Sava sends Liverpool tumbling

Liverpool's challenge for the Premiership title suffered another blow yesterday, when they were outgunned by Fulham. Having lost to Middlesbrough and drawn with Sunderland, the Merseysiders were beaten by opponents who had not won in the League for six games.

Fulham ended that unhappy sequence thanks largely to the powerful shooting from distance of Sean Davis, who scored once, and the finishing of Facundo Sava, who netted twice, thereby neutralising the replies from Dietmar Hamann and Milan Baros.

Fulham made four changes to the side who had ended a run of four defeats with a draw at Birmingham the previous Saturday. Out went Andy Melville, Sylvain Legwinski, Lee Clark and Luis Boa Morte.

In came Zat Knight, Martin Djetou, Davis and Sava to replace them. Liverpool's only change saw Vladimir Smicer replaced by John Arne Riise, who took up station on the left of midfield and again became a target for Fulham fans who remembered his refusal to join their club.

Those lame-brains were soon given other things to think about as Fulham took the lead after only four minutes. Davis, back unexpectedly after recovering from a broken toe, had had one fierce 25-yarder beaten out by Jerzy Dudek before he let fly again from much the same distance and saw the Polish goalkeeper fail to hold the ball as he dived to save at the foot of a post.

Sava was first to the rebound and popped the ball into the net before Dudek could recover his footing. Fulham's Argentine striker then indulged in some silly nonsense about donning a mask he carries in his sock to celebrate the scoring of a goal.

Unimpressed, Liverpool struck back with a couple of attacks in which they might have had a penalty for a Djetou challenge on Riise and Fulham goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar saved desperately with an outstretched foot as Emile Heskey drove a blistering low shot at goal.

Van der Sar was also at full stretch to punch away a deflected shot from Riis after Hamann had tapped a short free-kick to the Norwegian midfielder. Michael Owen, too, might have scored when Danny Murphy dribbled through the Fulham defence and slipped the ball to the England striker. However, Owen leaned back and wafted his shot over the bar.

Fulham did not get back into the game until the 32nd minute, when Davis set up Bjarne Goldbaek for a centre from the right that Sava headed well over the bar. But the home side immediately followed that up with a dangerous break by Steve Marlet that Djimi Traore snuffed out only at the expense of a corner. Then, in the 38th minute, Fulham scored again.

Once more, Liverpool could not cope with the power of Davis's shooting from long range. Put in possession by Steed Malbranque, the England Under-21 international midfielder took a couple of steps before unleashing another piledriving shot that appeared to take a deflection off Sava as it whizzed past Dudek while the goalkeeper was diving the wrong way.

Liverpool almost clawed a goal back in the first minute of the second half. When Steven Gerrard, on for Salif Diao in the centre of midfield, fed the ball to Milan Baros, substituting for Markus Babbel in a major reshuffle, the Czech striker forced a diving save from Van der Sar with a low, left-foot shot. Baros had joined Owen in attack, while Heskey went wide left with Riise retreating to left-back and Jamie Carragher crossing over to the right.

The visitors' determination to salvage something was clear, but they had to survive some nervous moments as Dudek fumbled long-range shots from Goldbaek and Malbranque before they reduced the arrears after 62 minutes with a picture goal. Hamann belted a rising shot unstoppably into the top corner from 25 yards after Murphy had tapped a free-kick to Carragher in a well-rehearsed routine.

However, Liverpool's hopes of salvation took another nasty knock when Fulham scored again six minutes later. Once more the scorer was Sava, who sent a first-time shot scudding into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area after Traore, challenged by Davis, headed out Marlet's centre from the right.

Then the game took another twist after 70 minutes, defender Alain Goma becoming the third Fulham player to be sent off in successive games. He was shown the red card for a second yellow card offence, a tackle from behind on Owen.

Liverpool piled on the pressure, but their only success came when Baros's neat footwork in the penalty area enabled him to beat Van der Sar six minutes from the end.

Match details

Fulham: Van der Sar, Finnan, Knight, Goma, Brevett, Goldbaek (Clark 89), Davis, Djetou, Malbranque, Marlet, Sava (Inamoto 74).
Subs Not Used: Taylor, Wome, Stolcers.
Sent Off: Goma (70).
Booked: Goma.
Goals: Sava 5, Davis 38, Sava 68.

Liverpool: Dudek, Carragher, Hyypia, Babbel (Baros 45), Traore, Diao (Gerrard 45), Murphy, Hamann, Riise, Owen, Heskey (Smicer 77).
Subs Not Used: Kirkland, Cheyrou.
Goals: Hamann 62, Baros 86.

Att: 18,144
Ref: G Poll (Hertfordshire).

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