Liverpool went the same way as United, Spurs, Chelsea and Man City, in leaving St Andrews with a solitary point.
In a game that took until the second half to ignite Liverpool will rue some glorious opportunities that could have helped them to all three points.
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After the Thursday night pain in Benfica which saw the reds reduced to ten men for over an hour, there were going to be changes for this game.
Mascherano and Daniel Agger both making way for Sotirios Kyrgiakos and the returning Maxi Rodriguez. Steven Gerrard again moved back to central midfield as the reds returned to a 4-4-2 formation, a formation many of the fans have been asking for.
Whatever the motives, it didn’t work in the first half. Steven Gerrard yet again spent most of the game watching the game roll by and with Torres starved of service the attacker found himself chasing amonst the Birmingham back line looking for scraps.
Not that there were too many chances for Birmingham – the whole first half was a game in which defences were on top.
The best effort of the half arrived to Maxi Rodriguez who with a stunning half volley saw his shot tipped on to the cross-bar by the in-form Joe Hart, in the Birmingham goal.
The second half provided a little more entertainment.
Within two minutes an abysmal shot by Glen Johnson, landed at Gerrard’s feet. He turned Lee Bowyer and fired, at an angle, in to the back of the net.
But the reds lead didn’t even last ten minutes, when sloppy defending saw McFadden cross and the unmarked Ridgewell bundle the ball over the line with his thigh.
Torres, who had been ineffective all game, was brought off and despite the bewildered looks of Steven Gerrard, the substitutions changed the game around as Liverpool went on to dominate the final 20 minutes.
A Gerrard shot was tipped over, Maxi Rodriguez went close, Ryan Babel could have done better by passing instead of firing at the side netting and David N’gog had three solid chances, one of them almost certainly would have been a goal if he hadn’t have put the ball narrowly wide.
Liverpool take a point when they were hoping for all three. Liverpool are running out of games if they want to enter the preliminary round of the Champions League. If they don’t the pressure on the owners could be too much.
Our Man of the Match: Maxi Rodriguez
Post Match Comments
Rafa Benitez
“We have to keep going, we were talking before the game about maybe winning five and draw one, so now we have to win five.
“We didn’t have any margin for error beforehand and now we have less margin in terms of coming fourth.
“But it depends on the other teams and how they do as well. We have to believe we can win all our remaining games and have confidence the other sides will lose.
“We just have to keep going because there are still a lot of points to play for.”