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MOTD- Liverpool 0-2 Chelsea

By on April 27, 2014

Liverpool now need to win both of their final two matches in order to remain in the Premier League title race, but a 2-0 loss to Chelsea isn’t as damaging to the Reds’ fight for their first league title in over twenty years as made out by most press. Brendan Rodgers’ side are still top of the table, and unless Manchester City pull out a thrashing in their match in hand, Liverpool will remain there. And if they win their final two matches, the title is all but theirs.

However, one slip up and Chelsea proved today that they will be able to punish Liverpool, both figuratively and literally. Figuratively, in the sense that they have the ability to make Liverpool woe missed chances as they did tonight, and literally as like they punished Rodgers’ men tonight when a slip from Steven Gerrard’s allowed Chelsea to break on a counter attack and score the opening goal of the match. After all, that vital goal punished Liverpool for their missed chances in Philippe Coutinho’s volley into the side netting from the left side of the box, Mohamed Sakho’s poked finish from a corner that was cleared off the line by Ashley Cole, and Luis Suarez curled effort which flew over the crossbar. And once Chelsea did find that opener, they punished Liverpool for Gerrard’s slip in the middle, with Ba gaining possession, romping through towards goal, and curling a low finish in between the legs of Simon Mignolet. And while the game was already halfway over, Liverpool still had more than enough time to turn the scoreline around.

Nine minutes into the second half the English club nearly did when Gerrard lobbed a thirty yard volley towards the top left corner, only for Mark Schwarzer to relatively easily catch the ball. Joe Allen then forced Schwarzer to palm a low shot across goal away at his bottom right hand post, just adding to the tally of Liverpool’s rued chances.

I can’t fault the players, we just didn’t find the breakthrough. Credit to Chelsea for that, they sat in really deep. There were probably two buses parked today instead of one.” – Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers

Chelsea, meanwhile, were sitting back and absorbing the pressure, and when they did break on the counter, at least they made it count. Andre Schurrle curled a twenty yard effort on goal sixty-two minutes in, and although Mignolet somehow pushed the low shot wide, Jose Mourinho’s side struck the back of the net with their next chance. Bar, it came with just two of four minutes of stoppage time remaining on the clock, but at least they put the game to bed. Willian played the ball in behind the Liverpool defense to Fernando Torres, who bore down on goal, two-on-one with Willian Mignolet, before cutting the ball back for the Brazilian to pass into the back of the empty net.
Man of the Match: Demba Ba

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.