Europe drifts farther away from Liverpool

Birmingham 1 Liverpool 1:THERE IS no disgrace in drawing with a resilient Birmingham City side who have now held every member of the Premier League's top six at home. But the harsh reality for Liverpool is that matching their rivals' results is not enough.

Liam Ridgewell’s equaliser, after Steven Gerrard had put Liverpool in front with his 10th goal of the season, means Rafael Benitez’s side are four points behind fourth-placed Manchester City, having played a game more.

That leaves them with no margin for error, according to the Liverpool manager, who claimed his side will have to win all five of their remaining fixtures, which include a meeting with Chelsea at Anfield, if they are to seize the final Champions League qualifying-round berth.

It is the kind of run Liverpool have not looked like putting together at any point this season and it spells out the size of the task ahead for Benitez if his team are to achieve the top-four finish he was happy to “guarantee” in December.

Perhaps the Liverpool manager should have known what was coming here. Birmingham are the only team the Spaniard has failed to defeat in the Premier League, a record that stretches to eight matches and seems perplexing, giving the chasm in quality between the sides.

Benitez must have thought he was on the way to putting that statistic to bed when Gerrard struck shortly after the interval. But a lack of concentration at the opposite end nine minutes later allowed Ridgewell to equalise.

Fernando Torres’ unhappy afternoon came to an end not long afterwards, the Spain striker cutting a dejected figure as he trudged from the field, to be replaced by David Ngog after an ineffectual display.

Benitez explained that Torres was “exhausted”, after playing his third game in eight days, and that the striker was also suffering from a minor knock to his right knee.

“He was really tired and we needed fresh legs and Ngog made a difference.”

That much was true. Ngog, whose every touch was booed by the home fans – he was accused of diving to win a penalty in the corresponding fixture at Anfield last November – certainly looked much more of a threat than Torres, and the Frenchman could have scored a hat-trick as Liverpool poured forward in the closing stages, in search of a winner.

His best chance arrived in stoppage time, following a raking pass from Gerrard, but he shot tamely at Joe Hart.

“It’s true (that fourth place is going to be difficult now),” said Benitez, who felt Liverpool had deserved to win the match. “We need to keep going. There is still a lot of points to play for. We said that we needed to win six games in a row.

“We knew that maybe one draw could be (acceptable) so now we have to win five. We didn’t have margin for error and now we have less. But it depends on the other teams too. We have to believe we can win our games and we have to have confidence that they will lose.”

Birmingham, who are unbeaten at St Andrew’s in 13 matches, could have snatched victory in the second half. The goal was yawning in front of Lee Bowyer after Ridgewell delivered a fine cross from the left, but with no Liverpool player in sight the Birmingham midfielder miscued horribly from no more than six yards.

Liverpool’s breakthrough was a splendid goal, although there was an element of good fortune in it. Glen Johnson’s mis-hit shot was way off target, but Gerrard, who had just taken a corner, was perfectly placed to retrieve possession. From then on there was much to admire as the Liverpool captain turned Bowyer inside out before curling the ball past Hart – who had made a fantastic save in the first half to push Maxi Rodriguez’s volley on to the crossbar – and inside the far post.

At that point Liverpool looked like they were going to take control, but poor marking allowed Ridgewell to level when he arrived at the far post to turn James McFadden’s deep cross past an exposed Pepe Reina with his thigh.

“He ghosted in like Martin Peters at his best,” said Birmingham manager Alex McLeish, getting a little carried away.

Benitez was not as impressed. “It was very, very poor defending.”