Middlesbrough
Marseille
Manchester United
Manchester City
What is common to these clubs with regard to the 2008-09 football season ? Apart from the very obvious fact that they all start with M, all these clubs have lost to Liverpool after taking the lead. Boro lost 1-2, Marseille lead through Cana before going down 1-2 and Tevez scored for Manchester United before a Wes Brown own goal and a late Ryan Babel strike ensured that they came out of the game with nothing.
This fixture had not been one with plenty of goals in the recent past. But on Sunday, we saw some wonderful attacking football from both sides, and Liverpool have made a strong statement with their comeback win here.
On Sunday, everything was looking rosy for Mark Hughes at half time. Stephen Ireland and Javier Garrido had put Manchester City into a two goal lead. Liverpool looked listless, and everyone at Eastlands was smiling. And then it all started to go wrong ….
Fernando Torres pulled one back for Liverpool in the 55th minute. With City still one goal ahead, rightback Zabaleta decided to make the game more interesting and got himself sent off for a rash challlenge on Xabi Alonso. Minutes later, Fernando Torres headed home from a delightful Gerrard corner to make it 2-2. With their extra man, Liverpool were suddenly the dominant side, and Hughes pulled off Jo, Robinho and Elano, and brought in Evans, Fernandes and Petrov. City were pushed deeper and deeper, but Liverpool lost Martin Skrtel to injury as both sides were reduced to 10 men.
However the Reds did get the third goal, with Yossi Benayoun sliding it across to Torres in the box. The Spaniard’s shot hit Richard Dunne, and landed in front of Dirk Kuyt, who atoned for his earlier miss by putting it into the net.
Eastlands was stunned, and one probably has to think that this might be Liverpool’s season.
When you are a champion, you seem to be able to convert losing situations into winning ones, and that is exactly what Benitez’s men are doing now.