Match Summary
Liverpool were held to a draw by Wigan Atheltic at Anfield on Saturday afternoon, ending a run of four consecutive victories for Kenny Dalglish‘s men.
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In a lively game for both sides, Raul Meireles gave Liverpool the lead with a sweetly hit volley from around the penalty spot in the 24th minute. That was later cancelled out by a scrappy goal from Steve Gohouri twenty minutes into the second half.
Dalglish gave a full debut to £23million striker Luis Suarez, who looked lively throughout the game, though a little unaccustomed to the physical game Wigan played.
With captain Steven Gerrard out injured, Dalglish switched to a 4-4-2 formation. Dirk Kuyt partenered Suarez up front with a midfield of Maxi Rodriguez, Lucas, Meireles and Fabio Aurelio.
Liverpool looked impressive going forward throughout the game, with plenty of shots on goal and good efforts.
Suarez hit the woodwork twice, in the first half turning in from the left to see a powerful strike hit the outside of Ali Al Habsi’s left hand post and again in the second half when his curling free kick from just outside the box hit the crossbar.
There was another great performance from Lucas who really made the centre of midfield his own, distributing accurate passing and getting back for tackles well.
Meireles took his goal well, firing home a half-cleared cross to score his fifth goal in six games for the Reds.
But throughout the game Wigan were knocking on Liverpool’s goal. The first half ended with a flurry of corners for the visitors, kept at bay by some good punching from Pepe Reina.
Gohouri’s tap in from a messy ball across the Liverpool penalty area had shades of offside about it, but it was a moment in lapse of concentration for Liverpool’s defence.
Liverpool can take some good individual performances from this game, but will rue missed chances and two points dropped.
Team Line-ups
Liverpool: Reina, Kelly, Carragher, Skrtel, Johnson, Maxi, Meireles, Lucas, Aurelio, Kuyt, Suarez. Subs: Gulacsi, Kyrgiakos, Wilson, Poulsen, Pacheco, Jovanovic, Ngog.
Wigan: Al Habsi, Gohouri, Alcaraz, McCarthy, Caldwell, Watson, N’Zogbia, Moses, Rodallega, Diame, Figueroa.
Subs: Pollitt, Di Santo, S.Caldwell, Gomez, Cleverely, McArthur, Stam.
Other results today
Arsenal 2-0 Wolves
Birmingham 1-0 Stoke
Blackburn 0-0 Newcastle
Blackpool 1-1 Aston Villa
Liverpool 1-1 Wigan
Man Utd 2-1 Man City
Sunderland vs Tottenham 17:30
West Brom 3-3 West Ham
