Liverpool got more than a little lucky to claim three points at Loftus Road after a thoroughly mediocre display, but a pair of QPR own goals -- one an injury time heartbreaker -- saw last season’s runners-up earn a 3-2 win despite a pair of dramatic late equalisers courtesy of Eduardo Vargas.
3 things we learned from Liverpool’s bizarre win at QPR
The first half was tilted almost entirely in the hosts’ favour. While Liverpool were known last season for their attacking prowess, it singularly failed to materialise in the opening 45 minutes, and it was instead QPR offering most of the threat. They gave notice of their intent early on when Charlie Austin barreled through a Martin Skrtel tackle only to see his effort kept out by the onrushing Simon Mignolet, but that was only the start of Liverpool’s defensive woes.
Twice Leroy Fer hit the crossbar when he should have scored, the midfielder firing against the woodwork after Bobby Zamora’s cutback (from eight yards out, no less) then being denied once again after he beat Mignolet to a floated cross. The visitors, meanwhile, were creating virtually nothing -- they didn’t have a serious chance until the last minute before the break, when Steve Gerrard slipped in behind the defence but curled his shot just wide of the far post.
Sandro nearly gave QPR a lead just after halftime when he ran onto a loose ball in the box, but Mignolet was up to the challenge this time and tipped his low drive wide with a superb reaction save. The goalkeeper was called into action again by a speculative angled effort from Charlie Austin, but following that, a pair of injuries to the hosts gave Liverpool the chance to come into the match.
They did their best to spurn it. A botched clearance let Adam Lallana run in on the hitherto untested Alex McCarthy, who produced an excellent stop to keep the England international’s effort out. But the rebound fell to Mario Balotelli, who, presented with an open goal six yards away, seemed poised to score his first league goal for Liverpool. Instead, he smashed it into Row Z.
But where Balotelli failed, Richard Dunne succeeded. If you can call an own goal a success, at any rate. Armand Traore, on for the twice-kicked Sandro, went to sleep on a Liverpool free kick, and although the low cross was obviously a tricky one, Dunne might have done far better than poke it into his own goal from just inside the six-yard box. It was Dunne’s 10th Premier League own goal.
Austin’s shot from atop the box after good work from Zamora nearly saw the hosts back on level terms, but Mignolet was once again equal to the effort. And he did even better in the 85th minute with a flying stop from a close-range Traore header, which looked set to make up for his earlier error.
But not even Mignolet’s heroics could deny the hosts the goal they so obviously deserved. Vargas, on loan from Napoli, had come on for Zamora with 10 minutes to go, and that turned out to be an inspired move. The ball was flicked toward the back post, a QPR head nodded it back across the six-yard box, and Vargas was on hand to crash home.
Liverpool seemed as though they were there for the taking, but the visitors might be at their most dangerous when they’re under pressure, and duly hit QPR on the counterattack. Raheem Sterling, Liverpool’s best player on the night, powered forward and threaded a pass to Phillippe Coutinho, who drifted inside and sent a silky effort past McCarthy and into the far corner.
It was a heartbreaking goal to concede, but Rangers barely had time to process going behind again before they’d drawn level. Liverpool had struggled with corners all match (and indeed all season), and they simply couldn’t deal with a corner dumped in at the near post. It was flicked on by Vargas, who ultimately claimed the goal, but deflected off at least one red shirt before trickling over the line to give the hosts a second extraordinary equaliser.
Which made it the perfect time to cough up yet another own goal. Having been gifted a chance to finally take the lead with a free kick, QPR completely wasted it, allowing the visitors to charge up the pitch. Sterling powered into the box, and saw his square ball for Balotelli knocked in instead by Steven Caulker to make it 3-2 Liverpool. It was a fine way to end a very strange match -- unless you’re a QPR fan, that is.
Queens Park Rangers starting lineup (4-4-2 diamond): Alex McCarthy; Yun Suk-Young; Richard Dunne, Steven Caulker, Nedum Onuoha (Matthew Phillips 45'); Sandro (Armand Traore 60'), Karl Henry, Mauricio Isla, Leroy Fer; Bobby Zamora (Eduardo Vargas 79'), Charlie Austin.
Goals: Vargas 87’, 90’.
Liverpool starting lineup (4-3-3): Simon Mignolet; José Enrique, Dejan Lovren, Martin Skrtel, Glen Johnson; Steven Gerrard, Emre Can (Joe Allen 66'), Jordan Henderson; Adam Lallana (Philippe Coutinho 66'), Mario Balotelli, Raheem Sterling.
Goals: Dunne 71’ (og), Coutinho 90’, Caulker 90’ (og).
3 things
- Glen Johnson is now the owner of the 'best goalline challenge in the history of the league' award. His moment of glory came right after Leroy Fer hit the crossbar, leaving Sandro and Charlie Austin charging toward goal and hoping to tap into the virtually unguarded net.
Johnson was not going to allow that to happen. Ever.
Kicking one opposition player in the midriff on your own goalline might be considered an ill-judged challenge. Two at once? This is beauty. This is art. No wonder the referee let him off.
- Bobby Zamora is still capable of dominating games ... against Dejan Lovren. In, say, athletics, you know exactly how good any individual competitor is on any given day. Their times aren't meaningfully influenced by their competition, and should Usain Bolt be racing against a grumpy seal he'd still be just as good at running as if he was going up against a real opponent.
This isn't true in sports with both an attack and a defence, which makes it difficult to determine just how well Bobby Zamora played this afternoon. Yes, he was almost single-handedly demolishing the defence he was facing, but the defence he was facing contained Dejan Lovren and Martin Skrtel, so it's difficult to say just how much of this was Zamora returning to his best and how much was created by the sublime incompetence of his opponents.
Either way, it's not a good sign that your best hope of containing Bobby Zamora is 'wait until he gets tired and hope he doesn't score.'
- Something needs to change for Mario Balotelli. The miss -- and it was awful -- will take the headlines, but at least getting into a good scoring position means you've done something right. Which meant that missing an open goal might have been one of the striker's best moments of the afternoon.
Balotelli spent most of the match in entirely non-threatening positions. He was drifting wide or coming deep to avoid the batterings the centre backs were handing out to him, and there were several other signs that he was getting deeply frustrated. There were fouls, dives and silly long-range attempts, and when Balotelli's in that sort of mood he's pretty thoroughly useless.
If the pressure is getting to him, it's up to Brendan Rodgers to find a solution. Because right now it's simply not working, and could easily have cost Liverpool the points today.
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