Date: 27th September 2014 at 4:42pm
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Liverpool were left heartbroken after Everton snatched a dramatic last minute equaliser through a wonder-strike from Phil Jagielka in front of the Kop.

The Reds looked on course for their third win of the campaign, after Steven Gerrard had opened the scoring with a superb free kick.

In what was a much improved performance from Brendan Rodgers side, Liverpool will feel devastated to come away with only a point, having managed 24 attempts on goal at Anfield.

Of those attempts, many came from Mario Balotelli who was leading the line again with Daniel Sturridge still not fit enough for the bench.

The Italian saw an early free kick blocked by the wall, and missed a great opportunity to head home an Alberto Moreno cross, only to take his eye off the ball at the last second.

Adam Lallana looked particularly impressive, as did Jordan Henderson, with the latter producing some superb defence splitting passes, which saw Javi Manquillo fail to provide the end product.

But the most dramatic moment of the first half centered around the referee, who refused to award a spot kick despite a clear hand ball from Gareth Barry in the box.

Everton previously felt they could have had a penalty when Alberto Moreno tugged Lukaku in the box, and with Barry already on a yellow card, it seemed as though Martin Atkinson bottled the big decision.

Into the second half, Liverpool continued probing and looked the most likely to score. The introduction of Philippe Coutinho for the ineffective Lazar Markovic brought a change, with the Reds playing some patient, flowing football.

And they got their reward on 65 minutes, when Steven Gerrard silenced his critics with a superb free kick from the edge of the box.

And perhaps the decisive moment in the match came just five minutes later, when Raheem Sterling showed superb pace and skill to get to the byline and pull a cross back towards Mario Balotelli.

The striker made contact from eight yards, but somehow Tim Howard got across and managed to deflect the effort onto the bar.

There appeared no real threat of Liverpool being made to pay for that missed opportunity however, so it came as a major shock when Phil Jagielka hit a rocket shot into the top corner from all of 30 yards.

The Kop was stunned by what was something completely out of the ordinary.

The stunning nature of the strike meant the point felt like a defeat as the final whistle went, although positives should be taken from what was a much improved performance.

Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson were particularly good in the midfield, whilst Steven Gerrard showed encouraging signs of getting back to his best.

The goal came as a blow to Brendan Rodgers more than anyone, who had seen his team produce an improved performance, only to be robbed at the death of all three points.

 

2 responses to “Match report: Liverpool 1-1 Everton”

  1. Jim says:

    Worrying time for us.badly need a genuine striker up there, at least to create more space for the others. just hope that Daniel Sturridge can start again very soon. against Basel it’ll be a good warm up.

  2. Tamu says:

    6 games finished but just 7 point. What a shame! Perhaps LFC won’t in European competition in next season. LFC have made mistake buying average players. Feeling so sad n furious as well.