City colleague Peter McDowall.
With these sad formalities out of the way, Liverpool set about dominating their opponents pretty much from the word go. The hosts created three opportunities in the opening 10 minutes, the best of which fell to Torres after a lofted ball from Jamie Carragher was cut back by Yossi Benayoun. For once, the Spaniard's control let him down, and his shot was about as mis-placed as the story this week suggesting he fancied an appearance on Dancing on Ice.
Next, three Liverpool players failed to attack an inviting ball into the box from Andrea Dossena. There was similar confusion on 22 minutes when first Torres, then Riera failed to hit the target in the midst of a goalmouth scramble.
City were defending like a side with just one away win all season, but Liverpool's tally of missed chances was already totting up.
The visitors fired a warning shot on the half-hour mark when Stephen Ireland found Robinho with a 50-yard pass before surging forward to receive the ball in the penalty area. He needn't have bothered, for his shot was rifled straight into the chest of a grateful Pepe Reina.
Dossena then came close with a left-foot volley from distance, while Riera might have done better after Torres made a mug of Wayne Bridge down City's left.
El Nino was at the centre of everything Liverpool did, and it was he who fed Benayoun 18 yards out as half-time approached. The Israeli couldn't keep his shot down, while minutes later Kuyt headed wide to leave the game in stalemate as Phil Dowd signalled for the interval.
As has been the case all too often this season, Anfield was having to be patient. What the patrons didn't expect was a goal at the wrong end from a man once brought to Merseyside to win us the title. In curling a shot beyond Reina via the feet of Alvaro Arbeloa, Bellamy dealt a potentially devastating blow to Liverpool's championship ambitions.
It took almost 15 minutes for the home side to recover after Riera was replaced by Nabil El Zhar. The little Moroccan, so effective from the bench in the early part of the season, whipped a lovely ball towards Torres only for Richard Dunne to get there first.
It would take Liverpool until the 78th minute to wrestle an equaliser out of their increasingly resilient opponents when Benayoun struck a low cross into the box which, after a mis-hit shot from Torres, was rolled into the Kop net by Kuyt.
The Dutch international almost got his second five minutes later with a thunderous drive from 25 yards which Shay Given could only parry.
City's goalkeeper saved his new teammates again seconds later when El Zhar's cross was headed across the face of goal by Torres to Benayoun, who half-volleyed too close to Given.
Kuyt nearly produced a winner with a turn and shot but it wasn't to be and Liverpool now have a mountain to climb if this is to be the season when we win our 19th league title. Teams Liverpool: Reina, Dossena, Carragher (captain), Skrtel, Arbeloa, Riera, Mascherano, Leiva, Benayoun, Torres, Kuyt. Subs - Hyypia, El Zhar, Babel, Ngog, Cavalieri, Aurelio, Spearing
Manchester City: Given, Bridge, Dunne (captain), Onuoha, Richards, Ireland, Kompany, De Jong, Zabaleta, , Bellamy. Subs - Vassell, Hart, Blumer, Weiss, Caicedo, Evans, Garrido
Referee: Phil Dowd
Conditions: Mild
Attendance: Unknown
Liverpoolfc.tv Man-of-the-Match: Yossi Benayoun
Breakdown 15:03 GMT : Match Starts
1 min : Man City get the game underway attacking the Kop end
2 mins : Big shout out to Pete McDowell who has taken over from the late Phil Easton as pitchside announcer until the end of the season
4 mins : A fine run and cross from Arbeloa ends with Riera heading wide of target
9 mins : Carra clips a long ball towards Yossi but his touch off is fired high, wide and not so handsome by El Nino
10 mins : Benayoun does well to feed Kuyt on the right but his low ball in is brilliantly hacked clear by Dunne at the near post. Promising stuff from the Reds
14 mins : Dossena outwits ex-red Bellamy to earn the home side a goal kick. Needless to say Craig has had sometihng to say about it
15 mins : A quarter of an hour in and the pattern looks set with LFC probing and City looking to hit us on the break
17 mins : A flowing move involving Yossi and Lucas finishes with Dossena flashing a low ball straight across the middle of the City area. Someone should have been on the end of that
18 mins : Free-kick to the Reds on the edge of the area
19 mins : Benayoun curls an effort straight into the wall with the rebound coming to nothing
22 mins : The pressure is mounting. Arbeloa and Riera both sent over dangerous crosses that eventually led to a corner. From the right-wing delivery City somehow managed to survive with Riera coming close to stabbing home on the line
27 mins : Nice to see a couple of Reds legends taking in the game at Anfield today in the shape of King Kenny and Phil Thompson. Thommo is sporting an impressive tan!
30 mins : City should be ahead. The lull in the game comes to an explosive end as Ireland hits a long ball to Robinho before making up the ground to strike a tame effort at Reina. He then hits the rebound into the side netting. A great chance for the visitors
32 mins : First Booking: Richard Dunne:
35 mins : Dossena forces Given into action with a long range drive
37 mins : A lightning break sees Torres race beyond Bridge and cut the ball back for Riera, but the winger can't provide the finish as he fires narrowly wide
39 mins : The game has been halted while Richards receives treatment for a head injury
40 mins : The England man is back on and we are underway again
42 mins : Torres turns brilliantly and plays in Yossi but the Israel international smashes the ball way over the top of Given's goal
43 mins : City earn a corner that Reina just about manages to punch clear
45 mins : Two minutes of stoppage time
15:50 GMT : Half Time Reached
16:11 GMT : Second Half Begins
48 mins : GOAL! Craig Bellamy:
51 mins : The Reds are up against it now. The Welshman hit a well struck shot that touched off Arbeloa and flew into the corner of Reina's net
54 mins : As it stands Man United will remain eight points clear at the top having played the same number of matches as us
56 mins : There is a serious sense of frustration inside Anfield. The Kop is doing its best to try and boost the players
58 mins : Torres heads a corner high into the Kop
60 mins : Ireland curls a shot over the top after a clever City counter attack
63 mins : Substitution: Nabil El Zhar for Albert Riera:
65 mins : Substitute El Zhar almost makes an immediate impact but Torres can't get there ahead of Dunne to turn his cross home
66 mins : Almost curtains for LFC. A cross shot hits Ireland and trickles into the net... the sight of the referee's assistant's flag brings with it a huge sigh of relief from the home support
69 mins : Robinho is tripped right on the edge of the Liverpool penalty area. Danger here...
70 mins : The Brazilian fires a shot just wide of the post and somehow manages to convince the ref it's a corner
71 mins : It's all City at the moment
74 mins : First Booking: Vincent Kompany:
76 mins : First Booking: Nabil El Zhar:
76 mins : Substitution: Fabio Aurelio for Andrea Dossena:
78 mins : GOAL! Dirk Kuyt:
79 mins : Kuyt levels with 12 minutes remaining after Torres miscued Benayoun's cross into his path. Game on.
81 mins : The game has completely changed and the Reds now have their tails up
83 mins : Substitution: Ryan Babel for Javier Mascherano:
85 mins : Shay Given produces a miracle save to keep out Benayoun. LFC are pushing
87 mins : Kuyt fires one inches wide after taking Arbeloa's pass on the turn
88 mins : Substitution: Felipe Caicedo for Robinho :
90 mins : City have a free-kick as we enter the final moments
90 mins : Reina claims and the Reds launch one of their last attacks. Seven points behind the leaders unless we can snatch another last-gasp win against Mark Hughes' men
90 mins : Three minutes of stoppage time
16:56 GMT : Match Over |
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