Portsmouth’s Lomana LuaLua scored an injury-time equaliser to earn a point against Liverpool in a 1-1 draw at Anfield on Tuesday, which will hamper the home side’s attempts to get in touch with the leading clubs during the Christmas programme.
LuaLua headed home from a cross by substitute Matthew Taylor via the glove of Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek, just when it looked as though the visitors would have to concede defeat.
Steve Gerrard scored with a superb shot with 20 minutes to go for a much-changed Liverpool side, but that wasn’t enough for victory and Rafael Benitez’s men missed a golden chance to take all three points.
Liverpool are in sixth spot, 15 points behind leaders Chelsea and — perhaps more crucially — six points adrift of fourth-placed Manchester United in the last Champions League qualifying spot.
LuaLua told Sky sports television station afterwards: ”We didn’t let our heads go down. We kept trying and it paid off in the end. We knew we could get a point if we could just keep going.”
Benitez fielded a much-changed side following their 1-0 defeat to Everton in the Merseyside derby at the weekend.
Dudek was recalled between the posts because of the back injury to Chris Kirkland for his first appearance since September after being dropped following a Champions League defeat to Olympiakos.
Milan Baros, Xabi Alonso, Antonio Nunez, Steve Finnan and Djimi Traore also returned for the Reds.
Portsmouth, however, were unchanged after their 1-1 draw at Newcastle on Saturday. Managerless following the departure of Harry Redknapp, they were struggling to string passes together with the home side having the majority of possession in the early stages.
Liverpool knew nothing less than a victory would do if they were to stay on the heels of the leading teams in the table.
But while they were winning plenty of the ball and their passing was neat and tidy, ‘keeper Jamie Ashdown was not being tested.
Portsmouth remained dangerous on the break and LuaLua showed his speed three minutes from the interval to race into the opposing area.
The striker’s shot was on target but did not carry enough power to trouble Dudek, who got down quickly to block his effort.
Gerrard, typically, opened the scoring in the 70th minute with a 25-yard thunderbolt into the corner following a short free-kick from Dietmar Hamann.
Portsmouth were looking disheartened and the home side almost added a second with four minutes to go.
Substitute Florent Sinama-Pongolle saw Arjan de Zeeuw block his shot and it bounced into the path of Harry Kewell. He rattled the ball back towards the goal only for Ashdown to get down quickly to smother his effort.
Portsmouth then grabbed their dramatic equaliser in stoppage time after Dudek palmed a cross from Taylor to LuaLua, who headed home. — Sapa-AFP