 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Home | This season | The LFC | LFC History | LFC Stats & Facts | LFC Euro & World | List All Match | The Derby | History LFC Shirts | LFC Collectables & Other | Hillsborough |
| Liverpool 4 - 1 Portsmouth | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
LIVERPOOL
4-1 PORTSMOUTH: THE REPORT Liverpool have made the perfect start to their festive programme with a well deserved 4-1 victory over Portsmouth at Anfield. The game was all but over as a contest inside the first quarter of an hour as the Reds raced into a two goal lead thanks to a Yossi Benayoun volley and an own goal from Sylvain Distin, and although Pompey reduced the deficit shortly after the break top scorer Fernando Torres struck a brilliant double to end hopes of an unlikely comeback to seal the points with his thirteenth and fourteenth goals of the campaign. The victory means Liverpool avoid falling further behind leaders Arsenal who triumphed in the north London derby earlier in the day while ensuring they returned to winning ways after two straight defeats in the league. With Portsmouth arriving on Merseyside on the back of six consecutive away victories this had all the makings of a banana skin of a fixture for the home side, especially after high profile losses to Manchester United and Chelsea over the past week. But any fears about another difficult 90 minutes for the Reds were dismissed after just sixteen minutes when the points were secured thanks to a brace of goals. Yossi Benayoun grabbed the early breakthrough with a crisp volleyed finish from Harry Kewell's well flighted cross; his right footed effort flying past David James and into the back of the Anfield Road net. It got even better for the Reds three minutes later when Sylvain Distin joined in the festive spirit and gift-wrapped a present in the shape of an own goal when central defensive colleague Sol Campbell blasted the ball against his legs when under pressure from Fernando Torres. Pompey offered surprisingly little during a one sided but low key first half as Liverpool comfortably held on to their two goal advantage before the break. Harry Redknapp introduced Kanu at the start of the second half and the move paid dividends within ten minutes as he created the goal which gave the visitors a lifeline in the match. Kanu's floated ball to the far post found Benjani whose control took the ball away from Sami Hyypia and his left footed drive gave Pepe Reina no chance as it flew past the Reds' goalkeeper at his near post. With Portsmouth threatening an unlikely recovery Benitez sent Ryan Babel on in place of Benayoun and his arrival brought an immediate reward as Liverpool regained their two goal lead within a minute. Javier Mascherano's defence splitting pass caused confusion in the Pompey defence with Babel challenging David James, and when the ball broke free to Torres he made no mistake with a composed finish into the corner of the Kop net. The Spanish star increased his personal tally and put the gloss on Liverpool's performance with the best goal of the game four minutes from time. Jamie Carragher's cross to the far post was headed back into the danger zone by Steven Gerrard to Torres who made no mistake with a brilliant left footed volley which nestled in the right hand corner of the goal. Teams Liverpool: Reina, Riise, Hyypia, Carragher, Arbeloa, Kewell, Gerrard (captain), Mascherano, Benayoun, Torres, Kuyt. Subs - Itandje, Voronin, Aurelio, Babel, Leiva. Portsmouth: James, Hreidarsson, Campbell (captain), Distin, Johnson, Kranjcar, Mendes, Diop, Muntari, Mwaruwari, Utaka. Subs - Taylor, Begovic, Kanu, Nugent, Lauren. Referee: Mike Riley Conditions: Cold Attendance: Unknown Liverpoolfc.tv Man-of-the-Match: Javier Mascherano Breakdown 15:00 GMT : Match Starts 1 min : Portsmouth get the game underway attacking the Kop end. 2 mins : Arsenal's win over Spurs makes this a must-win match for the Reds. 3 mins : Pompey are enjoying early pressure 4 mins : Good play down the left involving Gerrard and Kuyt. This is more like it. 5 mins : Mascherano has our first real effort on goal but he is well off target from 25 yards 7 mins : Gerrard releases Torres down the left but Campbell is across to snuff out the danger. Corner to Liverpool. 7 mins : Unlucky Redmen. Kewell fires inches wide after some good play by Kuyt. 8 mins : Diop finds space for Pompey but fires straight at Reina from 20 yards. It's a bright opening 10 mins : Torres powers down cuts it back to Kuyt who somehow misses from six yards out 11 mins : Geln Johnson is down following that chance. The stretcher is on and it looks serious 12 mins : Lauren is ready to come on for Pompey 13 mins : He's sat back down now and Liverpool will take their corner which is well claimed by James 13 mins : GOAL! Yossi Benayoun: 15 mins : Well that's warmed me up! That's the way to spread some festive cheer. 16 mins : Own Goal! Sylvain Distin: 18 mins : What a bizarre goal. The perfect Xmas gift! 21 mins : First Booking: Papa Bouba Diop: 22 mins : It's all happening out there. Gerrard had a good effort fly just wide and Kewell nearly sent Torres clear but the linesman's flag intervened 24 mins : The Pompey fans are taunting the crowd for a lack of volume 25 mins : To be fair, their team hasn't given them much to shout about just yet 26 mins : The away side are enjoying their best spell of the half but Pepe Reina remains untested in the Liverpool goal 28 mins : Rafa's out the dugout closely followed by Joe Jordan for Pompey. He doesn't look happy! 29 mins : Kuyt plays a superb overhead pass to Stevie G but Sol Campbell recovers to stop the skipper just as he was about to shoot 31 mins : The confidence is back in the Liverpool team. Be sure to check out some of the flicks on show when you watch the re-run of the match on LFC TV 32 mins : Great challenge by Sami 30 yards from the away team's goal. What's he doing up there? 34 mins : First Booking: Hermann Hreidarsson: 35 mins : Fernando looks well up for this. He's frightening the life out of Campbell and co. 36 mins : Yossi cuts in from the right but fires his shot into the near post side netting 38 mins : Glen Johnson seems to have made a miraculous recovery. At one point he was on a stretcher about to be subbed but now he's tussling with Riise down the Liverpool left. 40 mins : Dirk Kuyt lashes an ambitious volley wide of James' goal after good link up play with Benayoun 42 mins : Pompey have a great away record but at the moment it's all Liverpool 45 mins : First Booking: Alvaro Arbeloa: 44 mins : The away fans are singing they will win 3-2 45 mins : There will be a minimum of two minutes added time 15:47 GMT : Half Time Reached 16:05 GMT : Second Half Begins 46 mins : Liverpool kick off the second period attacking the Kop end 46 mins : Substitution: Lauren Lauren for Glen Johnson: 46 mins : Substitution: Kanu Kanu for John Utaka: 47 mins : Harry Redknapp has made two changes at the break and it has sparked his side into life with Diop firing over from the edge of the box 48 mins : Yossi Benayoun jinks into the area but his shot is well blocked by Distin 50 mins : Portsmouth have already shown more intent in the opening five mins of the second period than they did in the entire first-half 51 mins : Sub Kanu turns brilliantly on the edge of the box but miscues his effort well wide of Reina's near post 52 mins : There are already warning signs for LFC. This isn't over yet 53 mins : Another Pompey player is down. This time it's Mendes and the stretcher is out once again! 54 mins : It's amazing what that stretcher can do. A player looks down and out, sees it coming and bounces straight up 55 mins : Mendes is fine now 57 mins : GOAL! Benjani Mwaruwari: 58 mins : Needless to say the away fans are in good voice all of a sudden 61 mins : Sami has a header from a corner cleared off the line 63 mins : Rafa is out speaking to Arbeloa and now he has called Ryan Babel over 64 mins : Substitution: Ryan Babel for Yossi Benayoun: 65 mins : Benjani outwits Riise down the Liverpool left but his low ball into the box is well cleared by Hyypia 66 mins : Kewell turns and unleashes a dipping 30 yard effort that flies inches over David James' goal 67 mins : GOAL! Fernando Torres: 69 mins : Rafa takes a seat in the dugout. His substitution has given him a reward within minutes 71 mins : Kuyt plays in Babel down the right but the Dutchman over-elaborates and in the end Mascherano's long range effort is easy for James 74 mins : Substitution: Matthew Taylor for Sulley Muntari: 75 mins : Pompey's best chance of getting something out of this is down our left flank. They've caused Riise and Kewell a number of problems this half 76 mins : Substitution: Fabio Aurelio for Harry Kewell: 77 mins : It would seem Rafa thinks so too! 77 mins : Aurelio has slotted in just in front of Riise 78 mins : Rafa is bemused by the referee's assistant's flag for what must have been an invisible foul! 81 mins : It's a strangely subdued atmosphere at Anfield today 82 mins : Maybe there were a lot of Xmas parties last night... 84 mins : Mascherano makes another great challenge. He must be up there for man of the match 85 mins : Torres shows a fresh pair of heels before winning a corner with an audacious flick 85 mins : GOAL! Fernando Torres: 86 mins : Substitution: Lucas Leiva for Fernando Torres: 88 mins : It's all over now. The Reds are back on track 89 mins : Matthew Taylor wins a free-kick for the visitors. Can they get another consolation? 90 mins : No. The Pompey man fires his effort high, wide and handsome 90 mins : There will be a minimum of two minutes added time 16:52 GMT : Match Over Copyright of Official Site Liverpool FC |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Price: J3,00