Liverpool Draw In A Rough Night On English Teams

It was going to be tough for Liverpool last night, going down to this season’s fourth penalty against the club within 8 minutes against Porto. Going down, yes, but out - never, as Dirk Kuyt rallied to head home just ten minutes later and set up a great battle of a game which would see the clubs taking a share of the spoils.

A slippery pitch made life tricky in the early stages of the game as Porto piled on the pressure, going non-stop for the opening minutes before Pepe Reina was judged to have pulled down Sektioui in the box. Porto’s skipper Lucho Gonzalez had no problem in approaching the spot and converting, kicking straight up the middle and over Pepe Reina. Mistakes were plentiful in the first half but Liverpool turned it around in a flash on 17 minutes, Sami Hyypia directing Steve Finnan’s free kick over to Dirk Kuyt who did the honours and nodded into the Porto goal to draw the sides level.

That would be it for goal action but a battle would ensue on the pitch, both teams gunning for three points. While both sides tried however, most of the action lay in the middle of the park with both teams enjoying their fair share of play.

Liverpool were a changed side in the second half, a bit more “pep in their step” but Jermaine Pennant’s dismissal put the Reds back under pressure, playing with ten men for the last half hour of the game. Pennant had been booked midway through the first half for a challenge on Quaresma before he lost the head altogether, going in on a needless challenge against Fucil when he had no chance of winning the ball. The tackle would have been fine but he left the leg in, cleaned Fucil out of it and left the referee with no option but to issue a second yellow and give Pennant his marching orders.

No late minute winners, no last gasp goals, but the game turned around to provide a decent performance by Liverpool. Overall not good enough on the night, they should never have been in a position to give away a penalty in the opening stages of the game but what can you do - they battled back, Kuyt grabbed a goal, defended well with 10 men and came out unbeaten.

Skip over to Chelsea and they had a rough ride of it too, midway through the first half Rosenborg took the league when a free kick from the left of the area found the foot of Norwegian Miika Koppinen to poke the ball past Petr Cech and shock Chelsea into action. They couldn’t do the deed either though, coming away with a 1-1 draw with Andriy Shevchenko pulling one back for Chelsea in the second half.

Celtic too had a rough night of it, Gordon Strachan’s side going down 2-0 on the night in the Ukraine and in fairness it could have been worse for them. The loss last night makes it 13 away defeats for Celtic in Europe.

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