Torres takes reds top to Rafa's Relief

[anfieldpurch]

Liverpool clambered to the top of the premier league and were thankful to Fernando Torres as the Spaniard scored a 91st minute winner after being introduced as a sub in a bemusing re-shuffle by Rafael Benitez.

Liverpool’s manager surprisingly started with six defenders including 3 centrebacks. Andrea Dossena, Fabio Aurelio and Alvaro Arbeloa all pushed into midfield roles with Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel and Jamie Carragher in centre-back positions.

Amazingly Torres, Kuyt and Alonso were relegated to the bench along with Albert Riera with David Ngog given his first start. Ryan Babel and Yossi Benayoun thrust into a more-forward role. Though Babel will be wandering how in the second half he failed to score when a Dirk Kuyt (having come on as a substitute) cross was laid perfectly for a tap-in only for the Dutchman to amazingly miss the ball.

Overall a scrappy game was opened up in the 2nd half when David Nugent adjudged to be onside by the linesman much to the disapproval of several men in red around him, managed to get a sweet strike and put the ball past Pepe Reina much to the delight of the for the majority of the game silent Pompey fans.

Liverpool did push and changes were made. And it was 2 ex-reds who combined to form Liverpool’s equaliser. Peter Crouch’s long pass back towards James was almost intercepted by Dirk Kuyt but quick thinking by the England stopper saw a free-kick awarded for a backpass. After much deliberation and tease, Xabi Alonso laid the ball across to Fabio Aurelio who smashed home a powerful left-footed strike into the net past Niko Kranjcar who had little time to react.

Portsmouth re-took the lead as Nadir Belhadj whipped a free-kick in which was nodded home by Hermain Hreidarsson, though Reina should have saved it but the bounce may have confused him. The Liverpool 2nd time equaliser was fortunate in some ways as Torres had a ball cut out only for it to fall for Dirk Kuyt who made room before giving James no chance to react with a thunderbolt from an acute angle. The winner was harsh on Portsmouth as Benayoun saw more slack Pompey defending and chipped the ball for Torres to nod home so exquisitely and take the reds to the summit for 24 hours at least.
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Wrote this about tonight's game. Not a professional writer but just felt like writing.