Liverpool 1-1 Blackburn Rovers – Match Review
Rock bottom Blackburn’s hopes of beating the drop took a turn for the better after they produced a stubborn display to nick a point from Liverpool at Anfield.
Despite sitting at the foot of the Premier League table Rovers produced their best performance away from Ewood Park this season to ease the pressure on manager Steve Kean. Defeat to Bolton last Tuesday saw the Scot’s relationship with supporters reach a new low although this result will go a long way to repairing that. For Liverpool it was their sixth draw at home and Kenny Dalglish will be unhappy that his players failed to take any of the numerous chances they created with Maxi Rodriguez’s goal eight minutes after half time cancelling out a Charlier Adam own goal that had given the visitors a shock half time lead. Even the return of captain Steven Gerrard as a 68th minute substitute couldn’t inspire the Red’s to go on and win the game with Blackburn finally hearing their fans cheer as opposed to the negative chanting thats has been coming from the stands for much of the season.
With first choice goalkeeper Paul Robinson sidelined by injury Kean was forced to field Mark Bunn in goal although the 27-year-old was largely untested despite the home side possessing a multi-million pound strike force. £35 million man Andy Carroll was named in the starting lineup alongside Luis Suarez and came closest to breaking the deadlock but was denied by Bunn who did brilliantly to keep the ball out from six-yards. A sense of frustration was starting to build within the Anfield support and that soared to critical levels as Blackburn took the lead on the stroke of half time. Morten Gamst Pedersen’s corner was deflected into his own net by Adam leaving Pepe Reina stranded. Some harsh words were obviously exchanged during the interval as Liverpool emerged for the second half in a defiant mood and equalised within eight minutes of the restart.
Martin Skrtel was the unlikely architect lofting a sumptuous cross towards the back post towards Rodriguez who rose to nod the ball past Bunn and allow the Kop faithful to breathe a huge side of relief. From then on it was the Reds who dominated with Blackburn adopting a backs to the wall approach as they attempted to cling onto a vital point. They did manage to fashion one chance for themselves with David Dunn finding a way through the home defence only to shoot wide of Reina’s goal. Carroll then had another chance to score but saw his header fly inches wide with Bunn rooted to the spot as Rovers held on to claim a vital point in their bid for survival.
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