Steven Gerrard scored an impressive second half equaliser in Liverpool’s final game of their pre-season campaign as the Reds drew 1-1 with Feyenoord in the Port of Rotterdam Tournament on Sunday evening.
The captain drove forward in the 73rd minute to take the ball past the Feyenoord defence and slot home left-footed past Ekramy to cancel out Royston Drenthe’s goal a minute before half-time.
Drenthe’s goal came down the Liverpool left after John Arne Riise had been caught out of position from a long ball and allowed the dangerous Slory to get in behind him, his shot came off the inside of the box for Drenthe to put home from close range.
Drenthe was the talking point of the match throwing himself around more than was needed in a friendly a week before the season begins and causing a lively scuffle late on after he went in late on Gerrard.
Liverpool dominated the posession, particularly in the first half when Dirk Kuyt should have had a dream return to his old club when he struck a well hit shot onto the underside of the crossbar from the edge of the box – it bounced down inside of the line but the speed meant the referee nor linesman could judge it. Once again the simple introduction of goal line technology was on display.
The second half proved livelier than the first, with a scuffle taking place late on after Pepe Reina had saved Danny Buijs penalty after Alvaro Arbeloa was wrongly adjudged to have handled in the area – replays showed the ball clearly strook his face and so justice was done when Reina saved well to his low right side.
On the same day Chelsea lost another penalty shoot out – missing all three in the Charity Shield against Man United – Reina’s save showed again why he will be keeping Scott Carson out of the team this season and supplied fans will memories from last season’s Champions League semi final victory over the Blues.
The introduction of Ryan Babel on the left side helped liven the match – not only for his speed and energy but for the crowd also who gave the former Ajax player a ‘friendly’ welcome.
The result means that Liverpool do not take any silverwear back to Anfield with them from the pre-season campaign, with the Port of Rotterdam Tournament being won by FC Porto who earlier beat Shanghai Shenhua 3-0 and therefore won the tournament on a superior goals conceded record!
Liverpool now travel to Villa Park next Saturday for their opening game of the new league season.
Teams: Liverpool: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Agger, Riise; Pennant (Torres), Gerrard (Sissoko), Alonso (Mascherano), Kewell (Babel), Voronin (Benayoun), Kuyt. Subs – Hyypia, Crouch, Martin, Finnan
Feyenoord: Ekramy, de Cler, Bahia, Vlaar, Lucius, Sahin, Van Bronckhorst (captain), De Guzman, Slory, Makaay, Drenthe. Subs – Mols, Lensky, Bruins, Wijnaldum, Buijs, Hofs, Buijs, Biseswar, Timmer
