Congrats to Momo Sissoko who scored his first career goal for Liverpool today. Maybe now this will give him the confidence to be more consistent.
The ref has allowed Sunderland to pretty much get away with murder as they have pushed and prodded their way to making this match competitive. It seems to have gone against them though as they looked quite tired towards the end of the second half and we probably should have added another on a Pennant cross to Torres, but El Nino didn't get quite enough on it and Gordon was able to recover in time before the ball trickled past the line.
Speaking of Pennant and Torres, both have been terrific. Early on, Pennant looked as if he was going to continue is miserable start to the season but then something clicked and he reverted back to the Pennant of last season. He made some spectacular runs down the right taking on two and three defenders at a time. Torres has just showed his class, giving the Black Cats massive amount of trouble and worry with his pace and pressure. Those two are sure to add another goal in the second.
We should have had a goal in the first 20 seconds as a Sunderland defender made a weak pass back toward the keeper that was intercepted by Voronin, who failed to seal the deal. Instead of volleying it over the keeper, he kicked it right at him.
For about the first ten to fifteen minutes we dominated possession and looked as if we're about to score anysecond. Then Hyypia got hurt on a reckless aerial challenge by Murphy that wasn't even close. How he didn't get a card as the blood started pouring out of Sami's nose, I'll never know. He was late, had no chance at the ball, and looked to go shoulder first as that is what connected with Hyypia's head. Since the blood wouldn't stop, Agger had to come on.
After that, for about the next twenty minutes, Sunderland managed to claw there way back in the match and even had a couple of chances on goal that were quickly smothered by Reina. Then Pennant and Babel took over.
Pennant made a great run down the right against two defenders which seemed to build the team's confidence and it was no looking back from there. Then came the goal and Babel started showing off his fancy footwork, which is quite impressive for a kid his size.
No one has been that bad really, everyone has had their ups and downs. I just hope we can carry the momentum we finished with in the first half, into the second