Liverpool held 2-2 by Man City

Nov 21, 2009 - 8:48 PM By NEIL RICHARDS STATS European Football Writer=

LONDON (SE) - Liverpool's stuttering start to the season continued as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Manchester City after a thrilling second half at Anfield.

It is now just one win in ten in all competitions for Rafael Benitez's side, who were indebted to a late Yossi Benayoun strike for rescuing a point just 74 seconds after Stephen Ireland had given the visitors the lead.

A dour match burst into life five minutes after the interval when Martin Skrtel beat Emmanuel Adebayor to poke home a left-wing free-kick from Steven Gerrard.

But Adebayor got his revenge on 69 minutes, making no mistake with a firm header past Jose Reina after the Slovakian defender had left him unmarked at a Craig Bellamy corner.

Billed as a match between a side ever-present among the top-four contenders and a big-spending neighbour eager to join the party, City will be happier with the outcome.

But Mark Hughes's side have now drawn six in a row and will be well aware that they have to start turning some of those results into wins to make an impression at the top of the table.

"That's the frustration for us at the moment," Hughes said. "We're allowing those winning situations to get away from us and it's obviously the old adage that after a team's just scored it is a little bit vulnerable. We lived up to that."

Hughes added: "We're disappointed because I think we were the better team today and showed great character to come back from a goal down."

The Reds were looking for an early goal to boost their fragile confidence and they almost got it inside five minutes. Gerrard whipped in a free-kick from the right, Daniel Agger flicked it on and Skrtel directed a header back across Shay Given.

The Republic of Ireland goalkeeper, who was victimised by France's controversial winner in Paris in Wednesday's World Cup qualifier, reacted magnificently to make a stunning save to his left.

Agger suffered a clash of heads in that move which opened up a nasty cut above his eyebrow. While he was off having treatment it almost profited the visitors, as Kolo Toure picked out a pass to where the Dane should have been and Gareth Barry's header produced a diving save from Reina.

Agger was concussed and needed stitches in the wound, a worry for Liverpool with a vital Champions League match with Debrecen coming up on Wednesday. Sotirios Kyrgiakos, the Greece international, came on to play in the heart of the home defence.

Less than five minutes later the Liverpool injury curse struck again. Ryan Babel and Gerrard collided on the edge of the City area and both limped off. The Reds captain was able to continue but although the Dutch striker did come back on to the pitch he was clearly troubled with a foot injury and left soon after, being replaced by Benayoun.

Reds boss Benitez said: "I'm a little bit disappointed because we had chances at the end but with the problems that we had before - two substitutions in 18 minutes - and still to come back showed good character.

"Up until the last minute we were pushing and pushing. The players worked so hard that you can say nothing (to criticise them)."

As always, Gerrard was the main source of inspiration and he saw one shot well blocked by Toure just before the half hour and was just off target with the follow-up.

The first half was forgettable, but the second did not take long to catch fire as Sktrel's tap-in gave Liverpool the lead with their first goal from a free-kick this season.

Unfortunately for Benitez, their Achilles heel was then exposed again, Adebayor's leveller from the corner being the 12th they had conceded from a set-piece this season.

Having lacked ambition in the opening period, City suddenly sensed they could snatch all three points and got their reward on 78 minutes. Substitute Carlos Tevez played a reverse ball into Shaun Wright-Phillips, who turned past Skrtel and produced a low cross that was turned in by Ireland from a position that was bordering on offside.

City had barely had chance to celebrate when Liverpool drew level, David Ngog's cross being deflected by a defender right into the path of the unmarked Benayoun who made no mistake from close range.

The Merseysiders might even have won it in stoppage time, but Lucas failed to even hit the target when left all alone at a corner.