In case you haven’t been watching Liverpool was sunk 3-0 by West Brom and if you want an honest opinion, I think it could have been at least 6 if it wasn’t for Reina. This afternoon at the Hawthorne stadium in Birmingham, West Bromwich Albion beat Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool 3-0 in a 1st round match of the Premier League. Gera, Odemwingie (penalty) and Lukaku scored the goals of the meeting.
Peter Odemwingie, the Nigerian international scored the Baggies second goal from the penalty spot after Skrtel had committed a foul.
The West Bromwich team had finished 10th in the latest edition of the Premier League. The Birmingham based club have only once been English champions, way back in 1919/20. Romelu Lukaku (on loan from Chelsea), Yassine El Ghanassy (on loan from Gent), Claudio Jacob (ex-Racing Club) and Markus Rosenberg (Werder Bremen former) are the main reinforcements for the team this season.
The “reds” were 8th in the Premier League in 2011/12, but had won the Carling Cup (League Cup) and qualified for the European League. Oussama Assaidi (former Heerenveen), Fabio Borini (ex-Rome) and Joe Allen (former Swansea City) are the acquisitions for the new season.
The match began on a good note for Liverpool, after two frightening minutes where they couldn’t get the ball off of West Brom, they were fully dominant. Luis Suarez created plenty of problems for West Brom‘s defence, but he failed to convert his chances. Failure to bury chances seemed to bite on the ass as West Brom , through Zoltan Gera scored a cracking goal, a brilliant volley in the 43rd minute of action, The Hungarian player chested the ball down before whipping a volley that sailed into Reina’s net, and their heads were up. The biggest miss of the half came from the Uruguayan. A decent cross from Glen Johnson was headed over the ball with just an empty net to beat. Fabio Borini was impressive in his first EPL match. The Italian gained confidence as the game went on. Luis Suarez picked up a yellow card for a bad gesture towards a linesman in the closing moments of the half.
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Check out West Brom’s Zoltan Gera’s goal against Liverpool earlier today. Brought the ball under control with his chest before unleashing an unstoppable shot into the top right hand corner of Pepe Reina’s goal. Beautiful goal!
However, things became worse for the Reds when Daniel Agger was sent off for a tackle on Shane Long around the penalty box. The Danish defender might have played his last game for Brendan Rodgers due to his impending move to Manchester City. That incident occurred after Luis Suarez had missed a good chance in the 48th minute with a shot that went wide off Foster’s goal.
Shane Long‘s spot kick was saved by Pepe Reina. Several Liverpool fans were happy with the save, but it wasn’t long before another penalty was awarded to Steve Clarke‘s wards. Martin Skrtel tripped Shane Long and Peter Odemwingie stepped up to fire the ball past Reina to make it 2-0. Jamie Carragher came on for Stewart Downing while Joe Cole replaced Lucas Leiva who was on a yellow card.
Steve Clarke who was Dalglish’s former assistant last season made a great change later on as he introduced Romelu Lukaku. The Chelsea player who is on loan at the Hawthorns scored a thumping header to give his side a 3-0 win over Liverpool.
In the last 10 minutes, West Brom had a few more clear chances as Liverpool defended. Lukaku’s strike was deflected by Reina and an infamous shot over the post by Morrisson robbed the Baggies of a greater win. Liverpool failed to strike back after desperate Luis Suarez missed Borini’s cross in the 84th minute.
WBA enjoyed a first ever Premier League opener win against the ambitious Liverpool side. The Baggies manager, Steve Clarke, taught his ex-club a lesson and rose the expectations to West Brom‘s campaign. The Reds goal-conversion woe proved costly once more.
Liverpool’s next match is against Hearts in Thursday’s European League game.
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