Swansea City midfielder Jonjo Shelvey went from hero to zero and then back again in a dramatic 2-2 draw against his former club Liverpool on Monday.
Shelvey took just 87 seconds to open the scoring at the Liberty Stadium with his first goal for Swansea since being sold by Liverpool in pre-season.
The 21-year-old did not have long to savor the moment of revenge as he produced two careless passes that led directly to Liverpool taking the lead with goals from Daniel Sturridge and Victor Moses before halftime.
Photo: AFP
However, he finished with a smile on his face after providing the assist that brought Michu’s equalizer midway through the second half.
Shelvey’s evening to remember brought an end to Liverpool’s 100 percent start to the season, but the Reds still moved to the top of the Premier League table, one point clear of Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, despite the end of their three-match winning run.
“I just want to say sorry to the Swansea fans for the two bad mistakes that gifted Liverpool a draw,” Shelvey told Sky Sports.
Photo: AFP
“You just want to go into a hole where nobody can see you when you give the ball away for the other team to score, but it has happened to great players over time,” he said. “I showed a bit of character to keep getting on the ball. I still feel I have given Liverpool a draw, but it was a great game to play in.”
“Jonjo Shelvey is an outstanding young player, but he knows he has things in his game he needs to improve on. He will only do that from playing. Tonight was a steep learning curve for him,” Reds manager Brendan Rodgers said.
Rodgers allowed Shelvey to leave Liverpool after three inconsistent seasons, so it was clearly a sweet moment when he gave Swansea the lead with less than two minutes played.
After making a hash of an attempted volley from long-range, Shelvey recovered his composure and surged away from Liverpool’s new ￡18 million (US$28.6 million) centerback Mamadou Sakho, before clipping a fine finish past Simon Mignolet after his first effort was blocked by Martin Skrtel.
It was the first goal Liverpool had conceded in the league this season and Shelvey celebrated wildly.
However, within two minutes he was looking to the sky in dismay after his careless mistake gifted Liverpool their equalizer.
Picking up possession just outside his own penalty area, Shelvey flicked a woefully under-hit pass back to goalkeeper Michel Vorm without noticing the lurking Sturridge, who gleefully rifled home a cool left-foot finish.
Sturridge’s sixth goal in five matches this season allayed any fears he would be short of sharpness after missing England’s World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Ukraine with a thigh strain.
Sturridge went close to his second of the night when Vorm brilliantly kept out his header after good work from Moses unhinged the Swansea defense.
Liverpool had made their best start to a campaign since the 1994-1995 season and they took the lead as Shelvey’s match took another turn for the worse in the 36th minute.
Under no pressure, the midfielder played a dreadful pass straight to Moses and the punishment was instant. Breaking from just inside his own half, Moses advanced at pace and, with Swansea’s defenders backing off, he unleashed a powerful low shot that left the flat-footed Vorm rooted to the spot.
Liverpool suffered a blow in the second half when Philippe Coutinho was forced off after a bodycheck by Ashley Williams left the Brazilian playmaker visibly wincing in pain.
Their frustrations grew even greater in the 64th minute when Swansea drew level.
Remarkably, Shelvey played a major role yet again as he finally provided an assist for his own team, timing his run to meet a pass with a clever flicked header into the path of Spanish forward Michu, who slotted past Mignolet for his first league goal of the season.
A seven-year-old horse had to be euthanized on Friday after breaking its back on the final fence of a Grand National steeplechase race that it won despite sustaining the serious injury. It follows the death of four horses at the Cheltenham Festival last month — including one after the prestigious Gold Cup. Gold Dancer was competing in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase during Ladies Day at Aintree’s Grand National Festival. The horse managed to cross the finish line approximately four lengths ahead of runner-up Regent’s Stroll. “The winner of our second race of the day, Gold Dancer, was pulled up after
Hans Niemann declares he would become a “stone cold killer” in a Netflix documentary released on Tuesday about his feud with five-time classical world champion Magnus Carlsen, a pledge that injects new edge into the lingering fallout from the cheating scandal that shook elite chess. “I’m gonna be a stone cold killer the rest of my life,” the US’ Niemann says in the film. “I’m going to become the best player in the world, and no one is going to believe that now, but this clip will play over and over again in 10 years — just wait.” “I just
The Daredevils yesterday took eight catches in the final as they eked out a victory in the Taiwan Cricket Triangular Tournament against PCCT at Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District. PCCT’s batting lineup collapsed after they asked the Daredevils to bowl in the T20 decider of the weekend tournament that also involved the Formosa Cricket Club. PCCT were bundled out for 76 in 16.2 overs against a disciplined Daredevils attack. Shahzad Khan was the top scorer in the innings with 21, but he was among those who offered chances to the fielders. Shane Ferreira and Jason Cameron took three wickets each, with
OBJECTIVE REACHED: ’Now for us, it’s about getting healthy, making sure everybody is ready to go, and we can ramp up,’ the Atlanta Hawks’ C.J. McCollum said after the game The Atlanta Hawks on Friday secured an NBA playoff berth with a 124-102 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers as the Boston Celtics locked up the Eastern Conference second seed with a lopsided win of their own. C.J. McCollum scored a game-high 29 points for the Hawks, who came into the contest at sixth in the East and still in danger of falling into the play-in tournament that would see the seventh-through 10th-placed teams battle for the last two playoff berths in each conference. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jalen Johnson scored 18 points apiece, and Dyson Daniels added a triple-double of 13
RSS