Both teams were on the dreadful run and a lot more was at stake during this Miseryside derby match. The match was not pretty to watch as Rafa persisted with his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation whilst Moyes’ Everton preferred long balls into the Liverpool penalty box. B
Rafa’s preferred line was Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Agger, Insua, Kuyt, Mascherano, Lucas, Aurelio, Gerrard and Ngog which was unchanged since our last match in the Champions League against Debrecen.
It was fiery encounter but it never lived up to its pre-match hype of being the derby match with the most red cards. Most important observation during the match – we wanted to win badly and at times, it looked like the players were willing to die trying!
Everton used their long ball tactics very well and their biggest threats being Cahill and the afro guy called Fellaini attacking the balls into the centre. Mostly our defence stood firm although there were a couple of half chances carved out by the Merseyside Blues (sounds like playing PES series!!!)
Everton had the first chance when Bilyaletdinov missed a kicked an open chance early in the first half. But in one of the rarest moments, Mascherano ran the ball into blue territory and unleashed a shot from 25 yards albeit off-target but it took a wicked deflection off the out-stretched foot of Joseph Yobo and took the ball away from a diving Tim Howard in goal.
Kudos to Everton though, they never let their heads drop after the goal and in fact doubled their efforts and had spells of possession and control but could not convert their half chances as our backline stood firm.
Just before half time, Jo twice thought scored a goal but was correctly adjudged to be in an off-side position and was denied an equalizer. In a rare foray into blue territory, Johnson crossed into the penalty box and Insua almost scored except for the strong palm of Howard in goal to deny what would be the Argentine’s first premiership goal.
On the 70th minute, Pepe Reina did a double save ala Dudek @ Istanbul by first denying Cahill’s header on the 6 yard box and immediately getting up to deny the follow-up from the unmarked Fellaini from 3 yards to the screams of frustrations from the Everton fans and applause from the Liverpool fans.
Benayoun had replaced Ngog and shortly after, in counter-attack, Riera’s cross found Kuyt who tried to flicked on for Gerrard but was cut out by Yobo albeit with a sliced clearance which found Gerrard with Hibbert following him. However, Gerrard managed to toe poke the ball back to Riera who unleashed a stinging shot which Howard could only parry to Kuyt who immediately follow-up with the tap-in. The goal basically killed off the match and secured the 2 points and Liverpool managed to secured their second consecutive clean sheet.
The most important thing during the match was the 3 points and a clean sheet which were achieved after the horrendous run the previous weeks.
Next up - Ewood Park against Blackburn
MyRAWK
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