Liverpool’s monthlong search for a league win ended with a 2-0 victory at Everton after Joseph Yobo’s own-goal and Dirk Kuyt’s late strike settled the 212th Merseyside derby at Goodison Park.
Liverpool’s victory owed much to Yobo’s errors. The Everton center back inadvertently diverted Javier Mascherano’s 30m strike past goalkeeper Tim Howard in the 12th minute, and another late mistake from Nigeria international led to Kuyt’s goal.
Yobo’s error on an attempted clearance in the 80th allowed Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard to seize the loose ball and tee up Albert Riera for a shot that was parried by Howard but then kicked into the net by Kuyt.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Liverpool’s first league victory since Oct. 25 was secured without injured striker Fernando Torres, and it helped lift some of the gloom surrounding the club in the wake of its elimination from the Champions League.
“It was an important game to move up the league,” Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said. “We’ve not performed as well as we’d have liked this season. But we’re the ones who can change that, with a couple of wins hopefully we can do that, but we still have a long way to go.”
Everton’s third straight loss leaves them two points above the relegation zone.
“I thought the players did a good job,” Everton manager David Moyes said. “I’ve got encouragement from today but it doesn’t change our position.”
Everton striker Jo did find the back of the net twice but he was correctly judged to be offside both times.
Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina almost handed Everton a soft goal when he fumbled Steven Pienaar’s long-range shot and the ball dropped behind him before he quickly recovered it.
Reina made two crucial saves from Tim Cahill’s header and Marouane Fellaini’s follow-up.
Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez labeled fellow-Spaniard Reina “one of the best keepers in the world” after the game.
“We have seen that he is a top class keeper,” said Benitez, after his side climbed into fifth spot in the table.
“When we signed him we knew that we were getting a very good keeper. For me he is one of the best in the world,” he said.
Kuyt also praised Reina as Liverpool recorded their first clean sheet victory away from home in the Premier League since last season.
“He is one of the best in the world,” said the Netherlands international. “He really helped us out today.”
Benitez is now urging his players to learn from that and use their latest victory as a springboard to kick on.
“It’s always important win games in a row,” Benitez said. “We have some days to go before we go to Blackburn so we will prepare like we always do.”
“This was a really important win for us because this was always going to be a difficult game,” he said. “We are higher in the table now, everyone is happier and we’ll see if we can go on from here.”
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with