Reds boss Brendan Rodgers has joked that his heart stopped during a dramatic, pulsating 3-3 draw with neighbours Everton…
Saturday was truly an afternoon of mixed emotions at Goodison Park as the 221st Merseyside derby ebbed and flowed throughout the course of the 90 minutes.
Liverpool took the lead within five minutes through Philippe Coutinho only to be pegged back three minutes later.
The visitors were back in front approaching the 20 minute mark courtesy of a stunning Luis Suarez free-kick.
It was a surprise, given the non-stop, end-to-end nature of the action, that the next goal didn’t materialise until the 72nd minute.
Everton’s on-loan Chelsea forward Romelu Lukaku steering the ball past Simon Mignolet, who had at times single-handily been keeping the Toffees at bay with a number of world class saves.
10 minutes later, and with only eight minutes left on the clock, the powerful Belgium international rose to give the hosts the lead for a first time.
Unperturbed, Liverpool fought back and equalised in the final minute via a glancing Daniel Sturridge header.
Such was the expansive, relentless nature of the contest, both sides had further chances to snatch the three points during injury time.
At the final whistle, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers attempted to make sense of proceedings which had contained moments of magic mixed in with periods of inept defending, passing and finishing.
“My heart has just stopped! It had everything in it; there was quality, I was happy in moments and there was disappointment,” commented the 40-year-old during his post-match press conference.
“When you come away to one of your rivals and play like we did for parts of the game, and also show the character and mentality to come from behind towards the end, it tells me everything about where my group is at.
“We’re disappointed as well because we were 2-1 up and should have gone to 3-1 – that would have allowed us to control the game much better.
“After that, we went through a period of about 12 minutes where we just gave the ball away needlessly. We needed to show greater control of the game.
“That handed it back to Everton and they ended up getting an equaliser; we marked poorly and weren’t strong enough on the corner, and Lukaku gets his header.
“At 3-2, you’re thinking that from a game we should never be behind in against a rival, we need to show our resolve and spirit. That’s what we did.
“A point away from home against a rival is always a very good result. But obviously we’ll look at it and think that it’s a game that, with a bit better control, we could have won.”
Alongside the entertainment, Mignolet’s heroics and a glaring miss by Joe Allen, the main talking point, from a Liverpool perspective at least, was a crude challenge by Kevin Mirallas.
The Everton attacker, who had scored his side’s original equaliser, caught Suarez with a knee high, studs-up challenge which drew blood and left the Uruguayan needing considerable treatment.
At that stage, Liverpool were leading 2-1 and clearly a red card, as opposed to the yellow that was eventually shown, could have had a big impact on the final result.
Rodgers analysed: “I thought he should have been sent off. I’ve seen Mirallas for a few years and he looks a really honest player, and a good attacking player.
“Sometimes the attacking players make challenges that are poor. But that was a really bad challenge. I thought it was a brilliant game, we don’t want to spoil it.
“We want to see 11v11, end-to-end, attacking football – that’s what you want to see. You don’t want to see anybody getting sent off. But if they should be, then that’s what should happen.”
Liverpool are next in action on Sunday when they travel to newly promoted Hull City.
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