LONDON: Luis Suarez rescued a point for Liverpool with a sublime goal that owed nothing to his alleged penchant for diving in a 1-1 draw at home to 10-man Newcastle at Anfield yesterday.
This season the Uruguay striker has been on the receiving end of repeated charges from rival managers that he goes to ground all too easily.
However, Suarez delivered a timely reminder of his skill in the 67th minute at Anfield when he drew Liverpool level after Yohan Cabaye had given Newcastle the lead. Jonas Gutierrez gave possession away to Jose Enrique, who punted a ball into the Newcastle box. Suarez brought the ball under control, skipped past Fabricio Coloccini and coolly rounded Magpies goalkeeper Tim Krul in a sweeping solo move.
Coloccini’s day got worse when he received a straight red card six minutes from time for a wild challenge on Suarez.
Cabaye put Newcastle in front two minutes before half-time with a superb strike across the face of goal and into the far corner of Brad Jones’s net following a cross from Hatem Ben Arfa.
The draw left Newcastle in 10th place while Liverpool climbed into 12th spot, three points behind the Magpies. Earlier yesterday, Queens Park Rangers and Reading were still both left searching for their first Premier League win of the season after sharing the points in a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road.
However, the result did see QPR at least climb off the bottom of the table, leapfrogging Southampton on goal difference ahead of the Saints’ match against West Brom today.
Former QPR defender Kaspars Gorkss opened the scoring for visitors Reading in the 16th minute.
But Djibril Cisse earned QPR a draw with a 66th minute equaliser.
Meanwhile in the Scottish premier League, an Efe Ambrose own goal in stoppage time sealed a remarkable Dundee United comeback as the home side came from two goals down to seal a 2-2 draw with champions Celtic at Tannadice yesterday.
Despite the draw Celtic returned to the top on goal difference from Hibernian ahead of their crucial Champions League clash against Barcelona at Parkhead on Wednesday.
Neil Lennon felt his side didn’t get the result they deserved.
“It was very frustrating because we were brilliant today,” the Celtic manager said.
“We dominated the game and we got the two goals which we thoroughly deserved and then we didn’t deal with a couple of balls into our box.
“I just think we were unfortunate today. I don’t think anyone could take away from the fact we were excellent.”
His United counterpart had a different view.
“I think we were well worth the result if you look at the game. We put a lot of work into the game,” Peter Houston said. AGENCIES
