Soccer: Leeds Utd - 2 Liverpool - 2 Leeds United remain bottom of the Premiership, two, possibly three, points from safety if goal difference is included; Liverpool remain sixth, three points off a Champions League place with a game in hand. Neither side lost yesterday and, superficially, both could be satisfied by this entertaining, if haphazard draw.
Leeds have beaten Wolves and drawn with Manchester United and Liverpool in their last three Premiership matches, and at last do not look like a side ready to be relegated. For Liverpool, it was another point gained away from home, a point that felt bigger and better when Portsmouth later equalised against Newcastle. Moreover, Harry Kewell and Milan Baros both looked fit and scored memorable goals.
"I thought it was a smashing game," were Gerard Houllier's first words. "I can't ask for more, particularly 48 hours after a European game."
For Leeds, Mark Viduka came back and scored a neat lob to put the Yorkshiremen 2-1 ahead. Eddie Gray mentioned "just a wee bit more belief" among his squad that they can lift themselves out of their predicament. "But it's going to be difficult."
Certainly, having Viduka alongside Alan Smith in attack lends credibility to Leeds's hopes of escape. Yet had Michael Owen been in one of his more fluent goalscoring modes, Leeds would surely have been well beaten. Paul Robinson deservedly earned praise for his 58th-minute point-blank save from Owen, but as the striker was six yards out when he met Kewell's cross with his head, the ball should have been placed beyond Robinson.
That was Owen's best chance, but there were others. Baros also missed, glaringly, from eight yards with a 33rd-minute header that crashed back off the Leeds crossbar, while Robinson made sharp saves from Kewell at 0-0 and from Dietmar Hamann at 2-2.
Robinson's diving save from Hamann came on 87 minutes and led to a Liverpool corner. From it substitute Emile Heskey had his header cleared off the line by Leeds's young replacement Simon Johnson.
So talk of a Leeds revival based on this evidence must be considered. A more efficient Liverpool would have demoralised a central pairing of Dominic Matteo and Steve Caldwell - one a converted midfielder, the other a Newcastle reserve on loan.
Leeds's next four games are Fulham and Birmingham away and Manchester City and Leicester at home. There is hope, but like shares in the club, it remains suspended.
Victory would have lifted them out of the bottom three for the first time since October, albeit for a couple of hours. But it never looked a likelihood, even when Viduka scored that second goal. It gave Leeds the lead for only seven minutes, Baros then completing a quartet of goals in 21 minutes of the first half.
Kewell had begun the scoring. On his first return since his meagre £2.5 million transfer to Liverpool he was booed continually. A minute's silence for John Charles was followed by 90 minutes' abuse for Kewell and the Australian barely celebrated his strike.
It merited more. One of the lessons of this game was how quickly football changes and when Smith jumped with Chris Kirkland for a 20th-minute cross and the ball fell on to the toe of Viduka, it seemed he would poke the ball in. But the ball's arrival surprised the striker, and Liverpool swooped.
At pace and with impressive accuracy, Liverpool ferried the ball via Jamie Carragher and Baros to Kewell. Twenty yards out and on his left foot, Kewell bent a sweet shot around Robinson into the far corner. Less than 30 seconds elapsed between Viduka's moment and Kewell's.
The move represented Liverpool at their best, Steven Gerrard displaying vigour and snap in the pass. But the lack of end product leaves a defence vulnerable to pressure, and Smith and Viduka gave Stephane Henchoz and Sami Hyypia a long afternoon.
Smith won the header that led to Eirik Bakke equalising Kewell's opener. Liverpool were backtracking uncomfortably as Jermaine Pennant found Bakke, who had space to guide the ball low past Kirkland, his first league goal for more than an injury-blighted year.
Further confirmation of Liverpool's defensive exposure came six minutes later when Henchoz headed a high ball out weakly straight to Smith, who fed Viduka as he surged into the Liverpool area. Smith's pass invited a lob, as did Kirkland's sluggishness off his line. Viduka supplied it.
"Houllier out," chanted the Leeds fans, but their good humour was brief. Showing a defence even more fragile than Liverpool's, first Didier Domi and then Seth Johnson allowed Baros to turn before planting a 20-yarder wide of Robinson.
Gerrard and Liverpool slowed in the second half but they still conjured opportunities. Leeds, though, did the same and Smith hit the crossbar with a 73rd-minute header.
Houllier smiled: "Football was the winner today. Sometimes you've got to say 'well done', not only blame me." Levski in Sofia come quick on Wednesday, however.
