Jordan Henderson’s fortuitous goal earned Liverpool a 1-0 win at Swansea on Monday as they moved within two points of fourth-placed Manchester United ahead of an eagerly anticipated showdown against their bitter rivals.
Henderson scored for a third successive Premier League game to make it five successive top-flight victories for Brendan Rodgers’ team as their charge for the Champions League continues to gather pace.
Yet there was more than a stroke of luck about Henderson’s second-half winner after Swansea defender Jordi Amat’s attempted clearance ricocheted off the onrushing Liverpool midfielder and looped over goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.
Photo: EPA
That will be of little concern to Liverpool’s former Swansea manager Rodgers on what was a happy return to the Liberty Stadium that means his team can leapfrog old foes United should they defeat them at Anfield on Sunday.
There was no place for Mario Balotelli in the Liverpool squad due to illness, while Steven Gerrard — available for the first time since Feb. 10 following a hamstring problem — had to settle for coming on as a second-half substitute.
One player who did make the starting line-ups was Swansea forward Bafetimbi Gomis, who was declared fit 12 days after collapsing on the pitch during the loss at Tottenham.
The France international showed no signs of any ill-affects from his recent scare and he was denied a 21st-minute opener when he headed Wayne Routledge’s cross goalward only for Martin Skrtel to clear off the line.
Another typically slick Swans move soon followed, with Ki Sung-yueng’s raking ball out wide to Neil Taylor controlled superbly by the leftback as he got the better of Emre Can. Taylor fed the ball inside to Gylfi Sigurdsson, who, with back to goal, rolled former Swansea star Joe Allen with a sharp turn only to bend his shot beyond the right-angle of the post.
The midfielder found that very corner perfectly minutes later with a brilliant instinctive effort that Simon Mignolet, at full stretch, superbly tipped around his post.
The danger was far from averted, though, as Jonjo Shelvey was picked out from a short-corner routine and, connecting cleanly with his first-time strike, he looked set to be celebrating against his former club until his shot inadvertently deflected off Adam Lallana and away for another corner.
This was as sharp as the Swans had looked all season.
However, the halftime whistle came at exactly the wrong time for Garry Monk’s team, serving to halt their momentum.
The warning signs were there for the home side when Daniel Sturridge’s intelligent reverse pass played Raheem Sterling into space down the Reds’ right.
His cross was met with a first-time strike from Philippe Coutinho that would have crept inside the near upright, but for the fine reflexes of Fabianski, who turned it around the post.
Then, in the 68th minute, the goal Rodgers had been craving came, albeit with a large slice of good fortune.
Skrtel’s probing ball through the heart of the Swans defense was flicked on by Sturridge into space to leave Amat and Henderson in direct pursuit, yet the sliding Swansea defender’s attempted clearance inadvertently struck the Liverpool midfielder and beat the stranded Fabianski.
Then Sturridge almost doubled the advantage in the dying moments with a curling effort against the right post.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but