Torres brace sinks Chelsea

Liverpool striker Fernando Torres scored twice to hand his team a crucial 2-0 win over Chelsea in the Premiership game played at Anfield on Sunday.

كتب : Amro Hassan

الأحد، 01 فبراير 2009 - 20:29
Liverpool striker Fernando Torres scored twice to hand his team a crucial 2-0 win over Chelsea in the Premiership game played at Anfield on Sunday.

The Spaniard hit the net twice in the game’s dying minutes, to demote Luis Felipe Scolari’s side to yet another top-four clash loss.

Now Chelsea have failed to beat any of the top sides in the Premiership, as they lost twice to Liverpool and once to Manchester United and Arsenal.

The Reds had the upper hand throughout most of the encounter, and Xavi Alonso could have broken the deadlock early on.

The midfielder banged a well-placed shot from outside the box on 11 minutes and Petr Cech had to be at full stretch to tip the effort out for a corner.

Chelsea seemed to be struggling in keeping up the pace with their hosts, and The Blues had no highlights to be mentioned during the first half.

On 42 minutes, Albert Riera ended a darting run from the left with a shot from an acute angle. Once again palmed away by Cech, before Ashley Cole almost scored against his own team with a miscued clearance.

Frank Lampard did his team no favours when he was sent off for a clumsy tackle on Alonso.

It was similarly one way traffic for Liverpool after the interval, and Alonso saw a 66th minute shot deflected by John Terry and off the bar.

The home side got the goal they were looking for on 89 minutes. Torres did well to beat Alex and head Fabio Aurelio’s pinpoint cross from the left past Cech.

The former Atletico Madrid man added a second in injury time, as Ashley Cole’s poor clearance to deny Yossi Benayoun went into the striker’s path to finish from close range.

The win lifts Liverpool to second place in the table with 51 points, three ahead of Chelsea in third.