Own Goals, Red Cards, Penalties and Impromptu Goalkeeping on Merseyside

By: Daryl | October 20th, 2007

Kuyt penalty against Everton After captaining England to disaster in Russia, and having his performance against Estonia mercilessly picked apart via the magic of YouTube, poor Stevie Gerrard needed cheering up. And what better way to bounce back than by coming from behind to win the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park? Things got off to a bad start when Sami Hyppia sliced the ball past his own keeper, adding to the proud tradition of comical Liverpool own goals to give Everton the lead. But even though Everton played pretty well (or not, see comments…) one bit of trademark Gerrard was enough to turn the game.

The England captain has been criticized lately for failing to control himself, always charging forward, never taking the time to put his foot on the ball and slow things down. But it was a typical Gerrard charge into the penalty area that forced Tony Hibbert to get in his way, resulting in an early bath for Hibbert and a penalty for Liverpool, which Dirk Kuyt converted.

Liverpool failed to really make their one man advantage count… until the 90th minute. Gerrard looked a bit confused when Rafa replaced him with Lucas in the 71st minute, but the Brazilian struck a shot which Phil Neville did well to save. Only thing is Phil Neville isn’t a goalkeeper, so he joined Hibbert in the bath (maybe?) and Kuyt stuck away a second penalty to give Liverpool a 2-1 win. Everton can consider themselves unlucky, especially when denied a late penalty of their own after Joleon Lescott was pulled down by Jamie Carragher in the box.

Everton have now lost two in a row, and four of their last five games. Probably not what they had planned at the start of the season, and Yakubu failed to score again. He may be the new James Beattie. Liverpool could look at this slightly lucky win as a turning point. They currently sit in 4th place, and after a shaky few games, including the Champions League disaster against Marseilles, a title bid now looks possible again. Though they probably won’t have the luxury of playing against nine men and being gifted two penalties every week.