Liverpool beat Fulham on Wednesday night in the most exciting finishes of the season. Liverpool had to come back twice in a thrilling 3-2 in which Captain Fantastic Steven Gerrard scored the winning goal from the penalty spot.
The win keeps Liverpool very much in the title hunt just four point of leaders Chelsea – although should Manchester City win their game in hand their lead ahead of Liverpool would extend to five points.
With regards to Fulham the result will be deeply disappointing in which a sloppy penalty conceded by Riether who mistimed a tackle on Daniel Sturridge as the clock edged closer to 90 minutes. Fulham remain bottom of the table on 20 points after 26 games.
The game began with Liverpool playing poorly and finding it difficult to keep possession. The first goal came as a bit of a surprise though, when a run-of-the-mill cross into Liverpool’s box saw renegade defender Kolo Toure swipe at the ball, scuff the cross, and saw the ball swerve behind him and into Simon Mignolet’s net.
The rest of the half saw Liverpool continue to play sloppy passes, yet were rewarded by a moment of utter brilliance. A breaking ball in the middle of the pitch saw captain Steven Gerrard play an outside of the boot slide-rule pass to Daneil Sturridge who slotted the ball passed Fulham keeper Maarten Stekelenburg to score for his seventh Premier League game in a row which set a Liverpool record in Premier League terms.
Despite suggestions Kolo Toure would be subbed for the newly fit defender Daniel Agger Toure returned for the second 45. Liverpool would apply pressure throughout the second half and creates some chances, notably one chance for Luis Suarez who has hit somewhat of a drought in front of goal for a player of his quality.
Liverpool would be undone by some calamitous defending which saw ex-Manchester United man Kieran Richardson score for the second game in a row to make the game 2-1 to the Londoners.
While the hopes of many Liverpool fans were fading the players remained more than hopeful and it was a hopeful shot from outside of the box by the Brazilian playmaker Phillipe Coutinho which took a slight deflection and went into the bottom of the net to draw Liverpool level.
Coutinho’s equaliser set Liverpool up the grandstand finish not dissimilar to the game in Spring 2009 when Liverpool also needed a late goal to secure the win at Craven Cottage and keep their title hopes alive with a Benayoun winner. This time though, it was Steven Gerrard to once again stepped up to win a massive game for Liverpool. Liverpool debutant creative midfielder Joao Carlos Teixera came on and played a decisive pass to Daniel Sturridge who was brought down for the penalty.
When Steven Gerrard put the ball in the back of the net the Liverpool end erupted. This may not have been the sweet poetry in motion the kop sang about on Saturday. This was something that words will find hard to do justice to illustrate the emotion in the ground. This wasn’t poetry in motion. This was Liverpool.