Middlesbrough 1-0 Liverpool
Liverpool's unbeaten league record was ended at the Riverside stadium, following a dull game up in the North East.
After making ten changes for the midweek Worthington Cup game, Gerard Houllier made another ten changes for this game with Steve Gerrard being the only survivor from the clash with Southampton, and Vladimir Smicer, who was the only player to retain his place in midweek, the man to make way.
Despite an impressive start to the season which has seen Middlesbrough as high as third in the Premiership, 'Boro came into the match having lost three and drawn one of their last four games.
The opening quarter hour saw little in terms of goalscoring chances, with one long range effort for either side, Liverpool's falling to Gerrard in the opening minutes which Schwarzer dealt with comfortably, and Dudek was no more troubled by a shot from around 25 yards out by Boateng.
Liverpool started to attack a little more at the half went on, and Emile Heskey had a couple of attempts prior to the midway point of the half, when he firstly fired a shot over the bar from a difficult angle on the left side of the field, and minutes later headed straight at Schwarzer.
The Reds came closest on 22 minutes though, after a good build up which started from a run by Hamann, who played one-two with Murphy, and after Gerrard received the ball on the right, his cross found Owen and Owen turned in the area to put his shot narrowly wide of the Middlesbrough goal.
But after a lively few minutes, the game turned scrappy, and a close range header by Geremi in the last five minutes, which just clipped the side netting was the only real goalmouth action in the final 20 minutes of the half as the sides went into the break goalless.
The second half was a much more entertaining affair, with Middlesbrough going close after only four minutes of the restart through George Boateng, but as with Geremi in the first half, Boateng was unable to keep his header on target.
The home side certainly looked the stronger in the early stages of the half, and also showed more of a desire to turn a point into three points and shortly before the hour mark in the game, Maccarone thought that he'd put 'Boro ahead, though the Middlesbrough fans' celebrations were cut short after the referee spotted that the linesman's flag had been raised for offside and the goal was ruled out.
Middlesbrough kept up the pressure though, and Nemeth tested Dudek with a good shot on goal which the Liverpool 'keeper handled well.
With only Owen playing up front, Liverpool appeared to be struggling for options up front, and Diao was proving to be the biggest threat on Mark Schwarzer's goal, though he was unable to hit the target with a couple of poorly taken chances halfway through the second half, heading wide from a Murphy corner, and firing over from a half chance minutes later.
Gerard Houllier needed to make changes and the first was to bring on Smicer for Gerrard, who had again failed to perform to the level that he's capable of, but within a minute of the substitution, Liverpool had to rely on a
very alert piece of goalkeeping by Dudek, when he raced off his line to gather the ball from the feet of Nemeth, after the Slovak international looked to have been played through on goal.
Middlesbrough were continuing to look the better side, and they deservedly took the lead on 82 minutes.
Geremi crossed into the Liverpool area, and Dudek spilled the ball which was picked up by Southgate who poked the ball into the net to give his side the lead. It was no more than the Teesiders deserved, and Liverpool looked to have only themselves to blame following a performance in which the players had rarely looked to have any intentions of going for a win.
Milan Baros was brought on for Danny Murphy with five minutes to go, but the change was too late to help the Reds recover a point, as Middlesbrough looked certain to become the first side to beat Liverpool in the league since April. In the closing minutes it could even have been a greater margin of victory as Nemeth missed a chance to double the lead following a Middlesbrough counter attack, and Boksic slipped when he looked certain to add a second goal in injury time.
The one goal was enough though, and the unbeaten start to Liverpool's Premiership season was ended in their thirteenth match.
A win for Arsenal narrowed Liverpool's lead to just one point, while Man United, who started the day in third place, lost away to Man City.
