Monthly Archives: January 2010

By Michael Landon

Benitez made his intentions clear with a strong side starting the game, although notably absent was one Alberto Aquilani in the starting line-up.

The game started in a packed Madejski stadium with neither side able to find much rhythm and the opening ten minutes was distinct for the lack of quality on the pitch.

The first notable incident of the game occured when Dirk Kuyt fouled Ryan Bertrand to the left of the box. The resultant free-kick caused a small scramble in the box before the ball was in the back of Jose Reina’s net, but Grzegorz Rasiak was correctly judged as offside.

This incident seemed to spark the game into life and the players started to find more space on the pitch. Indeed at the other end, after a decent break by the Reds,  David N’Gog found ample time and space in the box after a drag back by Dirk Kuyt, but his low shot whipped wide across the goal.

A little after that and Liverpool were behind on the 23rd minute. Emiliano Insua gave away a free-kick to the right of his own box. Bertrand took the opportunity to swing in a deep, looping cross which Rasiak pushed back into play from the by-line, where Simon Church was waiting to stab into goal from close range.

Liverpool were undone by a set-play again and Benitez must have been wondering where his defenders were for the goal.

Fernando Torres, like he has done so often at his time at Liverpool, tried to single-handedly save his side when his great run and shot wizzed dangerously past the top right of goal.

But soon after it was another of Liverpool’s saviours that struck a decisive blow in the match. Steven Gerrard, outside the left of the Reading box, found space and hit a curled effort at goal. The shot sailed through Kuyt’s legs as the Dutchman beat the offside trap to make a dummy run, and nestled into the net to make it 1-1.

The goal seemed to come out of nowhere but Reading needed to regroup as Liverpool started to come at them after the equaliser.

Just before the interval, some adroit footwork by Torres gave his side a dangerous free-kick deep to the left of the Reading box. His partner in crime Gerrard rolled the free-kick teasingly across the box and Kuyt smashed it into the bodies in front of him defending the goal. The Royals managed to scramble the ball away though and went into the break on level terms.

Liverpool tried to make things look more like a contest between a Championship team and a Premier League heavyweight in the second half, but Reading were not willing to roll over.

In fact the first good shot after the break was from the hosts. Gylfi Sigurdsson let fly outside the box with a pacey effort which Reina pushed away, and this signalled a shift in the contest. The home crowd were roused and the Royals were spurned on.

Liverpool began to become sloppy with their ball retention and Reading had another chance when some good build up play saw Church send the ball right into the danger zone after being released by Matthew Mills. Reina could do nothing but push the ball away after his defenders let it bounce dangerously across the face of goal.

Liverpool’s defenders were saved embarassment and Benitez sensed he needed to change things at this point.

On came Aquilani for N’Gog on the 67th minute and the Italian made something of an impact soon after coming on. In a rare threatening Liverpool move, a good cross was whipped in by Gerrard and Aquilani jumped and challenged for the ball, putting it into the net. But the referee blew for a foul and no goal was given.

As the game wound to a close, it looked like Liverpool were content to bring the tie back to Anfield, with Reading on the front-foot trying to settle things in their own stadium.

Torres had a great chance to steal things right at the death with a great header that hit the roof of the net before the whistle blew for end of time. The battle will have to be settled on Merseyside.



Reading 1-1 Liverpool: Steven Gerrard keeps alive Reds' FA Cup …