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Crystal Palace's Dwight Gayle blows Liverpool's title charge off course Crystal Palace's Dwight Gayle blows Liverpool's title charge off course
(about 1 hour later)
At one point, early in the second half, Liverpool's supporters could be heard confidently proclaiming "We're going to win the league." Their team had just gone 3-0 ahead and, once again, had looked like worthy champions. What happened next was almost inexplicable and will almost certainly make this the night Liverpool threw away any chance of ending that long 24-year wait for a championship. At the final whistle Steven Gerrard was on his haunches. All around him there were Liverpool players in a state of shock, some falling to the turf, others just wandering aimlessly. Luis Suárez's shirt had been pulled over his face, trying to hide the tears, and Gerrard was pushing away the television cameras while trying to keep in his own emotions. They were a broken lot.
At this stage of the season, a team that wants to finish as champions cannot surely get away with being this generous. Brendan Rodgers's team had led through Joe Allen's 18th-minute header and they were not far off rampant when Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suárez scored within two minutes of each other after the interval. At one point, shortly after Suárez had given them a 3-0 lead, a loud cry had gone up from the Liverpool end of "We're going to win the league". Their team had looked like worthy champions and were actually in the process of trying to chase down Manchester City's superior goal-difference. What happened next was almost inexplicable but there is also an inescapable truth to the night that surely confirmed Liverpool had thrown away any last chance of winning the league.
Yet what a comeback this was from a Crystal Palace side that looked suspiciously in end-of-season mode for three-quarters of this match. Almost out of nowhere, Damien Delaney picked out the top corner with a 79th-minute shot. Yannick Bolasie's brilliant run on the left set up Dwight Gayle to add a second two minutes later and, by the end, Liverpool's players were on the floor and Suárez was in tears. Gayle had scored a dramatic 88th-minute equaliser and the title surely now belongs to Manchester City. It is that a team with serious aspirations of finishing the season with a championship trophy cannot get away with being this generous in defence. Liverpool's back four crumpled in a way that undermined all their attacking brilliance.
The result means that no matter how Liverpool fare in their final game of season, if Manchester City win their last two matches, the Premier League title will go to the Etihad. When Allen headed them into the lead, from Steven Gerrard's corner, Lucas could be seen ignoring the celebrations to retrieve the ball and race back to the centre-circle to resume play as quickly as possible. It is, loosely speaking, the fundamental reason why their title challenge will almost certainly come up short and what a remarkable late passage of play that was from a Crystal Palace side that had looked suspiciously in end-of-season mode for three quarters of this match.
"Attack, attack, attack," was the cry from the Liverpool end. Realistically, however, it was always futile thinking they could catch City this way, however obliging their next game against Newcastle might appear. The aim was to ensure the pressure was loaded back on City and, in fairness, the away side quickly set about trying to get last week's defeat to Chelsea out of their system. For long spells, Liverpool had made them resemble the vulnerable, slightly dishevelled team that Tony Pulis had inherited in October. Joe Allen's 18th-minute header had put Liverpool in a position of command and they were not far off rampant when Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suárez scored within two minutes of each other in the early stages of the second half. After each goal, Liverpool's players could be seen rushing to get the ball out of the net and sprinting back to the centre-circle, desperate not to waste any time as they sought more goals. "Attack, attack, attack" was the cry in Liverpudlian accents.
Tony Pulis has based Palace's resurgence on qualities of structure and resilience but there was something disjointed about their defending at times. Realistically, it was always futile to think they could claw back the goal difference that had established Manchester City as favourites for the league. Yet it is almost inexplicable how this vibrant display of attacking football ended in trauma and shock.
Mamadou Sakho had already wasted a free header from one of Gerrard's corners by the time Allen scored his first Liverpool goal, on his 50th appearance for the club, and the marking on both occasions was strangely lax. Damien Delaney set it in motion, almost out of nowhere, with a 20-yard shot that deflected off Glen Johnson to find the top corner. Yannick Bolasie's brilliant run on the left set up the substitute Dwight Gayle in virtually the next attack and then the same player completed the comeback after Glenn Murray had split open the Liverpool defence yet again. Three goals had arrived in 10 minutes and, though Liverpool desperately tried to add another twist, the damage was grievous.
Allen had peeled off to the back post, eluding Joe Ledley in the process, and the referee, Mark Clattenburg, did not see anything wrong despite Palace's complaints that Luis Suárez and Lucas has taken it in turns to impede their player. Allen, hardly known for his aerial prowess was inside the six-yard area as the ball found him in space. For a few seconds, Brendan Rodgers just closed his eyes. "We got carried away," he said afterwards. "We thought we could score more and we lost our defensive structure." Naivety, to put it another way. Rodgers accepted that the title was surely heading to Manchester but the players had already done that without even speaking. Martin Skrtel was on the floor, pulling his fingers down his face. Gerrard went to comfort Suárez. In the end Kolo Touré, an unused substitute, led the striker off the pitch. To a man, it was a picture of sporting desolation.
Suárez had appeared to be struggling with illness before kick-off but Liverpool quickly settled into their rhythm. Glen Johnson's overlapping runs from right-back were a feature of the opening period. Raheem Sterling showed again that he often does his best work at the front of the midfield diamond and it was not until the half-hour mark that Palace offered any real indication of why they have avoided relegation with something to spare. It was an incredible finale and what a stunning effort from Palace, completely out of keeping with the way the rest of the game had gone.
The Liverpool goalkeeper, Simon Mignolet, produced a couple of splendid saves in those late stages of the first half. The first one turned away a left-foot shot from Jason Puncheon, coming in from the right wing, but it was an even more accomplished piece of goalkeeping shortly afterwards to tip Mile Jedinak's long-range effort over the crossbar. "We didn't give them a sniff," Rodgers said, which was not exactly the case but not too far off. Liverpool's goalkeeper, Simon Mignolet, had little to do in the first half, bar save a couple of long-range efforts from Jason Puncheon and Mile Jedinak. That apart, Liverpool's No1 was barely threatened until those late, dramatic moments when everything unravelled. Pulis has based Palace's resurgence on qualities of structure and resilience but there was something disjointed about their defending at times. Allen, hardly a player known for his aerial prowess, headed in the opening goal, direct from Gerrard's corner. Sturridge made it 2-0 when he took down Gerrard's long pass, turned inside Joel Ward and his shot took a slight, yet decisive, flick off Delaney.
Liverpool, however, had produced the more refined football, with Suárez busily trying to create space in an often congested penalty area. Then Suárez's goal came from a one-two with Raheem Sterling and that was the point when Liverpool's fans started their victory songs. Totting up the number of chances they created, there was something implausible about the ordeal.
Early in the second half he was booked for dissent, having been aggrieved that Scott Dann had not been penalised for blocking him, and shortly afterwards he put a wild shot high and wide after Julian Speroni had turned Sturridge's shot against the post. Yet Gayle took his goals with great expertise and, incredibly, Palace had a couple of half-chances to win the match. As it was, it felt almost irrelevant that Liverpool had actually gone back to the top of the league.
Then Liverpool got serious. Sturridge made it 2-0 when he took down Gerrard's long pass, turned inside Joel Ward and his shot took a slight yet decisive flick off Delaney on its way into the net. City will leapfrog them again by beating, or even drawing, against Aston Villa on Wednesday/ and then have another home game, against West Ham, when it would need something extraordinary to prevent them winning their second championship in three seasons. For Liverpool, the tears were flowing in the stands and on the pitch. They knew it was over.
That was the point at which Liverpool's fans started with their victory songs and the volume went up again when, in almost their next attack, Suárez wriggled away from Delaney, played a one-two with Sterling and drove in the third goal. It was almost inexplicable that Liverpool could go from this position to taking only a point. Yet the truth is they defended abysmally after Delaney's shot deflected in off Johnson.
Gayle took both his goals expertly, the first after being set up by Bolasie's run and the second when another substitute, Glenn Murray, headed the ball into his path. Liverpool came back looking for a stoppage-time winner but the lingering image was of Gerrard on his haunches and Suárez covering his face in anguish. They knew it was over.