Villa vs Liverpool- Post-Match Thoughts

On Easter Sunday, Liverpool faced Aston Villa in the Premier League. With Liverpool fighting for a Europa League place and Villa in a battle to avoid relegation, this wan an important game for both clubs. Despite being a goal down at half-time, Liverpool emerged as victors, winning 2-1.



Liverpool started the game brightly. Suarez came very close early on, and it looked as if we might be able to get an early goal, something we have been doing a lot in recent games. Our quick starts are a very good feature of our play. However, after about 10 minutes, we started to drop back a little, and Villa capitalised. Soon they were the ones looking the more likely to score, which midway through the first half they did, through prolific scorer Christian Benteke. Liverpool did step up the pressure again towards the end of the first half, but they couldn’t equalise.



They came out very strongly in the second half, and very quickly got back on level terms with Villa. A brilliant ball from Coutinho (who now has 2 goals and 3 assists in just 5 games) put Henderson through, who delicately chipped the ball past the oncoming keeper to level the scores.



From then on Liverpool had the lions share of the chances, and were certainly playing the better football. Glen Johnson came agonisingly close to putting Liverpool ahead when his shot rebounded off the post, and Suarez made a lot of chances. Eventually the second goal came for Liverpool. Suarez used his sublime skill to nutmeg Nathan Baker (who up to this point had been having a brilliant game), who then blatantly brought him down. A penalty was given, and Steven Gerrard converted the spot kick coolly, putting Liverpool ahead.



There were some nervy moments near the end, with Benteke having one goal disallowed for offside (correctly) and Gerrard making a stunning off-the-line clearance from a Benteke header. However, Liverpool held on for the win, and earned a good three points.



One thing I was surprised about was the fact that Daniel Sturridge didn’t feature. He has proved very effective when he has played for us, and at times in the game we seemed to lack ideas in attack (an example would be Suarez’s ridiculous shot from 45 yards out!) but he wasn’t brought on. I think he needs game time in order to fully gel with the rest of the team, because I think he has huge potential at this club. In the end though it didn’t matter, and the victory was heartening as it showed we can still win even when we are not at our best.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013