Stoke City and Liverpool played out one of the games of the season as Brendan Rodgers’s side went back into the top four with a 5-3 win.
Liverpool took a 2-0 lead in the first half after Aly Cissokho’s corner flag bound shot took a huge deflection off Ryan Shawcross, resulting in an own goal. Then Martin Skrtel’s poorly defended long ball allowed Luis Suarez to slot home for his 21st goal of the season.
However, Stoke refused to lay down and die as former Liverpool players Peter Crouch and Charlie Adam brought the score back to 2-2 at half time. The former scored a towering header whilst the latter scored a wonder strike from outside the box to level the scores going into the break.
Five minutes into the second half Liverpool were awarded a controversial penalty as Raheem Sterling went down from a Marc Wilson; Steven Gerrard slotted home the penalty to celebrate his 650th game for Liverpool.
After a relatively even twenty minutes Daniel Sturridge made his return from injury, reuniting the Suarez and Sturridge partnership (nicknamed ‘SAS’), playing a through ball for Luis Suarez out wide inside the area as the Uruguayan slotted home a wonderful finish to score his second goal of the game.
However, with five minutes plus injury time left Stoke City broke down the left and Marko Arnautovic’s cross seemed to be in vain as Jonathan Walters couldn’t quite get the ball under control for a quick shot. However, the Evertonian took the ball past the defender and his rather tame shot went past the blundering Simon Mignolet to bring the score back to 4-3.
However, the ‘SAS’ partnership struck again as Suarez put Sturridge through on goal. The Englishman’s original shot was saved well but he took the rebound to score the final goal of the game as the match ended 5-3.
Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard were very much to the fore as Gerrard’s playing in a deeper role allowed him to control the game. Suarez’s two goals means that he has now scored more than once in a game on eight occasions (Stoke themselves have only managed that seven times this season).
Liverpool are now back in the top four and lie five points behind leaders Manchester City. However, Arsenal have a game in hand and should they beat Aston Villa tomorrow they will go back to top and six points clear of the Anfield side.
Thanks for Reading, you can follow me on twitter – @LastwordonHugo. Give the site a follow while you’re at it – @LastWordOnSports and like our Facebook Page.
Interested in writing for LastWordOnSports? Find more info at our “Join Our Team” page.
