Both sides fail to capitalise on each other's frailties

Liverpool 2 Manchester City 2:THERE WAS clearly something at stake, although the muddled action suggested this was a contest for no more than a spot in next season's Europa League qualifiers. On current form that is exactly the competition where Liverpool and Manchester City will find themselves.

Rafael Benitez’s team are under the greater scrutiny and regardless of the result against Debrecen in Budapest tomorrow, they will be knocked out of the Champions League in the group phase if Fiorentina win at home to Lyon. At least the Anfield club have most of their many injured players back now, with the key exception of Fernando Torres, who has to rest his hernia for a week or two more.

City have not had such a degree of disruption, yet there is a strange sluggishness, despite the high-octane investment. Mark Hughes really made his mark in 2008 by getting Blackburn Rovers to a seventh-place finish in the Premier League. Regardless of the means at City, it looks as if improving on that is going to be a close call. Hughes’ team are sixth at the moment.

City’s penchant for haplessness were crammed into the space of a few moments. The visitors took a 2-1 lead with the neatest move of the day as substitute Carlos Tevez fed Shaun Wright-Phillips in the 76th minute and he turned Sotirios Kyrgiakos, who had come on for the injured Daniel Agger in the 10th minute, to set up Stephen Ireland’s finish.

Liverpool levelled from the kick-off, as David Ngog’s cross broke off Joleon Lescott to present Yossi Benayoun with a simple opportunity. City, all the same, had shown no resilience or determination to keep Benitez’s team at arm’s length in those critical seconds. Hughes admitted to frustration over “opportunities to clear” that had not been taken.

Liverpool took the lead when Martin Skrtel got in front of Emmanuel Adebayor to turn in a Gerrard free-kick after 50 minutes. The Slovak’s popularity was short-lived as he contributed to an equaliser in the 69th minute. He conceded a corner and was then disoriented as Adebayor headed home from Craig Bellamy’s delivery. Guardian Service