Kuyt´s last gasp winner caps Liverpool fightback

Dirk Kuyt scored an injury-time winner as Liverpool fought from 2-0 down to claim a dramatic 3-2 victory against ten-man Manchester City at Eastlands on Sunday.

Dutch forward Kuyt, who had earlier missed a simple chance at 0-0, scored from two yards in the 91st minute after goalkeeper Joe Hart had saved Fernando Torres’s shot.

City had gone in 2-0 ahead at half-time following goals from Stephen Ireland and Javi Garrido, but a Torres double and Kuyt’s last-gasp winner crushed City, who had been reduced to ten men with the 67th minute dismissal of Pablo Zabaleta.

Despite City’s new-found wealth off the pitch, they went into this game knowing that they still have ground to make up on the ‘Big Four’ before they can begin to seriously contemplate ousting one of English football’s superpower quartet from the Champions League places.

And although Liverpool, with the boardroom squabbles that have proved a distraction for over a year and which have been exacerbated by the financial squeeze of the global credit crunch, appear the most vulnerable of the Big Four to City’s spending power, they arrived at Eastlands unbeaten in the Premier League this season.

Rafael Benitez’s team bore little resemblance to potential champions in the first-half, however, as City dominated the game deservedly scored first against the Merseysiders.

Both Shaun Wright-Phillips and Robinho tested Liverpool goalkeeper Jose Reina in the early stages before Ireland put City ahead with an unstoppable strike on 19 minutes.

The goal had been instigated on the right flank by Wright-Phillips when he dispossessed the sluggish defender Fabio Aurelio on the touchline before bursting into the penalty area.

Wright-Phillips’s cross found Jo, but the Brazilian forward was tackled by Xabi Alonso and the ball returned to Wright-Phillips on the touchline.

The former Chelsea midfielder found Robinho and he shielded the ball on the edge of the six yard box before Ireland arrived to volley the ball past Reina.

City were clearly the hungrier, more determined team and Liverpool, with Irish striker Robbie Keane dropped to the bench, barely threatened Joe Hart’s goal before Garrido doubled the home side’s lead three minutes before half-time.

Albert Riera’s clumsy foul on Wright-Phillips resulted in a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area and Spanish full-back Garrido beat Reina with a perfect set-piece to record his first City goal.

It required a big performance by Benitez during the half-time break to inspire his team to a second-half fightback, but whatever the Spaniard said, it certainly worked as Liverpool were a transformed team after the interval.

Those that had disappointed in the first-half, such as Steven Gerrard and Torres, came to the fore and Gerrard’s threaded ball to Alvaro Arbeloa led to Torres’s fifty-fifth minute goal that gave Liverpool a lifeline.

Robinho then volleyed a Wright-Phillips cross over the bar from three yards before City defender Zabaleta was sent off for a shocking studs-up challenge on Alonso on sixty-four minutes.

From that point on, Liverpool took advantage of their extra man and Torres levelled the scores on 73 minutes with a bullet header from Gerrard’s in-swinging corner.

The action didn’t stop there, though. Torres then missed a glorious hat-trick chance when he volleyed wide from three yards before Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel was carried off with suspected knee injury in the final minute.

And seconds after the fourth official raised a board to inform that six minutes of stoppage time, Kuyt pounced on the rebound from Torres’s strike to win the game for Liverpool and keep them level with leaders Chelsea.