Fortunate penalty but Suarez scores stunner

SOCCER: ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Liverpool 2 Sunderland 2:LIVERPOOL'S HOPES of hosting Europa League football next season remain slim but, as long as Luis Suarez continues playing as cleverly as this, Tottenham Hotspur will not be able to sit comfortably in fifth place.

Involved in most of Liverpool’s threatening moves, Suarez scored an audacious second-half goal to ensure the unlamented Fernando Torres is a fast-fading memory on Merseyside. The same could be said of Sunderland’s European ambitions. Their last win came at Blackpool on January 22nd – six games, one point – and here Steve Bruce’s side failed to force Pepe Reina into a single save until the Spaniard stopped Lee Cattermole’s 86th-minute shot.

Despite menacing flashes of incisive intelligence from Suarez – and, yes, Uruguay’s “hand of God” World Cup striker did have his hand shaken by Sunderland’s Ghana international Asamoah Gyan before kick-off – allied with considerable industry on Dirk Kuyt’s part, Liverpool were initially not much better.

Yet if the brand new attacking partnership between Suarez – whose touch, balance and elusive movement are a joy – and the largely disappointing, quite possibly half-fit, Andy Carroll remains very much a work in progress, Kenny Dalglish’s side were ahead by the break. It was a controversial opener, John Mensah’s foul on Jay Spearing earning Liverpool a disputed penalty.

Although the referee appeared to believe Spearing had been felled outside the box he was, incorrectly, overruled by a linesman. No matter, Kuyt stepped up to send Simon Mignolet the wrong way.

“We’ve got a fortuitous decision,” said Dalglish. “But we deserved to win.”

Bruce proved creditably sanguine. “I’ve got no complaints about the result and I’m not saying it was a defining moment but for someone 40 yards away to overturn the decision of someone standing 10 yards away . . . surely it is time for technology to be used in these situations,” he said. “The linesman’s made a big error.”

Bruce, whose side failed to translate early possession into goal threat, gave his defence extra protection by stationing Sulley Muntari in front of that backline but the midfielder struggled before being withdrawn injured and replaced by Cattermole. All too predictably it did not take Cattermole, newly returned from injury, many minutes to collect a booking for a sly, late trip on Suarez.

Early in the second half, though, the Sunderland captain showed off his more productive side, clearing Carroll’s goalbound header off the line.

Liverpool might have extended their lead had Mignolet not done well to tip the Spearing’s curling, left-foot shot over the bar but Sunderland’s Belgian goalkeeper was soon confounded by Suarez’s moment of magic. Scored from about as an acute an angle as you can have – about a yard on to the pitch from the byline – it was a goal Dalglish would have been proud to have registered.

Things got worse for Sunderland with Mensah, who was already booked, was shown a straight red card for a “professional” foul – rugby tackle – on Suarez, who was withdrawn in the 89th minute with a groin injury. “It turned into one of them horrible afternoons,” said Bruce. “I thought we’d be singing and dancing again but it wasn’t our day.”

* Guardian Service