EPL Full Time Report: Liverpool versus Aston Villa – 3-0 (Part 1)
It was a match in which former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier had returned to Anfield only this time as the Aston Villa manager after Martin O’Neil left them.
Both Houllier and Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson were missing crucial players in the encounter as top of the list for Villains was Ashley Young and for Liverpool it were Steven Gerrard, Fernado Torres and Jamie Carragher.
Liverpool Players: Pepe Reina, Martin Skrtel, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Paul Konchesky, Glan Johnson, Lucas, Raul Meirles, Maxi Rodriguez, Dirk Kuyt, Ryan Babel and David N’Gog.
Substitutes: Joe Cole, Fabio Aurelio, Brad Jones, Christian Poulsen, Jonjo Shelvey, Martin Kelly and Milan Jovanovic.
Aston Villa Players: Brad Friedel, Richard Dunne, James Collins, Stephen Warnock, Luke Young, Jonathan Hogg, Ciaran Clark, Stephen Clark, Stewart Downing, Marc Albrighton and Gabriel Agbonlahor.
Substitutes: Roberto Pires, John Carew, Carlos Jimenez Cuellar, Brad Guzan, Chris Herd, Nathan Delfouneso and Eric Lichaj.
The goals in the first half occurred in quick succession from both of the Liverpool forwards.
In the 13th minute, Liverpool manager Hodgson was celebrating with jubilation as a brilliant corner came flying out to the far side of the box and defender Martin Skrtel headed it back in to close range. There he found Frenchman David N’Gog score
a flying header.
Soon after this in the 16th minute, Liverpool made some fantastic plays in the midfield from where the ball eventually travelled out to the right side of the wing via a strong crossed lob. It was the Dutchman Ryan Babel who got all the glory as
the player controlled the ball superbly and then unleashed a powerful shot with finesse finish.
The start of second half was extremely calm but soon after the players got warmed up again, Aston Villa started pulling in some well organized runs at goal.
During the 48th minute of the match, one such came up but Kyrgiakos and Reina were present to be hailed as saviours.
In the 52nd minute, Villa had a brilliant chance to pull back one in as Downing made a smart run and passed clinically to Agbonlahor. He got to where there were too many Liverpool defenders to cut in from so the ball got cleared off after a shuffle
and a deflection.
By now, the strategy by Houllier seemed to play in long crosses to the box but they all were being handed to the goal keeper Reina.
There was a pretty good pass from a counter attack by Liverpool to Babel but he was found offside in the 54th minute.
To be continued in Part 2...
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