'Hammers hammered down by Torres'
Liverpool took on West Ham United in a late kick off match yesterday. 'The Reds' travelled down to West London for their weekend's fixture. 'The Reds' were high on confidence after getting back on track in the EPL after a poor start and also a win in midweek in the Champions League bolstered their confidence even more. Liverpool's record against WHU has been impressive,with Liverpool winning over 80% of their games against WHU.
Liverpool's squad was quite strong,Mascherano coming back after completing international duties. Liverpool were strong favourites to win this game but WHU also had a decent line up to challenge Liverpool. The Liverpool defence looked shaky in the first half,completely unlikely of them. Carragher made a terrible mistake of giving the ball away to Hines who did everything right to put 'The Hammers' in front but was unlucky because the ball hit the post and bounced back into Reina's hands. Thus Liverpool survived a scare in the first 2 minutes.
Liverpool's dominance in the game was clearly visible albeit their poor defence. Gerrard,Torres,Kuyt and playmaker Benayoun were switching play beautifully. Liverpool had a couple of shots on target but couldn't find the ball past Green,also Tomkins,the WHU centre back was constantly marking Torres and not allowing him room to do his tricks. But in the 19th minute Torres' brilliance paid off,Tomkins was beaten for pace and Torres chipped the ball past Green into the net, Green was astound by this piece of brilliance and kept his hands up in the air for a couple of minutes as if to say to his defenders "Hey dude,don't blame me.If you give him (Torres) room and get beaten for pace this is what he'll do.
No doubt why Torres is the best striker in the Barclay's premier league. Liverpool's lethargic defending was exposed in the 23rd minute when young kid Hines beat Carragher for pace and made his way in to the box only to find the Liverpool defender shoving him off to the ground. Alas! WHU get a spot kick. Diamanti steps up and kicks the ball neatly inside but this penalty was a controversial one and needs debating. Diamanti slipped and might have slightly touched the ball with his right foot before kicking it in the back of the net with his left. Now this counts as double touch and the kick is nullified but WHU were still awarded the goal.
30 minutes gone both teams were 1-1,both the teams were raring to go and did not want to sit back and relax. In the 40th min Captain Courageous rises above the rest to head the ball into the net,Kuyt flicking it a little bit to make sure that the ball goes where it is intended to go. Bang! Liverpool had taken the lead back,only to find 'The Hammers' equalizing within minutes from a set piece in a penalty corner. Liverpool have always had problems with set pieces. If one has noticed there would be no Liverpool players guarding the posts and this is a bad practice because if you don't get to the ball first in the air then there is every possible chance that you opponent will find something from the penalty kick and ball could find its way back in the net.
Half time over the score read WHU1-1Liverpool.
Liverpool started the second half with over 60%ball possession,dominating territorially but couldn't find the elusive goal to take them into the lead. Babel was brought in for Kuyt and the Dutch man did his work in giving the cross to Torres who executed the job with sheer skill. Liverpool were back in the lead for the third time. The goal from Torres was indicative of the quality he possesses,shrugging off two defenders to head it past Green into the bottom corner,Oh boy that needs some skill.
Liverpool strengthened their defence in the second half,locking out the WHU forwards from making the run. Glen Johnson did a wonderful job in giving no room for the young kid Hines,who was brilliant on the pitch,no room to take WHU level with Liverpool for the third time. The full time whistle was blown and the score remained the same WHU 2 Liverpool 3. This takes Liverpool in the top four,placing them 3rd in the standings till Sunday's fixtures are played.
! Go Liverpool !
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