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| May 14, 2006 | Sunday | Rabi-us-Sani 15, 1427 |
Liverpool outshoot Hammers
CARDIFF, May 13: Liverpool won the English FA Cup final here on Saturday beating West Ham on penalties after the match finished 3-3 after extra-time.
West Ham were twice pegged back by Liverpool having led 2-0 and then were leading 3-2 into injury-time of normal time before England midfielder Steven Gerrard levelled for his second of the match.
West Ham were just four injury-time minutes away from glory when Danny Gabbidon's headed clearance landed at the feet of Gerrard, who proceeded to beat Shaka Hislop with a drive from the best part of 30 yards.
It was Gerrard's second equaliser of an extraordinary afternoon in which Liverpool had fought back from two goals down only to fall behind once more when goalkeeper Jose Reina allowed Paul Knochesky's cross to drop into the net.
An own goal by Jamie Carragher and Dean Ashton's opportunist strike after Reina's first serious error of the afternoon - though he was later to redeem himself in the penalty shootout - had given West Ham a lead that was cancelled out by Djibril Cisse's 32nd-minute volley and Gerrard's first strike nine minutes after the break.
Ashton and Matthew Etherington were on the West Ham team-sheet while Xabi Alonso was cleared to start for Liverpool.
Yet it was the Spanish midfielder's uncharacteristically slack pass that gifted possession to Yossi Benayoun and led to West Ham taking the lead.
Benayoun immediately found Ashton, the striker's first-time pass sent Lionel Scaloni clear on the overlap and the Argentinian defender's driven low cross was deflected into the net by the unfortunate Carragher, who missed the ball with his right boot but inadvertently caught it with his trailing left leg.
Worse was to follow from the Liverpool defence as a catalogue of errors contribued to the Hammers' second goal.
Etherington, allowed time to bring the ball down on the edge of the area, sidestepped Sami Hyypia before firing in a shot that evaded attempted blocks by Gerrard and Steve Finnan.
The strike carried no real menace but Reina fumbled his attempt to gather and Ashton was on hand to squeeze the loose ball past the goalkeeper.
That was the cue for an East End knees-up in the claret and blue sections of the crowd.
But the party was cut short when Liverpool got themselves back into the contest with a goal of stunning simplicity four minutes later.
Gerrard's angled ball from just inside the opposing half dropped perfectly in the gap between a retreating West Ham back-line and goalkeeper Shaka Hislop.
Cisse's run in behind was perfectly timed and the Frenchman, falling to his left, met Gerrard's delivery with a sweetly struck right-foot volley that might have been enough to book his place in France's World Cup squad.
West Ham continued to trouble Liverpool however and the irrepressible Ashton was only centimetres away from claiming his second goal with a low drive after beating John Arne Riise on the edge of the box.
Then, within a minute of the restart, Reina was forced to produce close-range stops from Marlon Harewood and Benayoun after more good work by Etherington down the left flank.
Those near misses began to look costly when Gerrard equalised for the first time. Alonso's cross from a deep inside-left position was headed back towards the penalty spot and the Liverpool captain lashed the bouncing ball high to Hislop's right.
But ten minutes later, West Ham were back in front. Liverpool did not appear to be in any danger as Benayoun found Konchesky on the left touchline. The left-back launched his cross towards the back post and Reina appeared to completely misjudge its flight as the ball flew over him and dropped into the side netting.—AFP
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