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Liverpool Draw With Luton, Replay On The Cards

Just shy of a two years ago today, Liverpool beat Luton Town 5-3 in the same fixture. When the final whistle went, you’d wonder what the presence of Steven Gerrard, Pepe Reina and Fernando Torres would have done for Liverpool today, the Reds tying 1-1 with Luton Town in the FA Cup.

The result is perfect for cash-strapped Luton who will be totting up potential gate receipts from an Anfield FA Cup clash that is likely to feature a stronger Liverpool side.

When it comes to the FA Cup, you can never discount the smaller sides - in some cases there’s no such thing as a “smaller side”. For 90 minutes on a particular day, each team takes on a new persona, such is the way with the premier domestic trophy in the UK. While on paper it should have been a clear win for Liverpool, it wasn’t the case on the pitch.

The first half presented several chances for both sides and could have easily seen Luton going into the half with the lead but for Charles Itandje. The second half would yield more of the same until shortly after the 70 minute mark when Peter Crouch found himself facing an empty net, no hesitation in slotting the ball home.

1-0 to Liverpool and with 13 minutes remaining in the game, everything looked rosy. Andriy Voronin had come on to the pitch, been involved in the setup for the first goal but the joy was shortlived, John Arne Riise helping the ball into the back of the Liverpool net to tie the game with those 13 minutes remaining. Dave Edwards will likely take the credit for the goal that set up the replay but Riise certainly helped in it.

The replay is set for Tuesday week, January 15th, 8pm at Anfield.

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Liverpool Team Vs Luton (FA Cup)

January brings with it new beginnings, and Liverpool start their FA Cup run today. Anything short of a convincing win by the Reds over Luton would be disappointing.

The last time the sides clashed there were goals everywhere - for both teams. Hopefully Charles Itandje can stop Luton getting past him this afternoon.

Rafa has again rang in the big changes, a lot coming in the form of injuries to Steven Gerrard, Alvaro Arbeloa and Fabio Aurelio. Alvaro’s absence sees Sami Hyypia return from injury, joining skipper for the day, Jaime Carragher in the back. Lucas Leiva joins Xabi Alonso in the heart of midfield while Dirk Kuyt starts up front alongside Peter Crouch. Pepe Reina and Fernando Torres enjoy the day off.

The team in full looks like this -

Charles Itandje, Steve Finnan, John Arne Riise, Jamie Carragher, Sami Hyypia, Lucas, Xabi Alonso, Yossi Benayoun, Ryan Babel, Peter Crouch and Dirk Kuyt. On the bench are David Martin, Jack Hobbs, Javier Mascherano, El Zhar and Andriy Voronin.

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Blogging Returns, Wigan Take A Point

I’m back after an internetless Christmas break (almost two weeks) in which Liverpool have disappointed a bit and let their hold on league leaders Arsenal slip further away.

Tonight, Liverpool had the task of hosting Wigan in a late kick off and it’s finished a 1-1, Torres opening the scoring early in the second half with the help of Stevens’ Finnan and Gerrard before Titus Bramble bagged a leveller for Steve Bruce’s side with ten minutes to go.

The win is the first time that Wigan have taken a point against Liverpool and any one of the top four Premier League sides and leaves us 12 points off the lead with just a single game in hand.

Poor defending gifted Bramble the opportunity to level the scores late in the game with Sami Hyypia again missing from the defence, along with Daniel Agger whose return at this stage can’t come quick enough.

The first half of the game was reasonable enough, a few chances for both sides but nothing major and the break of the game welcome on arrival. Whatever was said at half time did the trick in the opening minutes of the second half, Torres laying off to Gerrard who hooked up with Steve Finnan, returning the ball for Torres to fire home for his 16th of the season. Next thing you know, it’s the 80 minute mark and Titus Bramble is free on the edge of the box to rifle home Steven Gerrard’s clearance. Disaster.

The introduction of Kuyt and / or Crouch should have come earlier in the game than it did, preferably straight after the first goal with a chance to move on for a second but in the end there wasn’t enough time to get any chance together to redeem the game.

So much for a bright start to the New Year.

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Carling Cup: No Gerrard or Reina, Alonso Starts

We’re just over 20 minutes off kick off and Liverpool have nine changes in the team to face Chelsea tonight. Steven Gerrard is out, Pepe Reina is out and Xabi Alonso makes a welcome return to the first team.

Not only does Alonso line up in midfield but he’ll find Lucas and Momo Sissoko alongside him while Peter Crouch and Andriy Voronin start up front. For Chelsea’s part, John Terry is out of action until February and Michael Ballack makes a return to the side. Liverpool with nine changes and Chelsea with seven changes, should make for an interesting game.

The Liverpool team looks like this: Itandje, Arbeloa, Aurelio, Hobbs, Carragher, Alonso, Lucas, Sissoko, Babel, Voronin, Crouch. One the bench are David Martin, Sami Hyypia, John Arne Riise, El Zhar, Yossi Benayoun.

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Will Xabi Feature Against Chelsea?

It was hoped that Xabi Alonso would make an appearance against Man United at the weekend but it wasn’t to be. Now, the Liverpool echo is reporting the the Spaniard is in line for an appearance against Chelsea tomorrow night.

Liverpool travel to Stamford Bridge tomorrow night to take on Chelsea in the last of the “big games” of the year. While the performance against United was decent, Chelsea have been enjoying quite a good spell under Avram Grant (unbeaten in seventeen games) and need to be ruthless against the Londoners on Wednesday.

While Javier Mascherano has stepped up to the plate with some quality performances in recent weeks, Xabi’s presence has been missed in the Liverpool midfield and squad overall. Hopefully some time on the pitch against Chelsea can help reverse the unfortunate loss against United at the weekend.

Recent games (Reading, Marseille and United) have put the regulars in the first team to the test. Alonso hasn’t played first team football since the Arsenal game back in October so any addition to the squad at this time of the year (four games to play in December alone, including tomorrow night) would be welcome. Hopefully we’ll see Steven Finnan back in action as well after missing some time on the pitch, but we’re going to have to wait another while before seeing Daniel Agger back in action.

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Where Did It Go Wrong At Anfield?

One chance on goal was all they got, exploiting an error in defence, and Man United come out winners against Liverpool. Not only that, but Arsenal moved further on up the charts with three points for their efforts against Chelsea. Where did it go wrong at Anfield?

Liverpool were the dominant team, certainly moreso in the second half of the game but chances could not be converted into goals no matter how hard they tried. The goal, by Carlos Tevez just near the stroke of half time, means our first loss of the season at Anfield, we rest in fifth place and coming into the holiday period we’re now four wins off Arsenal and United, a full ten points back.

It’s hard to point at where it went wrong, both sides made their defensive blunders but the corner from Giggs out to Rooney was a shot, space was made in the box and Tevez got his poachers goal. One chance, well taken, one goal. Had Jamie Carragher stood up instead of lunging at Rooney’s strike would it have made a difference? If Reina had stayed behind Tevez would it have made a difference? Though if Tevez was picked up in the first place it would have, but there you go.

Liverpool had their chances too, Torres failing to convert a header for a sure goal in the first half while Dirk Kuyt was just a fraction too slow to slice the ball into the net when Van der Sar had almost cleaned out his own defence with one move.

Press and press, no real chances could come in the second half. Ryan Babel came on for Harry Kewell on the 65th minute and opened up a new avenue for Liverpool with a nice injection of pace down the left flank. Babel too came within inches of scoring with a long range strike that just zipped to the outside of the right post but that would be the height of Liverpool’s goal-scoring opportunities in the second half.

Reina remained relatively untested and although United came away with the 3 points there was nothing between the sides, not a thing.

There were some positives for the squad in the performances by Mascherano throughout the entire game and Babel for the second half. Hopefully it will continue into Chelsea on Wednesday night. We’ve got Portsmouth, Derby and fourth-placed Man City to deal with before December is out, there’s nine points for the taking right there.

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Liverpool Face United Today

Surely our late run of form in the Champions League, especially four goals against Marseille can carry forward to today as Liverpool take on United at lunch time.

I won’t be live blogging the game (as much as I’d love to) as I’ll be firmly rooted to a bar stool and screaming at the TV in my local as Liverpool try extend their unbeaten league run at Anfield.

We’ve only managed to beat United once since Rafa arrived at Anfield but hopefully that’s all about to change today. Fernando Torres is on fire, Gerrard and Mascherano look great in midfield, Xabi Alonso may make a return and barring the defeat against Reading, the backline are solid and brimming with confidence. Defensively this season, United have conceded just eight goals (Liverpool nine) but 6 of those eight have come on the road in the league, another factor hopefully playing in our favour, though Torres will certainly have his work cut out for him.

It’s hard to call who’s going to start up front against United, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Torres and Kuyt. That said, going up against a solid English defence it would be nice to have Peter Crouch’s height in the box to bounce off the pace of Torres, especially when you’ve the likes of Rio Ferdinand staring back at you.

For his part, Harry Kewell did well against Marseille and I’d expect him to keep his place out of the left. He looks like he’s enjoying the link-up play with Torres so long may it continue.

While Xabi Alonso looks like he might return at some point in the game for Liverpool, Steve Finnan is still an injury doubt so Alvaro Arbeloa should keep his place in the side. John O’Shea too looks like he’ll be missing so at least we know there’s no chance of a late odd goal from the Waterford man.

If Chelsea beat Arsenal later today then even a draw would send United to the top of the table. We need to beat United to move back into fourth, leaving us three points off United in second place and still with a game in hand. Chelsea could still beat Arsenal, leap frog United into second place but I’d be happier with a draw in London this afternoon.

While the loss to Reading was shoved to the back of peoples minds ahead of the Marseille clash, the loss of three points in the league comes back to the front today, a win there and a win against United today could possibly have left us in second place in the table come the final whistle today, still with that vital game in hand.

But, such is football.

Kick off is 1:30pm, let me know during the game or post match what you think of the events at Anfield.

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Will Xabi Return Against United?

With United on the horizon for the “Super Sunday” (us against United, Arsenal against Chelsea), there’s some good news coming that Xabi Alonso may well feature in the game.

He’s been kept out of action for some time, along with Daniel Agger (both with metatarsal injuries) and while Agger is likely to miss a few more games, Alonso looks set to return.

Rafa Benitez has dubbed him “physically” fit and outside of his skill, it is his physical presence and ability that would be of great benefit to Liverpool in the must-win game this weekend. Javier Mascherano seems fine after the knock he took during the Marseille game, as does Gerrard and Lucas so if Xabi is declared fit then I doubt we’ll be seeing Momo Sissoko for quite some time.

Liverpool’s only other injury worry at the moment looks to be Steven Finnan, Alvaro Arbeloa likely to keep his place in the team this weekend.

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Liverpool Qualify For Knockout Stages

A couple of weeks ago, Liverpool were in a position where they needed to win their remaining three games. One point and two goals in three games left Liverpool bottom of Group A.

Eight goals against Besiktas, four goals against Porto and now four goals against a dreadful Marseille tonight means Liverpool qualify as Group A runners up.

Liverpool were strong, they didn’t show buckets of flair on the pitch, but the challenges were good, the passing was good, and the finishing was there when it needed to be.

Everything started with the first goal, Steven Gerrard converting from the spot inside four minutes. Fernando Torres followed up just under eight minutes later to make it 2-0 and compound the poor start by Marseille.

When it came to half time, Marseille hadn’t tested Reina, hadn’t a shot on target and were sloppy all over the pitch. Samir Nasri’s introduction after a half hour went to waste, Djibril Cisse’s half time introduction didn’t amount to anything concrete but at that stage, the French Ligue 1 side had rolled all the dice and were coming up a dud.

It took three minutes of the second half for Dirk Kuyt to find the net, Harry Kewell picking out the Dutchman loose in the box to fire home Liverpool’s third, before substitute Ryan Babel made it 4-0, getting the better of Faty at the back to round the ‘keeper and finish off with pure ease.

Marseille will head to the UEFA Cup but if they carry on like tonight, they won’t be getting very far. With 64% of the possession and four up front in the second half, they still couldn’t force a save out of Pepe Reina.

Liverpool, on the other hand, advance to the knockout stages and are likely to face top class opposition in the last sixteen with Real Madrid and Barcelona on the cards.

Up next comes Man United, then onto Chelsea, but for tonight we’ve qualified for the next round of the Champions League and that’s what matters.

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Live: Two Up At Half Time

All it took was twelve minutes. A Steven Gerrard penalty in the fourth minute and a Fernando Torres gem in the twelfth minute has give Liverpool a 2-0 lead at the break.

In Portugal, Porto are currently leading Besiktas by a single goal which would put Porto top of the group and Liverpool currently in second place.

The opening touch of the game could have been bad news for Gerrard, buckling under a hefty challenge within the opening seconds, but he recovered to cruise all the way to the box and win a penalty. Missing the actual penalty itself, Gerrard had no hesitation in firing away the rebound for the first goal.

When Harry Kewell set Fernando Torres through for the second goal, Marseille were visibly deflated.

They haven’t solidly tested Pepe Reina at this stage of the game, the closest being repeated offside calls. Marseille were forced into a change of tactics a half hour in, trying to inject some pace into the game with Samir Nasri coming off the bench but so far to no avail.

Everything going smoothly at this stage, but still no time for complacency. All things considered, there’s another goal in this for Liverpool if they grab it and it will be all roads leading straight to the last sixteen.

[Pic via Getty Images against Marseille in first leg]

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