Liverpool back on track against Spurs

LIVERPOOL got their challenge for a Champions League place back on track with a deserved 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield.

With Fernando Torres absent, Dirk Kuyt proved himself an able deputy, firing his side ahead in just the sixth minute, and wrapping the game up with a penalty in stoppage time.

With Tottenham unable to trouble Liverpool’s industrious midfield, pickings were slim for Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe, while Kuyt and Sotirios Kyrgiakos both missed golden chances at the other end.

The result moves Liverpool up to sixth, just a point behind Harry Redknapp’s Spurs, who remain fourth.

Shorn of their best two players and off the back of a poor run of form, Kuyt’s early goal proved a major tonic for a potentially fragile Liverpool side, and provided the building block for their victory.

From a moment of panic in the Liverpool penalty area where Pepe Reina claimed a loose ball in the penalty area at the third attempt, the Spanish ‘keeper launched a long punt downfield. Kuyt chested down to Alberto Aquilani, collected the ball back off the Italian, and fired low into the bottom corner past Heurelho Gomes.

Cue an air of positivity and level of noise around Anfield seldom seen this season, and one to which Rafael Benitez’s men responded with energy and tireless pressing.

A hopeful, long-distance effort from Gareth Bale midway through the half was all Spurs could mount in response, as Liverpool’s five midfielders nullified the creative talents of Niko Kranjcar and Luka Modric.

The half was to finish in a flurry, however, as a Liverpool corner resulted in Martin Skrtel blazing just over at the back post, while Wilson Palacios and Jermaine Jenas conjured Spurs’ best move of the game immediately afterwards only for Modric to fire tamely at Reina on the stretch.

Controversy and confusion reigned at the start of the second half as Defoe dispossessed Pepe Reina and fired home from the edge of the area, only to see his effort ruled out as he had run from an offside position well beforehand.

Before the ins and outs of phases of play could be discussed, Albert Riera rattled the crossbar with a towering header, while Reina was content to parry a vicious, swerving volley from Jenas over the bar.

With Spurs having swapped Vedran Corluka for Alan Hutton and Kranjcar for Robbie Keane, they were always vulnerable to being hit on the break.

That happened almost immediately as Kuyt raced clear of the defence and picked out the run of Philipp Degen on the far side, only for the Swiss midfielder to misplace his pass back across goal as the crowd bayed for him to shoot.

Hutton sent a piledriver of a volley just past the post from Bale’s raking crossfield ball as Spurs began to press more urgently, though Crouch’s effectiveness as a target man was dimished by Kyrgiakos’s own aerial strength, with Defoe and Keane largely reduced to the role of frustrated onlookers as a result.

Instead it was Liverpool’s substitute David Ngog who really made his presence felt, bringing with him a burst of pace that was too much for an increasingly shaky Spurs defence. They did, however, pass up two golden opportunities before making the game safe.

First Kuyt volleyed over from five yards from Ngog’s fine flick-on before Gomes saved superbly from Kyrgiakos as the Greek sprang the Spurs offside trap.

Ngog’s strong running finally told in the 93rd minute. Sebastien Bassong could only upend the Frenchman as he surged into the area, and Kuyt kept his nerve to convert from the spot at the second attempt after bring made to retake following encroachment from team-mates. - Eurosport

Tags: Anfield, English Premier League, EPL 2009/10, Liverpool, Tottenham