Match Reports
Liverpool 3-0 Birmingham Liverpool cruised into the fourth round of the FA Cup with a comfortable win against first division Birmingham at Anfield. The Reds dominated the game from start to finish, but it wasnt until the quarter hour mark that Liverpool really came to life. A Danny Murphy corner was headed onto the bar by a Birmingham defender. Then a couple of minutes later, the first goal arrived. Smicer and Murphy combined in the build up to set up Owen, and from 20 yards out, he curled a shot around the Birmingham keeper. It was Owen's first goal at Anfield since hitting a century of Liverpool goals. Vladimir Smicer came close to adding a second shortly after, with a well hit volley which was just wide. The second goal wasnt long in coming though, and once again it was Michael Owen with it. Nicolas Anelka was the provider and he knocked a good ball through to Owen who finished from almost the same position as that which he scored the winning goal in last season's final. This time though, the shot was hit over the keeper, but more importantly, it hit the back of the net and even after 25 minutes, there looked no way back for Birmingham. It was a more evenly matched contest in the second half, although Liverpool had very much the better of the chances once more. Danny Murphy should have had a couple of goals in the second half, firstly after Anelka had run half of the pitch before playing the ball to Murphy, who was in space in the penalty area, but he took far too long to shoot and the chance was lost. The second opportunity for Murphy came after brilliant work by Owen to escape his marker, and after he crossed to Murphy, it looked a certainty that this time he would take the chance. But his shot was blasted way over the bar and the score stayed at two-nil. Owen came closer to adding to the scoreline with a wonderfully hit volley which beat Ian Bennett at full stretch, but didnt quite dip enough to drop under the bar and the ball hit the crossbar and bounced away from danger. Emile Heskey replaced Owen, and later Berger came on for Smicer, but it was Anelka who had the last word on the game, with a well hit shot from 20 yards out at the Kop end, which beat Bennett and capped a good all round performance by the French striker. Birmingham's had four or five chances, but none brought out the best in Dudek who dealt with things very conifdently in the Liverpool goal. It could have been five or six for Liverpool, but the 3-0 score was more than enough to achive the objective of reaching round 4 of the competition. The draw for the next round takes place tomorrow. View match pictures from this game!
|