Jamie Carragher scores for Everton
Jamie Carragher played his testimonial match at Anfield against Everton. It was a match that ended four goals to one in favour of Liverpool. However the defender fulfilled his lifelong dream of scoring a goal for Everton.
Liverpool's side included former superstars like, Jason McAteer, Luis Garcia, Emile Heskey and the biggest surprise of them all, Michael Owen. Steven Gerrard made a ten minute appearance after being given special permission by Fabio Capello to participate in the match.
Liverpool did not waste time and in the opening two minutes the team had their first goal of the night, thanks to a wonderful curling effort off the feet of Spanish forward, Luis Garcia.
A penalty was awarded to the team later on in the match, following a hand ball by Shane Duffy. Carragher was the man to step up and converted his spot kick with ease.
In the second half Carragher finally completed his lifelong dream of scoring for Everton. After a penalty was awarded to the away team, Yakubu looked set to take it. However, Carragher rushed past the striker and scored an own goal leaving everyone on the pitch feeling confused. The defender then left the pitch to an array of standing ovations from supporters of both the teams.
Once the match was over a lot of questions were being raised, so Carragher stepped up and explained his own goal to the media, the defender was reported to have said: "As an Everton fan as a kid I've always dreamed about scoring against Liverpool so that is why I did that."
The 32-year-old who is hoping to raise £1 million from the match and a dinner, with all proceeds going to charity, also thanked the Football Association for allowing Gerrard to appear.
"A big thank you to the people at the FA because it is not easy as they had two massive games - but I think it helped they won last night," he added.
"He is the best player I've ever played with so I'm delighted he was involved.
"England always have to do a warm-down the day after so that was his warm-down."
Carragher also had kind words for Michael Owen, who braved a return to Anfield to pay tribute to his former team-mate, and revealed he had wanted him to take the first penalty of the match.
"I asked the referee to give us a penalty before half-time because I was thinking about Michael [Owen] as I wanted him to score - I totally forgot that people would want me to take one," he explained.
"He's my best mate in football and I think it took a lot of courage to come back today and do it for me knowing he would take a lot of stick.”
"But I think the crowd would have killed him if he'd taken the penalty listening to their reaction."
The game ended with four goals to one in favour of the Liverpool Xl however neither of the two teams would have gone home disappointed considering the match was being played for a good cause.
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