qpr 2 liverpool 3, match report: four goals in crazy final minutes as steven caulker gifts visitors victory telegraph.co.uk by henry winter, football correspondent, at loftus road 6:41pm bst 19 oct 2014
queens park rangers vs liverpool, premier league match report - steven caulker own goal condemns qpr to crushing defeat, rooting harry redknapp's men to foot of table
heaven knows what the real madrid scout made of this fortuitous victory for liverpool, whom they face on wednesday. liverpool did not have a good defender in their team but they did have lady luck on their side.
bobby zamora, charlie austin and eduardo vargas, attackers assembled at a cost of £10 million, terrorised liverpool’s back four, who must now resist the dynamic £165 million double act of cristiano ronaldo and gareth bale.
anfield will be pumped up, blowing a gale towards the vaunted visitors, the champions of europe, but they cannot repeat such abject defending that allowed vargas, the chilean on loan from napoli, to swoop twice.
liverpool were poor in midfield, especially with steven gerrard struggling until withdrawn in to the anchoring role that suits him better in the twilight of his career. emre can was off the pace. liverpool improved mainly when brendan rodgers sent on philippe coutinho and joe allen after 65 minutes.
they lacked a cutting edge up front, where mario balotelli’s finishes could have ended anywhere from westfield to anfield. everyone keeps saying balotelli is not luis suárez, a player described as “irreplaceable” by rodgers and one of the many areas of difference is that suárez always worked hard.
balotelli seemed almost to sulk when richard dunne kept appearing overhead like a storm cloud, blotting him out. suárez would have risen to the challenge, not shrunk. a penny for the thoughts of rickie lambert.
liverpool won primarily because the queens park rangers defence had three mad moments, encompassing richard dunne’s own goal that extended his premier league record into double figures, failing to close down coutinho for the visitors’ second and then steven caulker’s own goal right at the death.
as ever with the premier league, the world’s best-loved sporting soap opera contained so many storylines. harry redknapp’s future has been the subject of much speculation but there was no hint of dressing-room division here. qpr will play worse and win.
alex mccarthy made a promising debut in goal after robert green succumbed to tonsillitis. sandro was immense, running midfield, until injuring his groin.
leroy fer twice hit the woodwork in the first half and sold gerrard a dummy that almost drew a mass “olé” from the delighted home support. qpr were sharp and hungry, piling forward, clearly sensing the vulnerability in the liverpool defence.
zamora responded powerfully to wearing the armband, backing into dejan lovren time after time, looking for the ball to flick on or the ball to his feet, then laying it off. zamora also peeled right to good effect. austin was tireless. vargas arrived in the second half to prolific effect.
loftus road was rocking for long periods. as qpr’s chief executive, philip beard, tweeted after the final whistle: “amazing performance. if we can play like that with that level of support we will be fine.” they certainly never looked bottom of the table on this evidence.
the scoreline was an affront to local tastes. it was shaped partly through qpr lapses, rodgers’s substitutions and also because of the second-half enterprise of a player who took his early steps here. raheem sterling, who moved north in 2010, was being watched by roy hodgson, the england manager intending to chat to rodgers following toxic club-versus-country headlines in the wake of his resting the liverpool teenager against estonia.
as the home supporters chanted “raheem sterling – he sleeps when he wants”, hodgson left early, bizarrely, leaving it to rodgers to put the story to bed, insisting there was no fallout. yet it will linger. the abuse that sterling received from qpr fans, including one supporter who ran along the front row to scream insults, is hardly the most welcome soundtrack to his development.
sterling is a vital player for england, as well as liverpool, and has been placed in the awkward position of needing to win back the respect of neutrals following hodgson’s comments about the teenager being too “tired” to play. it was to sterling’s great credit that he ignored the catcalls and performed particularly well in the second half.he laboured in the first half. so did all in red.
qpr were up for this, responding to redknapp’s rallying cry. loftus road was packed to the blue rafters. the 50th meeting between the two sides had long sold out and touts lurked on the pavements. one of the ubiquitous half-and-half scarf sellers tried a novel sales pitch with a couple of nervous-looking match-going tourists, claiming “it’s for both teams – so you won’t get any trouble”.
the only trouble here was in players defending properly. after a glen johnson mistake, austin went close. when josé enrique vacated his left-back position, zamora angled a ball back to the unmarked fer, who thumped his shot against the bar.
fer was presented with a slightly more difficult, but still inviting opportunity after 33 minutes. zamora delivered the ball in and fer, exploiting simon mignolet’s hesitancy, directed a twisting header against the bar. austin and fer threw themselves towards the loose ball. so did johnson, recklessly. the only composure came from martin skrtel, who cleared the danger.
qpr kept going close. sandro was denied by mignolet. yet liverpool were slowly building. after 60 minutes, sterling finally found some space, cutting in from the right, at last escaping suk-young yun. he picked out adam lallana, who was denied the 50th league goal of his career by a fine right-handed save from mccarthy. the ball ran on to the unmarked balotelli, who somehow missed from close range.
liverpool took the lead after 67 minutes, against the run of play.
when sterling was fouled on the right, qpr momentarily switched off, not expecting a quick free-kick. sterling tapped it to johnson, who drilled the ball into the six-yard area, bringing dunne’s error.
qpr refused to go quietly. austin was thwarted by mignolet.
zamora then departed to a standing ovation for his prodigious shift, bringing vargas in alongside austin. and then began the crazy climax. with the clock showing 86 minutes and 04 seconds, vargas’s cross from the right clipped lovren and reached austin at the far post. austin headed back and there was vargas equalising with his outstretched right foot.
and then, as the clock registered 89.44, liverpool responded with a gem of a goal, suddenly shifting through the gears, suddenly playing with the pace and zest of last season. sterling sped through the middle, laying the ball off to gerrard, who helped it on to coutinho. the brazilian cut inside, teasing the backpedalling hosts’ defence before sweeping his shot past mccarthy.
qpr rallied again. vargas added a second equaliser 61 seconds into added time, heading in a corner that was adjudged to have crossed the line.
loftus road was shaking in its foundations. redknapp smiled. tony fernandes punched the air. a point seemed theirs.
but four minutes and 13 seconds into added time, and to the disbelief of the home fans, sterling crossed and caulker conceded an own goal. liverpool’s 1,848 fans celebrated wildly but know how much they will have to tighten up for when ronaldo and bale are in town.
super mario? hardly
mario balotelli drew a blank again yesterday after missing a near-open goal from inside the penalty area.
1
the italian has scored just one goal in his past 22 premier league appearances, despite having had 73 shots.
30
he has had 30 shots in the league this season, without scoring. only sergio agüero (36) and graziano pelle (32) have had more attempts on goal, and they have scored nine and six goals respectively.