Showing posts with label Carragher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carragher. Show all posts
Fernando Torres had a Chelsea debut to forget as his new club were beaten 1-0 by former employers Liverpool in the Premier League clash at Stamford Bridge.
After a week of expectation surrounding the Spain striker's British record move to west London, it was Raul Meireles who was the hero thanks to his 69th-minute strike which sealed fourth-straight win for Kenny Dalglish's side and a league double for the Reds over their rivals from the capital.
The fact that Liverpool managed the victory without either of their own big-money signings in action will make victory all the sweeter. Andy Carroll is still missing through injury, while Luis Suarez was an unused substitute. Chelsea's other major January addition, David Luiz, was introduced after his new team were already behind.
The win moves Liverpool up to sixth in the table, while Chelsea remain fourth and 10 points behind leaders Manchester United following their defeat at Wolves on Saturday.
With all the attention focused on Torres's debut against his former club, and following an extraordinary set of results from Saturday's fixtures, it was perhaps no surprise that much of this clash was something of an anti-climax.
The recent history between these two clubs has served up its fair share of thrilling encounters, but equally there have been several damp squibs, and this match largely fell into the latter category.
However, Liverpool fans will not care about that after Torres had his inauspicious first appearance ended when he was substituted on 66 minutes, having had just 29 touches of the ball.
Even when freed from the restraints of trying to accommodate their new acquisition, Chelsea's attack continued to lack potency and invention as they struggled to find ways through Liverpool's five-man defence.
It looked as though Torres's Chelsea career was set to get off to a dream start when, in the second minute, Maxi Rodriguez played the ball right to the feet of his former team-mate. Torres headed for goal but, with Jamie Carragher and Martin Skrtel in front of him, he could bend his shot off target.
The returning Carragher, making his first appearance since November, was the bookies' favourite to foul Torres first, but it was Daniel Agger who took that dubious honour when he barged the Spaniard over midway through the half. The resulting free-kick led to a corner from which Branislav Ivanovic glanced wide.
Soon afterwards Didier Drogba played Torres through and the £50 million man got in behind Skrtel to shoot on the turn, but his strike was blocked by the diving Carragher.
Maxi's day went from bad to worse when Steven Gerrard's dangerous low ball across the six-yard box was turned on to the bar by the Argentine midfielder from point-blank range with the goal at his mercy.
The second half again failed to ignite, with clear chances few and far between. Glen Johnson fired a shot from range wide before Drogba had an effort inside the box blocked by Martin Kelly and Anelka fired wide from distance.
Torres's poor afternoon was ended on 66 minutes when he was replaced by Salomon Kalou, and he had barely got settled on his new team's bench when Liverpool went in front.
Petr Cech and Ivanovic had been at each other's throats in the first half when they got in each other's way trying to clear the ball, and their poor communication cost them a goal and ultimately the match. Both players left it to the other to deal with Gerrard's cross and the ball run between them and through to Meireles who finished to score his fourth goal in his last five games. It was the first league goal scored by a Liverpool player at Stamford Bridge since Bruno Cheyrou's strike in 2004.
The visiting fans, who had brought banners bearing slogans such as "He Who Betrays Will Always Walk Alone" and "Torres: a pawn on our chess board but the King remains", goaded their former idol with chants of "Torres, what's the score?", and Chelsea were unable to stem the abuse aimed at the bench by finding an equaliser.
The closest they came was when Anelka played through substitute Florent Malouda, whose shot at the near post was parried by Reina, and their desperate claims for a late penalty when Ivanovic was barged over by Johnson were ignored by the referee.
Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti vented his frustration at the fourth official, but he has now been left in no doubt about the task on his hands in fitting his new marquee signing into his team.
Fernando Torres scored only his second goal of the season as Liverpool beat Blackburn Rovers 2-1 at home to move closer to Premier League safety.
Torres’s last goal came in Liverpool’s last Premier League win, at home to West Brom on August 29, but he was on good form after a midweek rest as the club’s new owners watched their first game at Anfield.
Sotiris Kyrgiakos had opened the scoring for the hosts only for a Jamie Carragher own-goal to bring it level soon afterwards.
But Torres quickly pounced to win the match, with all three goals coming in a five-minute spell in the second half.
The result leaves the Reds third-bottom, behind Blackburn and Fulham on goal difference but only three points from seventh place.
Under-pressure boss Roy Hodgson saw his side dominate the match with an excellent performance from Paul Robinson preventing them from running away with it.
Liverpool welcomed back Torres, Steven Gerrard, Raul Meireles and Lucas after they were rested for the Europa League draw at Napoli, and they utterly dominated the first half.
The Reds had close to three quarters of possession and only failed to take the lead on account of some excellent goalkeeping from Robinson and some poor finishing.
Meireles somehow poked wide on eight minutes after Robinson did well to keep Joe Cole’s low finish out following superb link-up play between Maxi Rodriguez and a brighter-than-usual Torres, who was carefully tracked by a hawk-like Phil Jones.
The former England goalkeeper made an even better save 10 minutes later, denying Kyrgiakos’s free header with a spectacular tip over, and was equal to Gerrard’s trademark piledriver seven minutes after that.
Soon after Robinson again did well from Gerrard, keeping out his free-kick with Martin Skrtel and Meireles flying in, while Portugal international Meireles was denied when his thunderbolt struck Michel Salgado square on the jaw.
Salgado recovered and from the resultant corner Lucas bettered Meireles’s early miss, heading over from point-blank range as he leant back into Kyrgiakos’s flick-on, while in first-half stoppage time Maxi weighed in with a boo-boo of his own as he somehow failed to connect with an inch-perfect Gerrard cross.
Somehow it was goalless at the break but that changed soon after the restart.
Liverpool took a deserved lead two minutes into the second half when Kyrgiakos - always an aerial threat at set-pieces - powered another Gerrard corner in off Martin Olsson on the line.
It should have been two three minutes later, but Robinson again pulled off a world-class save as Maxi flew in to head a Gerrard corner on goal.
From the resultant break Blackburn were level, their first real chance of the match taken in bizarre fashion as, following a burst down the right from Benjani, El-Hadji Diouf’s finish was cleared off the line by Paul Konchesky only to rebound in off Carragher.
It was barely deserved but the home side bounced back as Torres finally broke his season’s duck with a crisp first-time finish as Cole’s excellent cross found the Spain star unmarked at the far post, although the marking was slack from Rovers.
Kyrgiakos again went close from a corner, bouncing a bullet header into the ground and inches over the bar, while a rare spell of Blackburn possession yielded a Morten Gamst Pedersen shot that flew just over.
Liverpool had been hunting for a third but that close shave saw them retreat into their half and the game degenerate into a scrappy phase.
That suited Rovers, who employed a direct approach to win a succession of set pieces that Liverpool rallied to resist.
David N'Gog was brought on for Cole as the hosts looked to keep the ball higher up the pitch and it seemed to work as Liverpool had the better of the latter stages, Meireles having another long shot blocked and Torres guilty of poor control when Gerrard sent him in.
Blackburn were unable to put Liverpool under any pressure in injury time and the hosts closed out their first win in seven league games, relieving some of the pressure on Hodgson.
