Mascherano celebrates the reds opening goal
Liverpool inflicted further misery on their local neighbours with a 2-0 victory with goals at either end of the game.
Fernando Torres was still unavailable for the reds who opted with the same team who won against Debrecen in mid week.
The game was on the whole a lifeless affair. The reds went ahead in the 11th minute – when a Javier Mascherano shot took a deflection and went past Tim Howard in the blues goal.
The reds were nervous mid-week when they took the lead in Hungary and here was no different. Everton pushed hard to get the equaliser and did manage to put the ball in Liverpool’s net before it was correctly disallowed for offside.
The reds eventually got a foothold back on the game in the final 5 minutes of the first half.
The second half started with Everton strong on the attack. Some defensive frailties caused Liverpool to give away needless corners and free kicks but the reds kept them at bay.
A fantastic double save from Pepe Reina signalled the turning point in the game. A couple of Liverpool changes, Yossi on for N’gog and Riera (making his 50th reds appearance) on for Aurelio.
Despite being a peripheral figure for most of the game, Steven Gerrard was involved with the reds second goal which Dirk Kuyt put in to the net to wrap up the game.
Everton’s players looked beaten, the Toffee’s fans headed towards the exits and Liverpool move to within 3 points of 3rd place in the Premier League.
Post Match Comments
Rafael Benitez:
“It was a great victory – everybody is really pleased. Today we worked so hard – they were tough and pushing and we did our job in defence and we had to play counter-attack.”
Stats
Possession: 48%
Shots: 9 (7 on target) [Everton – 12(8 on target)]
Corners: 4 [Everton – 6]
Teams
Liverpool: Reina, Carragher, Agger, Insua, Johnson, Kuyt, Leiva, Mascherano, Gerrard, Aurelio (Riera), Ngog (Benayoun)
Unused subs: Cavalieri, Aquilani, El Zhar, Skrtel
Goals: Yobo own goal (12), Kuyt (80)
Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Baines, Yobo (Neill 86), Heltinga, Bilyaletdinov, Heltinga, Distin, Pienaar, Cahill (Yakubu 82), Fellaini, Jo (Saha 66)
Unused subs: Nash, Coleman, Gosling, Baxter
Booked: Heltinga
Ref: Wiley
Att: 39,652
Our Man of the Match
His double save probably ensured we went on to win the game. Pepe Reina.
I’d sooner be a RED than a bluenose bitter any day of the week, even if you tried to change my mind with a huge wad of cash, in a credit crunch, before Christmas with no job and debts up to my earholes. That’s what it means to be a TRUE RED so shove it all you Rafa Bashers and go and support that pile of s***e across Stanley Park who ain’t going anywhere fast. We had a party at their crap stadium yesterday and they were the hosts! Crap stadium, crap team, crap prospects, just CRAP! Crappy Christmas Bitter Bluenoses…
WE ARE THE RED MEN 2-0! HA HA HA HA!
Some good comments from all and all valid points.
It was a relief to get through this game with a win, as they hate us so much,Its untrue.
Gerrard was the worse player on the pitch for us and didnt lead by example.
He seemed lost and all alone when he got the ball .I guess the blue gingers fans got to him.
Anyway lets be positive we won and we couldnt have played any worse.
Lucky for them we were so bad otherwise it could have been 5 or 6 – 0 for us.
Lets go forward now RED MEN and try to be positive, we are better than we have been lately so must now show it with good wins,things looked a lot better when our 2 subs come on and will probably start in our next game plus Torres.
Toffees 0 Reds 2
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
I feel Rafa is on borrowed time, out of 3 competitions and LFC are gonna have to really fight for 4th place i’m afraid. The other teams around us have much stronger players in depth. The performance was well under par yet we did win, it’s not good enough, we have to win with excellent performances from everyone and not just rely on 2.3 or 4 players.
Is Aquilani fit or what? or is he another expensive bench player? I for one would love to see him play a full 90mins he was a great player for Roma.
Real Madrid lost last night so i think someone will be knocking on Rafas door very soon, will he or wont he be on his way if Real agree a fee, remains to be seen. I think he maybe tempted just to get away from the 2 Idiots upstairs. If he does stay he will but only if there is more money in the kitty BUT NEEDS TO SPEND IT WISELY
YNWA, In rafa we trust.
The season is over still i’m feeling a bit better after this labouring victory.Not pretty to watch but we deserved some luck after our recent performances.Didn’t play very well but will take 0-2 any day of the week!.
mash was at his best today but was alone.
time to win ugly now and forget the pretty football if we cary this in to next 2 game we wil be 4th again .
lightly agree that Gerrard was not on top form today but to be fair other than Reina and Mash who really played well today? Great great win I’m so happy for the boys and the team we’re in a decent position now get Nando back and we’ll be flying
Once again we narrowly scrape a win. Lack of creativity is a real worry. Only started to look decent when Kuyt went up top and Yossi and Albert were introduced to the flanks. Why have 2 holding midfielders when we are crying out for some spark in the middle of the park?
Result was the only good thing about todays shambolic perfomance against a rubbish everton team who will be fighting relegation this season. We are goin from bad to worse with this muppett benitez.
Please leave now & allow a new man a chance of salvaging something from another crap mediocre season. Ohh and another thing Benitez stop making excuses !!!
Don’t believe you are a Liverpool fan. If you are then you are the worst type of knee-jerking phone-in ringing fan.
3 points off 3rd place with just over the third of a season gone will do me.
The performance wasn’t great but we got all 3 points in a derby.
Get behind the lads or go and support Arsenal who play ‘lovely’ football and yet have only managed to get 2 points more than us so far. Hmm…
Well said.
The knee jerk thread is in the forum………….
Muppett a bit harsh, but yeah mediorce perfomance yet again, I do see creative midfield spark missing again. Too defensive and no offensive untill the wingers came on
Hue you are obviously not a die hard koppite who goes to every game, yes Benitez makes silly decisions sometimes but he cannot do his job with the funds he has compared to other teams like man city. if he did we would be way up there and his dedication to liverpool is second to none. he needs our support right now and doesnt need people like you having a go. yanks out 1st
who do you suggest?
benitez is the right man for the job. im pig sick of hearing this sort of nonsense, because we over achieved last season. face it, thats what we did. we dont have a big enough squad to challenge for the premiership. we have the smallest wage bill out of chavski, manshiited, arsenal, man shity and possible tottenham. we might well have three of the finest players in world playing for us. it dont count for shit if two of them spend most the season on the bench. we dont have money and people like you need to stop living in the past. it didnt stop forrest from going down.
well another 3 points now we are on a roll ,in spite of a listless display. please dont play gerrad if he is not 100%. But now in the top 5 so that gives us motivation. we need torres though. he can dominate games when he is in top form
But we havent got Torres though, so we are a ordinary side with no spark, worrying times
Yes, good result but lack the spark. We have to get another forward, Ngog bascially do nothing, get the ball either lose it or pass to wrong player. He is too light weight, we need player with power & skill.