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Owen's touch returns with a bang
All the agonising over Michael Owen's scoring drought can stop right now. The Liverpool striker yesterday put to rest all those worries about his form in emphatic fashion. A hat-trick from him, bringing his first goals in open play this season, was more than enough to keep Liverpool on Arsenal's heels at the top of the Premiership and end City's year-long unbeaten home record.
Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier had always maintained that, once Owen broke his duck, other goals would follow. And what goals his second and third were. As examples of world-class finishing it would be hard to better them. Yet this was not an authoritative win by Liverpool. Had City possessed a striker of Owen's quality, they might easily have taken something from a thoroughly entertaining game.
Since City manager Kevin Keegan went into this game describing it as the biggest test his promoted club had faced in the Premiership to date, he will have cursed his luck at being without wily playmaker Ali Benarbia, who was suspended. True to his attacking instincts, Keegan did not bother to bring in another midfielder. Instead, he called up a striker, Darren Huckerby, and just readjusted things in the middle.
Liverpool also made a change in that area of the field, anchorman Dietmar Hamann returning from suspension at the expense of Bruno Cheyrou. Less welcome for the Merseysiders was the recurrence of hamstring trouble that obliged them to replace Stephane Henchoz in central defence with Djimi Traore.
The visitors held firm, though, in the face of early City pressure, then took the lead in only the fourth minute. Their goal came from a left-wing corner after Peter Schmeichel saved a shot from Owen, whose alertness had enabled him to intercept an ill-judged, headed back-pass by Jihai Sun.
Danny Murphy's corner dipped so awkwardly at the near post that a clutch of City players were unable to clear the ball cleanly. It ricocheted around before falling at the feet of Owen, who put the ball in the net from less than six yards as though he was in the finest scoring form of his life and not in the middle of a barren spell.
Needless to say, the little striker was engulfed by delighted team-mates while Houllier beamed proudly on the touchline with a told-you-so look on his face. But their pleasure could easily have been curtailed six minutes later, when Shaun Wright-Phillips cut the ball back from the byline and Huckerby got the pass trapped between his feet with the goal at his mercy.
Huckerby soon wasted another chance, swinging a left-footed shot wide of the far post after defender Sylvain Distin had cut the ball back to him. It might have been different if the chances had fallen to Nicolas Anelka because the French striker was clearly determined to score against the club who opted not to make his loan transfer from Paris St Germain permanent last season.
Anelka clipped the crossbar with one ferocious shot, only to find himself the victim of a questionable offside decision, then scorched past the outside of a post with another. Sami Hyypia then nearly caught Schmeichel out with a looping header and the big Danish goalkeeper had to deny Owen again in a one-on-one situation.
The fun soon started again in the second half, Berkovic inexplicably playing the ball into Jerzy Dudek's hands as the Liverpool goalkeeper lay helpless in the six-yard area after diving to parry a low shot from Kevin Horlock. That was five minutes after the restart and City pressed hard from then until the substitution of El Hadji Diouf for Milan Baros helped Liverpool lift the siege and score a second goal in the 64th minute.
It came from a classic counter-attack. Steven Gerrard's first-time, flicked through-pass enabled Owen to beat City's offside trap, but the Liverpool striker still had to run the best part of half the length of the pitch. He held off a strong challenge from behind by Sun and confounded the advancing Schmeichel with an unexpectedly early shot.
Twice City might have scored after taking that body blow. First, Marc Vivien Foe somehow contrived to head Berkovic's cross down and over the crossbar from point-blank range; then Dudek beat out another of Anelka's piledrivers. But no sooner had Schmeichel returned to his goal after coming up for a couple of corners than he was picking the ball out of his net again.
This time, two minutes from the end, Owen was sent away by Gerrard down the inside-right channel and eclipsed poor Sun with his pace and footwork before belting a shot past Schmeichel that rattled round the inside of the woodwork before settling in the goal.
Copyright - The Telegraph
Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier had always maintained that, once Owen broke his duck, other goals would follow. And what goals his second and third were. As examples of world-class finishing it would be hard to better them. Yet this was not an authoritative win by Liverpool. Had City possessed a striker of Owen's quality, they might easily have taken something from a thoroughly entertaining game.
Since City manager Kevin Keegan went into this game describing it as the biggest test his promoted club had faced in the Premiership to date, he will have cursed his luck at being without wily playmaker Ali Benarbia, who was suspended. True to his attacking instincts, Keegan did not bother to bring in another midfielder. Instead, he called up a striker, Darren Huckerby, and just readjusted things in the middle.
Liverpool also made a change in that area of the field, anchorman Dietmar Hamann returning from suspension at the expense of Bruno Cheyrou. Less welcome for the Merseysiders was the recurrence of hamstring trouble that obliged them to replace Stephane Henchoz in central defence with Djimi Traore.
The visitors held firm, though, in the face of early City pressure, then took the lead in only the fourth minute. Their goal came from a left-wing corner after Peter Schmeichel saved a shot from Owen, whose alertness had enabled him to intercept an ill-judged, headed back-pass by Jihai Sun.
Danny Murphy's corner dipped so awkwardly at the near post that a clutch of City players were unable to clear the ball cleanly. It ricocheted around before falling at the feet of Owen, who put the ball in the net from less than six yards as though he was in the finest scoring form of his life and not in the middle of a barren spell.
Needless to say, the little striker was engulfed by delighted team-mates while Houllier beamed proudly on the touchline with a told-you-so look on his face. But their pleasure could easily have been curtailed six minutes later, when Shaun Wright-Phillips cut the ball back from the byline and Huckerby got the pass trapped between his feet with the goal at his mercy.
Huckerby soon wasted another chance, swinging a left-footed shot wide of the far post after defender Sylvain Distin had cut the ball back to him. It might have been different if the chances had fallen to Nicolas Anelka because the French striker was clearly determined to score against the club who opted not to make his loan transfer from Paris St Germain permanent last season.
Anelka clipped the crossbar with one ferocious shot, only to find himself the victim of a questionable offside decision, then scorched past the outside of a post with another. Sami Hyypia then nearly caught Schmeichel out with a looping header and the big Danish goalkeeper had to deny Owen again in a one-on-one situation.
The fun soon started again in the second half, Berkovic inexplicably playing the ball into Jerzy Dudek's hands as the Liverpool goalkeeper lay helpless in the six-yard area after diving to parry a low shot from Kevin Horlock. That was five minutes after the restart and City pressed hard from then until the substitution of El Hadji Diouf for Milan Baros helped Liverpool lift the siege and score a second goal in the 64th minute.
It came from a classic counter-attack. Steven Gerrard's first-time, flicked through-pass enabled Owen to beat City's offside trap, but the Liverpool striker still had to run the best part of half the length of the pitch. He held off a strong challenge from behind by Sun and confounded the advancing Schmeichel with an unexpectedly early shot.
Twice City might have scored after taking that body blow. First, Marc Vivien Foe somehow contrived to head Berkovic's cross down and over the crossbar from point-blank range; then Dudek beat out another of Anelka's piledrivers. But no sooner had Schmeichel returned to his goal after coming up for a couple of corners than he was picking the ball out of his net again.
This time, two minutes from the end, Owen was sent away by Gerrard down the inside-right channel and eclipsed poor Sun with his pace and footwork before belting a shot past Schmeichel that rattled round the inside of the woodwork before settling in the goal.
Copyright - The Telegraph
