Match Reports
Liverpool 1-0 Leicester Liverpool recorded their first home league win for almost eight weeks with a narrow victory over bottom of the table side, Leicester. Despite the gap in league positions, the game was anyting but a one sided affair, and Leicester had their fair share of chances. But for the first 20 minutes or so, Liverpool were the side enjoying the most possession. Though other than a ferocious strike by Dietmar Hamann in the first minute, which was only a couple of feet high and wide, the home side had to wait until the 24th minute before coming close to scoring. Stephen Wright was the unlikely source of the threat and after seeing his shot beat Ian Walker, Jacod Laursen managed to rescue Leicester by clearing the ball off the line to deny Wright his first league goal for the club. Leicester began to threaten a little more after half an hour of the game gone, and managed a couple of shots at the Liverpool goal which were charged down by a determined defence as Liverpool worked hard to make sure that they didnt fall behind. Soon after the break though, Emile Heskey struck the opening goal to end a 2 month goal drought. Dietmar Hamann charged down a poor pass by Matt Jones, and Heskey ran towards the Leicester goal at a speed which left the Leicester defenders chasing shadows, and when bearing down on Walker in the Leicester goal, Heskey waited for the keeper to start to commit himself and then lifted the ball brilliantly over Walker and into the centre of the Kop goal. Heskey's relief was clear for all to see as he celebrated with his team-mates and on most of his recent displays, it was very much deserved. Nicolas Anelka could have added to the score but fired a couple of shots across the face of the goal later on in the half, but Liverpool were rarely under threat in the second half and held on to go four league games unbeaten. The win keeps Liverpool in 4th place, with all the sides above them also winning, but with Leeds losing to Chelsea, Liverpool are now 4 points ahead of Leeds in 5th, with the two sides facing each other this Sunday.
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