Liverpool fight back to avoid major upset: The Twitter Match Report

Football FanCast

By Christy Malyan

Published Jan 18, 2014

Liverpool entertained Aston Villa at Anfield this evening in the Premier League's late Saturday kick-off. The Reds had their eyes victory to maintain momentum in their Champions League push, whilst the points were the priority for the visitors - Paul Lambert's side had claimed just four in their last seven league fixtures.

But it was surprisingly the Villians who came out of the blocks flying. Gabby Agbonlahor could have put them ahead in the first minute after finding himself alone in the Liverpool box, but the breakthrough eventually came via Andreas Weimann in the 24th minute, who applied a sliding finish to a low cross. Christian Benteke then found his second goal in successive games ten minutes later.

It seemed Liverpool would enter the interval 2-0 down, but a Daniel Sturridge goal before the break made Brendan Rodgers' half-time team-talk a little easier. Early in the second half, Brad Guzan then brought down Luis Suarez in the box, with Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard converting the spot kick with a powerful effort.

Here's how the key events unfolded on Twitter:

With less than a minute on the clock, Gabby Agbonlahor found himself through on goal, but put the effort wide...

And after 23 minutes, Keiran Clark hits the right-hand post with a headed effort from a corner;

A few minutes later, a great counter-attacking move sees Christian Benteke, Gabby Agbonlahor and Andreas Weimann charge down the pitch. Agbonalhor puts in a low cross, the Austrian provides a sliding finish.

At the 35 minute mark, Villa won possession high up the pitch. Agbonlahor whipped in a curling ball from the right hand side fooling Simon Mignolet, leaving Benteke to comfortably nod home into an empty net and make it 2-0 to the visitors.

It took until just before the half-time whistle for Liverpool to get back into the game. Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge combined nicely in the final third, Jordan Henderson applied an inventive flick and Sturridge produced a calm dinked finish;

The comeback continued when Luis Suarez was brought down inside the box by Villians 'keeper Brad Guzan. There was some debate over the amount of contact actually made, but Steven Gerrard stepped up to convert the penalty with a drilled finish.