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Blues ride their luck in Anfield draw
Birmingham rode their luck to grab a 2-2 draw against Liverpool on Monday night to maintain their impressive recent form at Anfield.
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Everything appeared to be going swimmingly for the hosts when David Ngog smashed home a 13th-minute opener, but Christian Benitez's header made it 1-1 and in first-half injury time Cameron Jerome smashed home a 35-yard thunderbolt.
With the visitors ahead at the break it took a penalty from substitute and talisman Steven Gerrard to grab a deserved point for Rafa Benitez's men.
However two more dropped points, despite dominating against Birmingham, means the home side already trail leaders Chelsea by 11 points, while Birmingham made it just one defeat at Anfield in their last six visits.
Joe Hart had saved one Ngog effort before the France Under-21 striker gave Liverpool a 13th-minute lead.
Glen Johnson surged down the right, cutting between two defenders before crossing for Ngog to see his first effort blocked by Hart.
The ball flew to Dirk Kuyt, and again Hart got his legs in the way to deflect a firm effort.
But when the rebound dropped for Ngog, there was no mistake this time with a close-range volley into the roof of the net.
Liverpool had been cruising to this point, but Birmingham struck back with an impressive set-piece. James McFadden fired a free-kick into the box, Roger Johnson headed back across goal where Scott Dann nodded on for Ecuador striker Benitez to head past Jose Reina from close range for his first goal in English football.
And things got even better for the visitors in first-half stoppage time when Jerome shook off the attentions of Javier Mascherano to lash a swerving 35-yard effort into the roof of the net.
Gerrard, a 44th-minute substitute for the injured Albert Riera, almost pulled the home side level on the hour but his header from Johnson's cross clattered the foot of the post.
But Gerrard did level things up from the spot on 71 minutes, albeit fortuitously.
Ngog streaked into the area and under a challenge from Lee Carsley fell to the ground.
The replays showed no contact from Carsley, but referee Peter Walton pointed to the spot and Gerrard made it 2-2.
Yossi Benayoun was then denied by Hart and Gerrard lobbed the ball onto the roof of the net as Liverpool searched for a winner.
GERRARD19 : "...WOW I celebrated that Portsmouth goal like they were my team and I beleive they have enough quality to survive with the players they have. I only watched the last ten minutes so dont know how well they played throughout ..." view full comment
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Your Comments
ronaldoreds (Manchester United fan)
"liverpool_1986, just to correct your skewed observation, retrospective action is slowly being introduced, a la UEFA, and it's a matter of time before the FA adopts it.
And if you highlight Ronaldo (by the way, I believe you were trying to make the point of "3 dives per game", not "3 games per dive"... Suggest that you think rationally before commenting) as an example, then I believe retrospective action would have also banned Gerrard and Mascherano a collective of more than 100 games ! And in that case you wouldn't even have come close to being in the top 4 the last few seasons, let alone second last year !
So what's your point ? Anyway, as a fools fan, I believe it is ingrained in your psyche to think only retrospectively, just like rafa - "with 20/20 hindsight", "if only", etc... I may be paraphrasing, but the fat Spanish waiter has been using analogous terms for the last 5 years, and probably will be using it for the next 20 !"
liverpool_1986
"I think what the Utd fans are missing is that they are calling for retrospective action against Ngog so that he is banned for diving.
If retrospective action was brought into the game then Utd would be without most of their players for the whole season.
I believe there was a survey carried out which found if retrospective action was used then Ronaldo would have been banned for around 80 games while he was at Utd (3 games per dive)
And that would have meant no titles for Utd. You should all be praising the lack of retrospective action."
kopstick (Liverpool fan)
"Well done to Birmingham. The bus they parked in front of goal was too much of an obstacle for us to get around. Clearly we missed Torres who would definitely have put 1 or 2 away. These are the kinds of games we need to win to show our quality but nothing is coming off at the moment. I have no doubt that when it clicks it'll be the Liverpool show as we proved we could do it last year. No silverware this year, but all teams go through this once in a while."
ronaldoreds (Manchester United fan)
"So, I guess liverfool is "unlucky" again ??? And wow, the fat Spanish waiter even quoted 74% of domination.. May you lot continue to "dominate possession" and be "unlucky" every week then... Oh, by the way, he now has more injuries to use as excuses... LOL"
richardm (Birmingham City fan)
"Blues ride their luck??? Was this report written by a Liverpool fan per chance???"
alfried1983 (Tottenham Hotspur fan)
"all the liverpool fans calling for rafa's head, who do you think will want to come and replace him? work under that board? also you are the most fickle fans going. spurs got loads of stick when we got shot of Jol because he got us 5th twice. Rafa has done wonders with liverpool and now the chips are down you want him to go? what did you win in the ten years before rafa took over?"
bayoba1 (Arsenal fan)
"Thats it! Eastmond better than Diaby? I've had it with this forum! You guys are the worst fans ever! You arsenal fans always insist on running players out of the club. Two seasons ago, it was senderos, last season, adebayor and eboue and now, we're on diaby and bendtner! "
Devilz_4Life (Manchester United fan)
"How can a team who boast to be the best in England (LoserfoolFC) only collect 19 pts by playing 12 games? How can they not even qualify into the next round of the champions league? Simply superb results!!! Kudos... "
Devilz_4Life (Manchester United fan)
"What a great result. Everyone expected this result. No team is afraid of Loserfool anymore as their results speak for themselves. Can't wait for them to get kicked out of the FA Cup now or have they already got kicked out? What a really useless team of muppets and clowns... You'll Never Win Anything..."
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