Listless Liverpool miss opportunity

Liverpool choked yesterday as they tried to seize the opportunity offered by Everton's defeat by Chelsea earlier in the day.

Needing a victory to close to within two points of their Merseyside rivals in the race for the Premiership's fourth Champions League place, they responded with one of their poorest performances of the season.

Three successive wins seemed to have banished the embarrassing memory of Liverpool's FA Cup defeat at Burnley and the display at Southampton. But their play was so shoddy, unimaginative here that it came as no surprise when, just before the interval, goals by Walter Pandiani and Julian Gray put Birmingham in a virtually unassailable position.

Although Birmingham, the more cohesive and dangerous side throughout, had the better of the early play, it was Liverpool who made the first chance. In the 14th minute, Steven Gerrard bounced back up after colliding with Mario Melchiot in the penalty area and sought out Fernando Morientes with a low centre across the face of goal.

It would have been a tap-in for the former Real Madrid striker had Jamie Clapham not got an intercepting foot in the way. The same pattern of play, in which Birmingham pressed hard without success and Liverpool's 4-5-1 formation threatened to catch them on the break, persisted for much of the first half. It produced few chances, however.

Morientes made an opening for himself but sent a surprisingly tame shot at Maik Taylor after beating Olivier Tebily, substitute for the injured Melchiot, and Damien Johnson on the left. Then, at the other end, Jerzy Dudek came out quickly to the corner of his area to block a shot from the consistently dangerous Jermaine Pennant.

The game did not really come alive until eight minutes before the interval. First, Birmingham took the lead in the 38th minute after the referee, Howard Webb, had decided that Sami Hyypia had pulled down his former team-mate, Emile Heskey, as they tussled over Kenny Cunningham's long ball.

Pandiani, the Uruguayan striker on loan from Deportivo La Coruna, made short work of the penalty, firing his second goal in three games. Seven minutes later, Liverpool fell further behind. The architect was Pennant, another on loan, who jinked clear of John Arne Riise before flashing a waist-high centre across the face of goal for Gray to volley home at the far post.

In the second half, Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez was left with no alternative but to abandon the safety first tactics. Off went Igor Biscan on came Vladimir Smicer, but the reversion to 4-4-2 produced little or no improvement. Benitez then sent on Antonio Nunez and Mauricio Pellegrino for Riise and Steve Finnan, substitutions that smacked of confusion and panic.

The result was just one chance in the second half. In the last minute of normal time Johnson cleared off the line when Djimi Traore got his head to a Gerrard corner. There will be no Champions League place, and no Carling Cup triumph either, for Liverpool if they continue to play as vapidly as this.

Match details

Birmingham: Maik Taylor, Melchiot (Tebily 18), Cunningham, Upson, Clapham, Pennant (Nafti 84), Johnson, Clemence, Gray, Heskey, Pandiani (Blake 89).
Subs Not Used: Bennett, Anderton.
Booked: Tebily, Heskey.
Goals: Pandiani 38 pen, Gray 45.

Liverpool: Dudek, Finnan (Pellegrino 79), Hyypia, Carragher, Traore, Baros, Hamann, Gerrard, Biscan (Smicer 45), Riise (Nunez 63), Morientes.
Subs Not Used: Warnock, Carson.
Ref: H Webb (S Yorkshire).

© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited