No bad blood between two managers / Image via mirror.co.uk
Liverpool welcomed Arsenal on Wednesday night in a highly anticipated affair which has indeed offered plenty of excitement for the crowd at Anfield.
Both sides put in a high-tempo game much for the pleasure of both sets of fans, but Arsenal supporters will have been left disappointed with the outcome of the game, which saw them drop valuable points in the finish of the game.
Arsenal have had a slow start to the match, but their title ambitions have been dented with late equalizer by Joe Allen, who managed to fire home in the final moment of the match.
Arsene Wenger’s troops have thus been halted in their steaming title chase, but will have Olivier Giroud to thank for the scintillating, nail-biting draw at Anfield.
Leicester’s late one-goal triumph at Tottenham has done little to benefit Gunners, who now have only two points’ worth advantage ahead of Foxes after 21 rounds already archived.
Liverpool have opened the Wednesday’s encounter in fantastic fashion displaying Jurgen Klopp’s distinguishable style of play, pressing their rivals high and tight to gain possession and keep ball as much as possible during the first 45 minutes.
Reds held the ball 58% to their feet and had more than 20 shots, but only six of those on target.
One of those efforts was Emre Can’s after only ten minutes of the game, when Petr Cech pulled a magnificent save to deny Can’s shot from the edge of the box.
However, Cech wasn’t fortunate enough as he was beaten in the same minute by Roberto Firmino. The Brazilian picked up on a rebound to fire the ball back in the net and give his team an early lead in the game.
Four minutes later, another goal. This time from Arsenal who managed to draw level through a wonderful and precise shot by Aaron Ramsey. Joel Campbell put the ball through to Ramsey who showed great composure inside the box to put the ball into the right side of the net and behind Mignolet, who should have reacted much better to stop the ball.
Goals kept pouring in the first half and it was after only four minutes that Jurgen Klopp’s charges managed to pull one back and take the 2-1 lead.
James Milner passed the ball to Roberto Firmino, who collected it and unleashed a fantastic shot from the edge of the box with his effort going into the top right corner. Petr Cech could not do much with this fabulous goal.
Liverpool fans briefly thought their team went two up only two minutes later, but Moreno’s goal was ruled offside.
Twenty-five minutes in the game and Olivier Giroud takes the centre stage at Anfield. The French striker was in just the right place to pick up on Aron Ramsey’s teasing cross and put the ball back in the net.
Shortly afterwards the Arsenal forward managed to ruin the wonderful chance when he was presented with an open goal opportunity, only to pass the back into the hands of Simon Mignolet.
The Frenchman got his revenge however in the second half.
On 55 minutes Giroud stood in the way of the rebound, but did well to take the advantage of it and to power the ball inside the left post, leaving the Liverpool goalkeeper helpless with his fantastic spin and shot, which had the fans forget all about his previous embarrassing miss.
Liverpool lost the steam in the second half, Jurgen Klopp’s physically demanding football is slowly getting the best out of Liverpool squad, injury laden for most part of the running season.
German tactician has made the total of 11 changes to the team which went out to face Exeter City and mounting injuries have made Reds take precautionary measures and unsolicited transfer dealings when they chose to recall Ilori and Ward from their loans, and also to loan Caulker from Queens Park Rangers to cover up their losses.
Home side were showing signs of exhaustion, but have still mustered enough strength to get back on their feet in the last fifteen minutes of the game and to deservedly get something out of the game.
With clock ticking the last moments of the match a cross in the box is headed down by Christian Benteke to Joe Allen who does brilliantly to drive the ball into the net for the final score of the extremely eventful game at Anfield, 3-3.
LIVERPOOL: Mignolet 6 – Clyne 6.5, Toure 7, Sakho 7, Moreno 6.5 – Henderson 7, Can 7.5 (Allen 7), Milner 6.5 (Benteke 6) – Ibe 6.5, Firmino 7.5, Lallana 7 (Caulker 6).
Unused subs: Lucas, Smith, Teixeira, Ward.
ARSENAL: Cech 6.5 – Bellerin 6.5, Mertesacker 7, Koscielny 7, Monreal 7 – Ramsey 7.5, Flamini 7 – Campbell 7.5 (Oxlade-Chamberlain 6), Ozil 7 (Arteta 6), Walcott 6 (Gibbs 6) – Giroud 8.
Unused subs: Chambers, Iwobi, Macey, Gabriel.
REFEREE: Mike Jones
Other results this evening
Chelsea 2-2 West Brom
Manchester City 0-0 Everton
Southampton 2-0 Watford
Stoke City 3-1 Norwich
Swansea 2-4 Sunderland
Tottenham 0-1 Leicester City
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