Premier League: Liverpool 3 - 0 vs. Aston Villa - Full Match Report
The absence of Fernando Torres from the Liverpool side did not help Aston Villa win its match against Liverpool on Monday. Ryan Babel and David Ngog struck in the first half for Liverpool, while Maxi Rodriguez scored in the second.
Liverpool have secured their fourth consecutive victory at Anfield and strengthened their lead in the Barclays Premier League. Villa manager Gerard Houllier, who was formerly the manager for Liverpool, was quite unhappy returning to Anfield.
Playing an aggressive game from the get-go, Liverpool narrowly missed scoring in the third minute when Dirk Kuyt failed to volley the ball in the net after Ngog’s two headers and Raul Miereles’ kick. In the 14th minute,
Ngog got off the mark with a spectacular goal from the top left corner of inside the penalty area. The very next minute, Leiva Lucas gave a through ball to Ryan Babel, who went past the broken Villa defense and fired a shot from the bottom left corner right
into the net. Liverpool was high after scoring two back-to-back goals in just two minutes. Sotirios Kyrgiakos could have bombarded Villa with another goal in the 27th minute but his header went wide.
Aston Villa had a chance when Gabriel Agbonlahor’s shot from Stewart Downing’s cross was half-stopped by Pepe Reina and cleared by Paul Konchesky.
Rodriguez grabbed the opportunity from a nice assist from Ngog and scored in the second half, bringing Liverpool up 3-0. Rodriguez, having scored just one goal in the last five months, now has three in the last seven games. Another
header from Kyrgiakos was cleared by Jonathan Hogg as Villa buckled up completely and the clock ticked towards the whistle.
Liverpool had previously been in woeful form due to a series of injuries. Captain Steven Gerrard aggravated a hamstring injury while training, and defender Jamie Carragher dislocated his shoulder in a match against Tottenham. The
further loss of Torres, who had been called away as his wife had gone into labour with the couple’s second child, had appeared to place the team at an even greater disadvantage. Manager Roy Hodgson must be thrilled with his team’s victory despite these setbacks.
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