FA Cup 3rd Round replay.
Half-time: Liverpool 1 Reading 0
Liverpool edged ahead in first-half injury time after surviving more than one scare at their own end of the pitch.
Steven Gerrard deserves credit for the goal but he’ll only be credited with an assist. He’d just taken the second of two corners in short succession. After some quick passing he was in the box and trying to play a ball across the face of goal to a teammate, but Reading’s Ingimarsson got in the way and deflected the ball into his own net.
Gerrard wasn’t looking for Torres with his cross because the Liverpool striker had gone off half-an-hour into the match with an injury. Liverpool fans will be hopeful his withdrawal was a precautionary measure rather than the start of another spell on the sidelines. Pepe Reina sat this match out having suffered a slight knock beforehand.
Reading looked dangerous on the break and Liverpool found themselves under pressure on a number of occasions after their own attacks had broken down. One of those occasions saw Simon Church burst onto the wing, get past Daniel Agger and send a dangerous ball into the Liverpool area. Jamie Carragher didn’t seem to sense the danger and let the ball go – letting it go straight to Grzegorz Rasiak standing right behind him in the six-yard box. Luckily for Carragher his opponent missed what was a golden opportunity to cause an upset for the Reds.
Argentinian Maxi Rodriguez was paraded before the match, having signed for the Reds today on a three-and-a-half year deal.
Liverpool: 1 Cavalieri, 27 Degen, 23 Carragher, 5 Agger, 22 Insua, 21 Lucas, 4 Aquilani, 18 Kuyt, 8 Gerrard, 15 Benayoun, 9 Torres (Ngog 29)
Subs: 42 Gulacsi, 12 Aurelio, 37 Skrtel, 26 Spearing, 19 Babel, 24 Ngog, 47 Pacheco
Goals: Ingimarsson (og) 45+1
Reading: 1 Federici, 5 Mills, 16 Ingimarsson, 24 Bertrand, 4 Cisse, 6 Gunnarsson, 11 McAnuff, 20 Karacan, 25 Sigurdsson, 18 Church, 23 Rasiak
Subs: 21 Hamer, 26 Pearce, 7 Tabb, 8 Matejovsky, 14 Kebe, 34 Howard, 9 Long
Booked: Karacan, Mills
Referee: Phil Dowd
And so the Spanish inquisition begins…..
Reading made us look exactly what we are.
They totally deserved their win. They made a mockery of the so called gulf in class between the premiership and football league. To a man they out played us all the way through. Credit to them.and good luck to them in the next round.
Maybe Benitez should be looking at the lower divisions for new blood instead of more Spanish speaking players from abroad.
Why do i keep feeling It’s another “Houllier type” 6th year of a 5 year plan all over again. ? – its one step forwards, two steps back..
Disorganised and clueless yet again.
No width, No ideas – a shambles.
Did anyone on that pitch (in a red shirt) know what they were meant to be doing ?
Did anyone know where to be on the pitch and when?
The amount of misplaced passes, poor control and bad decision making was all too apparent yet again.
LFC a two man team ? – Definately. When Torres and Gerrard left the field so did Liverpool’s chances.
God help us on and off the pitch.
We are a bloody joke at the moment.