Sturridge Earns Liverpool A Deserving Draw At Chelsea

Sturridge Earns Liverpool A Deserving Draw At Chelsea

By Danny Ward

Chelsea and Liverpool played out a scintillating 1-1 draw at the Stamford Bridge on Saturday with Daniel Sturridge sealing a point for Jurgen Klopp’s men with a late stunner.

Eden Hazard shot Maurizio Sarri’s men ahead in a cagey end-to-end contest in front of the 40, 625 spectators at the London venue, the former Chelsea player made sure that the traveling fans got the last laugh when he drew parity for the visitors in the 89th minute.

Manchester City overtook Liverpool from the top of the 2018/19 Premier League table earlier on in the day after beating Brighton 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium.

Though the result at the Stamford Bridge means that Liverpool's winning start has ended and they are now behind Manchester City on inferior goal difference, Klopp and his men would journey back to Liverpool feeling happy for being able to hold their own against a Chelsea side which, prior to this game, had drawn just once in seven matches and one which eliminated them from the Carabao Cup with a 2-1 win last Wednesday.

Willian nearly shot Chelsea ahead in the 22nd minute after connecting well onto a pass in the box, but goalkeeper Alisson Becker was alert and saved the ball.

Eden Hazard would put the hosts in front three minutes later. The Chelsea livewire was played through by Mateo Kovacic and the Belgian with acres of space in front of him did not look back, but raced into the box to deliver a perfect left-footed shot into the lower bottom corner beyond the reach of the stretching Alisson Becker.

Eden Hazard fed on a fine pass in the box and released a low shot which went into the right bottom corner of the post three minutes in the 25th minute, Mohammed Salah registered Liverpool’s first strike in the 32nd minute but his close-range effort was cleared to safety by Antonio Rudiger.

Sadio Mane became referee Andrew Marriner’s first booking of the night after illegally bringing down Eden Hazard in the 45th minute to stop the Belgian international from initiating a counter-break.

Kepa Arizzabalaga pulled a massive save to deny Mane, who relied on a defensive splitting pass to shoot towards the bottom left corner in the 59th minute, Becker scored full marks with a brilliant save to Eden Hazard’s shot five minutes later, three minutes before Klopp threw in his first card by replacing Mohammed Salah with Xherdan Shaqiri.

Mateo Kovacic forced good save from Becker with an equally good strike from the edge of the box in the 72nd minute, and Shaqiri squandered a great opportunity to pull parity for the visitors when he stretched to connect James Milner’s in-swinger to touch in an easier-to-score position.

Victor Moses replaced Willian in the same minute in the 73rd minute, and Liverpool’s James Milner saw the yellow card after a bad tackle on Moses in the 76th minute, four minutes before Klopp replaced his captain Jordan Henderson with Naby Kieta.

Maurizio Sarri reacted to his opponent tactics and replaced Kovacic with Ross Barkley, two minutes later, and Shaqiri shot from a free-kick to the left corner was well handled by Kepa in the 84th minute.

Both sides maintained exhibited great gut both on and off the ball, and it seemed the visitors were going to leave the Stamford Bridge with the only benefit being their fine play, but that changed in the 86th minute when Klopp brought on Daniel Sturridge for James Milner.

It took the Chelsea academy graduate just three minutes to give the visitors a point in addition to their good show on the night when he shot straight into the top corner over the fingertips of the diving Kepa Arizabalaga from the hosts final third in the 89th minute.