Match Report - Liverpool 2 Bolton Wanderers 3
Youri Djorkaeff sent Bolton into the Carling Cup quarter-finals with a penalty in the dying minutes at Liverpool.
Gerard Houllier rang the changes to the team who beat Birmingham so convincingly on Sunday with Danny Murphy, Jerzy Dudek, Vladimir Smicer, John Arne Riise, Anthony Le Tallec and Jon Otsemobor all starting in a match Liverpool needed to win to extend their run in a competition they won last March. Despite insisting only yesterday that Liverpool love the League Cup, the fact that the manager rested Sami Hyypia and Dietmar Hamann completely and dropped Steven Gerrard, Harry Kewell and Florent-Sinama Pongolle to the bench was a clear signal that the trip to Newcastle and the battle for fourth place in the Premiership rate slightly higher in his list of priorities that the Carling Cup.
Bolton called in Kevin Poole, Anthony Barness, Henrik Pedersen, Ricardo Gardner, Jardel, Ibrahim Ba and Emerson Thome, leaving only four of the side that beat Everton on Saturday. On paper, Bolton's reshuffle looked a lot stronger than Liverpool's with the likes of Okocha, Ivan Campo, Djorkaeff and Jardel in the side.
And on four minutes they went ahead when Jardel, unmarked, headed home Djorkaeff's left-wing corner for his third goal for the club on only his third appearance in the starting line-up.
Liverpool's response was a 35-yard free-kick from Riise that Poole spilled but Smicer could only lift over the bar from close range. A minute later Smicer's cross from the right was clipped inches over the bar by Emile Heskey. Le Tallec was finding it tough going against Thome up front, but he won a free-kick on the edge of the box after 25 minutes, and Riise saw another fierce drive flash over.
Liverpool's first serious attack came on 25 minutes when Otsemobor raced away down the right and found Smicer, whose ball across the box was met by Le Tallec with a right-foot shot that Thome blocked in the six yard box.
Another foul on Le Tallec presented Murphy with the chance to curl a 25-yard free kick just over the top on the half hour. Dudek then managed to mishandle a speculative 40-yard low drive on the run by Okocha, the ball spinning off his hands for a corner, and he somehow managed to hurt his left leg in the embarrassing incident.
Bolton had been happy to defend and break, and on 43 minutes Barness' run down the right created a chance for Pedersen but he headed just wide. Campo saw an effort from the edge of the penalty area blocked two minutes into the second half, with Liverpool's attempts to get back on terms still looking punchless.
Murphy's run at the heart of Bolton's defence created acres of space for El-Hadji Diouf. But his first touch was poor, and the chance was lost. Then Heskey got in a shot after a right-wing cross, and Campo rose to head away from an empty net.
On 76 minutes Bolton thought they had scored a second when Djorkaeff forced the ball home after an Okocha long throw was not cleared properly. But referee Mike Riley, after at first looking to give the goal, decided that there had been a handball in the build-up. But three minutes later Bolton got one that did count after Diao had been penalised for a foul just outside the box. Okocha sent in a curling free-kick that crashed past Dudek without the keeper moving a muscle. Simon Charlton took over from Bruno N'Gotty on 83 minutes, but Liverpool were not finished. Gerrard fed Smicer through the middle, and he sent an outstanding curling shot past Poole from 25 yards.
Extra time loomed but Bolton were ahead again in the 89th minute when Diao fouled Davies in the box and Djorkaeff sent the penalty off a post and past Dudek.
source: Lfc Online/liverpoolfc.tv/Ananova
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