SOCCER/Crystal Palace 2 Liverpool 1: When Rafael Benítez took the unsual step of publicly criticising his players' attitude on the eve of this match, he must have hoped for a positive reaction. Instead the Liverpool manager watched a disappointing season disintegrate further when his team were beaten by Crystal Palace last night.
For all their accomplished displays in Europe, Liverpool continue to fall horribly short in domestic combat, particularly on their travels. Their understrength team may note that Palace's Julian Speroni made several good saves but their lack of killer instinct remains plain and Benítez will be dismayed that they failed to build on an equaliser by Steven Gerrard.
Instead the performance got worse and a lively Palace seized their moment, the influential Michael Hughes setting up a winner for Marco Reich.
It had not been difficult to envisage an upset. Liverpool fielded a weakened team with Jamie Carragher, José Reina and Djibril Cissé among those rested.
It must have been a relief to him to be able to welcome back his captain Gerrard after the England international's shin injury.
Helped by Gerrard's efforts, Liverpool could easily have scored before Dougie Freedman put Palace ahead in the 37th minute.
He was involved in his team's first three chances, all of which brought decent saves from the Palace keeper Speroni, making his first appearance of the season as Iain Dowie showed rotation in this competition is not only for top clubs.
After a slow start Liverpool began to press their opponents back and Palace were grateful to Speroni's reflexes. It was not just Gerrard who was frequently part of the European champions' best moments.
Fernando Morientes, who has failed to produce the form expected of him since joining from Real Madrid, was busy. The Spaniard's pass set up Harry Kewell for a shot and brought another save from the keeper shortly after. When Speroni then dived to keep out a 25-yard Gerrard effort, it seemed a breakthrough for Liverpool was bound to come.
Yet they could not sustain the flow of opportunities and Palace looked more than capable of troubling Liverpool's defence, the most inexperienced portion of their team, with Scott Carson in goal and Zak Whitbread, Stephen Warnock and David Raven joining Sami Hyypia in the back four.
Liverpool looked vulnerable at free-kicks, with Carson saving from Fitz Hall and Dougie Freedman, but there were other elements to Palace's play. With Ben Watson driving them impressively from midfield and Freedman mingling some poor work with neat touches, the Championship side created openings. They were unfortunate that the referee Phil Dowd awarded a free-kick, rather than playing advantage, when the unmarked Tom Soares shaped to shoot, and then got an excellent goal.
Freedman fed Hughes and the Irishman delivered a delightful cross which Freedman sped on to and headed past Carson.
Liverpool's response was instant. Speroni again rescued Palace after a ball hit Kewell and sped goalwards but had no chance with Gerrard's equaliser. The midfielder was fortunate when his header, aimed for Morientes, came back to him off Mark Hudson and calmly placed a shot into the corner.
Palace were also pressing forward vigorously and putting over crosses which caused Liverpool concern, and it was no great surprise when they regained the lead. Liverpool failed to clear a long throw and Hughes clipped the ball to the far post for Reich to volley past Carson.
CRYSTAL PALACE: Speroni, Borrowdale, Hudson, Fitz Hall, Boyce, Watson, Soares, Hughes, Reich (Togwell 84), Freedman (Black 77), Morrison (Andrews 74). Subs not used: Kiraly, Ward. Booked: Reich, Hudson. Goals: Freedman 37, Reich 66.
LIVERPOOL: Carson, Raven, Hyypia, Whitbread, Warnock (Traore 76), Potter, Gerrard, Hamann, Kewell (Luis Garcia 65), Morientes (Sinama Pongolle 62), Crouch. Subs not used: Reina, Josemi. Booked: Raven. Goal: Gerrard 40.
Referee: P Dowd (Staffordshire).
