Liverpool's bad luck continued as they fell foul of a last minute equaliser to draw with Stoke at the Britannia stadium.
With Gerrard, Torres and Benayoun all injured the Reds made six changes to the side that lost to Reading, with fullbacks Philipp Degen and Fabio Aurelio taking up a more advanced role and new signing Maxi Rodriguez on the bench. The game also saw the return of Javier Mascherano having completed his 4 game suspension.
Stoke started the brighter of the two teams without posing any real threat to the Liverpool goal, but the Reds soon began to get a grip on the game. Despite dictating play though they also found goalscoring opportunities few and far between.
The breakthrough appeared to have come when Lucas was brought down in the box, but despite appearing to most to be a cast iron penalty referee Lee Mason decided differently and awarded a goalkick. To add insult to injury he also decided it was a dive and dished out a yellow card.
The second half continued in pretty much the same fashion as the first, with Liverpool dominating possession but failing to regularly penetrate the Stoke defence.
Eventually the Reds broke the deadlock when Kyrgiakos bundled the ball over the line after the home side failed to clear their lines from an Aurelio freekick.
Rodriguez was brought on for his debut, then Aquilani was introduced for Ngog as Liverpool looked to defend their lead.
Just like they had against Reading though the Reds invited pressure from their opponents, and once again they fell foul of a last minute equaliser. They had given away a succession of corners and were eventually punished by one in the dying minutes as Stoke netted from close range.
Another disappointing result for the Reds, but they get their opportunity to quickly make amends with the midweek visit of Tottenham to Anfield.
Your Comments:
Frustrated Red (guest)- January 18th 2010.
Another shocking result. We need to improve and improve fast!
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