It was Liverpool’s 10th league defeat away from home this season. Their initial line-up suggested their thoughts were elsewhere — specifically Stamford Bridge, where on Wednesday they face Chelsea, the Premiership champions elect, in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final. Liverpool’s talented Spanish contingent of Luis Garcia, Xavi Alonso and Antonio Nunez were conspicuous by their absence, the only Spaniard in sight being the striker Fernando Morientes, who is cup-tied in Europe, having played in the tournament for Real Madrid.
“Sometimes,” he declared, “it’s not possible to play football. I’m disappointed with the result. We were controlling the game in the first half. See the TV and talk with Milan Baros after.”
Baros, Liverpool’s Czech international striker, a notable success in last year’s European Championship finals, was indeed eventually forced off the field after three pretty ruthless challenges. Whether he will be fit for Wednesday seems problematical.
Asked where the injury specifically occurred, Benitez replied that it might be in several different places.
Yet Palace are not Blackburn. Although their physical commitment was manifest, they hardly set out to kick Liverpool out of the game.
Palace were far more driven and focused than Liverpool, who lost ground on their bitter rivals Everton in the fight for the last Champions League place. Nor was it evident to the neutral eye that Liverpool controlled the first half. Certainly they never managed to subdue the dynamic, ubiquitous little Andy Johnson, who was a forward line in himself.
Abandoning recent attempts to play with a couple of strikers, Palace left Johnson to play up front on his own and he did this with a heart and a half, often moving, especially in the first half, to the right wing where he looked as good and effective as any orthodox winger.
He scored the solitary goal in the 34th minute. When Wayne Routledge, who had a splendid, battling second half on the left flank, never giving up the ghost, put the ball over from the right, Jerzy Dudek tipped it away. Palace’s enterprising left-back, Danny Granville, returned the ball from the left, Jamie Carragher headed it away but only as far as Routledge, whose shot-cum-cross gave Johnson the opportunity to flick a header wide of Dudek.
Palace had begun with some exuberance, although Benitez would be in his rights to emphasise that Baros was painfully chopped down for the first time in the first minute. In the second, the ever-active and effective Michael Hughes took a free kick from the left. Tony Popovic, Palace’s Australian centre-half, got in a forceful header, which Dudek leapt to turn over the bar. Then Johnson centred from the left and when Granville made contact in the penalty area, Dudek went down to block the shot.
Liverpool did look transiently dangerous on 39 minutes when Morientes got his head to a cross by Steve Finnan but Kiraly took the ball. Almost at once, Johnson tore between both Liverpool centre-backs but put his shot just wide.
A fine saving tackle by Popovic thwarted Morientes, who pursued Gerrard’s pass, and Liverpool looked all the better for the late arrival of their French centre-forward, Djibril Cisse, who has missed so much of this season through injury. Perhaps we will see him at Stamford Bridge.