Showing posts with label Joe Cole. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe Cole. Show all posts
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.
Coach
* Fabio Capello
Goalkeepers
* Robert Green
* Joe Hart
* David James
Defenders
* Jamie Carragher
* Ashley Cole
* Michael Dawson
* Glen Johnson
* Ledley King
* John Terry
* Matthew Upson
* Stephen Warnock
Midfielders
* Gareth Barry
* Michael Carrick
* Joe Cole
* Steven Gerrard
* Frank Lampard
* Aaron Lennon
* James Milner
* Shaun Wright-Phillips
Strikers
* Peter Crouch
* Jermain Defoe
* Emile Heskey
* Wayne Rooney
Braces from Didier Drogba and Florent Malouda helped Chelsea thrash Portsmouth 5-0 at Fratton Park as the Blues move to within a point of Premier League leaders Manchester United.
Torrential rain on the South Coast provided conditions not conducive to good football: Pompey goalkeeper David James was the first victim as he swished his foot wildly at a ball outside his box, only to see it bounce beyond his air-shot and leave Drogba with a simple tap-in after 32 minutes.
That calamitous mistake from the England hopeful was followed by a more conventional goal in the 50th minute as Malouda lashed home an emphatic finish from a tight angle, and a third swiftly followed as the Frenchman followed up Frank Lampard's rasping strike on the hour mark.
Drogba drilled the fourth past James with a clinical finish in the 77th minute, and the instrumental Lampard deservedly capped off the emphatic victory with a close-range header in stoppage time.
Carlo Ancelotti inevitably welcomed back goalkeeper Petr Cech, while Daniel Sturridge was handed a starting berth alongside Drogba as the impotent of late Nicolas Anelka was confined to the bench.
Chelsea dictated the play in the early stages, Drogba muscling his way through on goal in belligerent fashion only to drag his shot wide of James's far post in the sixth minute.
Yuri Zhirkov was an enterprising presence down the left, and the full-back burst into the Portsmouth penalty area at pace five minutes later, but could not steady himself to pick out a clinical finish.
It looked like Chelsea were bracing themselves for a frustrating evening before James hurtled off his line and took a wild swipe at Deco's through ball - then had to look back in horror as Drogba jogged in to tap the ball into an empty net just after the half-hour mark.
The beleaguered Pompey keeper made a stunning reflex save to deny Lampard in the 36th minute and make partial atonement for his aberration after the Chelsea midfielder drove a low shot towards the near post, only to see it tipped wide at the last second.
The Portsmouth supporters were irate in the 40th minute as Malouda was only shown a booking for unceremoniously flooring Ricardo Rocha with a high elbow. The defender was stretchered off, and Avram Grant made an enforced reshuffle.
The second half continued where the first left off with Portsmouth forced to chase shadows for long periods, and both sides made early changes with Joe Cole replacing Sturridge for the visitors.
Within five minutes of the restart Malouda latched on to a pinpoint pass from Lampard down the left, and the Frenchman proceeded to unleash a fierce shot which comprehensively beat James at his near post.
Lampard slipped in Cole who was unable to make an impact as James made a smart stop down low to his left, but a rasping shot from the midfielder provided an inadvertent assist for Malouda's second as the winger slammed the follow-up into the top corner.
Another fizzing shot from Lampard was somehow tipped over for a corner before Drogba netted his second with a crisp finish from substitute Patrick van Aanholt's raking diagonal pass.
Richard Hughes and Drogba both contrived to trade off inexplicable misses from close range at either end of the field, but the second half had already begun to peter out slowly with the hosts in damage-limitation mode.
Five goals proved to be the extent of the damage inflicted by Ancelotti's side, as Lampard stole in to round off a slick move in stoppage time to move the Blues to within one point of leaders United, with an identical goal difference.
