Liverpool denied by late goal

Liverpool were the victims of their own art tonight in Spain, as a late goal from Simao snatched a deserved point for Atletico Madrid to leave both teams neck and neck at the top of their Champions League Group campaign.

The Reds lined with sunday's game clearly in mind. With Homecoming prince Nando Torres ruled out through injury, it was the turn of our born-again striker Dirk Kuyt to discover what it feels like to be wrapped up in cotton wool, as he was benched from the team that faced Wigan along with Pennant, replaced by Benayoun and Mascherano, who along with Gerrard all passed fit to play.

Atletico had leaked that their star striker Aguero might not start due to fatigue, and so it was as he was left on the bench while coach Aguirre opted for strikers with Premiership experience to take on a Premiership team, going with Forlan and Pongolle.

The game couldn't have started much better for the Reds, or Blues as they are now in their European kit. Atletico were clearly nervous after a horrendous run of form and it showed, with Gerrard and Alonso probing forward ever more effectively and the widemen Benayoun and Riera causing panic in the defence.

One early shout for a penalty came up on 7 minutes when Perea looked to have handled a cross, but it was waved away and it certainly wasn't to be the only controversy of the night, nor the only handball - I think more hands touched the ball tonight than a volleyball tournament.

On 15 minutes Liverpool took advantage of their hosts' nerves, as Alonso drove onto a loose ball, tapped it square for Gerrard, who placed a perfect through ball to Robbis Keane, running the line. His first touch was a bit weak, his second instinctive, his third was the opening goal, sliding the ball past an advancing Leo Franco to give us a dream start. Suspicions of offside but there were bigger arguments to be had later on.

From then on for the next twenty minutes or so we should have added to the lead. It wasn't quite ole football in the capital of ole, but we were far superior and perhaps a little guilty of letting our foot off the pedal.

A rare home foray forward was sucked up and we blew out of defence in a great break on 23 minutes to where Gerrard whipped in a perfect cross for Keane, who completely missed the ball. I don't know if he was trying to be cocky or just misjudged the flight of it, but it should have been two nil and game over.

Ten minutes of Liverpool pressure later Albert Riera broke onto a loose ball in the box, turned on it, had his trailing leg caught and was booked for diving. It wasn't a penalty, but it wasn't a dive. Yes, I'd be saying that it Ronaldo or Drogba had done it too.

As soon as the dust seemed to have settled on the incident, it happened up the other end, Maniche controlling a ball on his chest, getting a clip on his thigh from the backtracking Benayoun, and going down like he was centre-stage in the Albert Hall. He too was booked, harshly, though to be fair he made a lot more of his fall than Riera did.

In between those incidents, the control of the game had shifted remarkably, all from one snap-shot from the otherwise quiet Forlan. Running onto a pass that had sent him wide, and faced with a blue-green wall of impenetrability, he hammered the shot across goal with his left foot. It was a turning point, as up until then the hosts had offered nothing.

Atletico finished the half the stronger, and Liverpool, despite dominating most of the game, were glad when the whistle sounded.

In the second half it all went to pieces, and Liverpool started playing like a team who thought they'd done their job and were thinking about the weekend.

Keane was withdrawn early on, possible mutters about a knock following him off the pitch. On came Kuyt to harry us into a two-nil lead, and it should have been, when he bustled the ball to Gerrard who slipped in Benayoun, who poked it over the line. However the goal was wrongly disallowed for offside. Not just slightly offside like Keane's goal might have been, but a gapingly wrong desicion that the press would have had a field day with had it been a Premiership game.

3 minutes later, Forlan was wrongly called offside when through on Reina's goal, and then the worst of them all happened. On 57 minutes, Simao finished expertly from just inside the area for the home side, only to be wrongly called back for offside. This wasn't marginal, he was on by some three or four yards, and three or four defenders too. At best, it should have been a warning for the Reds, at worst, it could have been a real sore point for Madrid had they lost the game.

Soon after, Liverpool decided that this game was either done with, or should be, and again looking to sunday, Rafa withdrew Gerrard and Alonso and brought on Babel and Lucas to try and protect his star midfield men.

Any hope we realistically had of holding onto the lead for the game vanished with the disappearence of Alonso. I'm not saying Lucas is a bad player, but Xabi had been dominating the match. I suppose a lot of Reds will have a wry smile on their faces tonight and be thankful that Rafa's doing this in the CL now and not the Premiership.

Atletico were by now swarming through the Liverpool ranks, and we struggled to hold onto the ball for more than a couple of passes at a time. When Simao turned and shot onto the post - via a fantastic Reina save - it was a warning we should have heeded, so when he did exactly the same thing on 83 minutes, this time finding the bottom corner, we really couldn't have any complaints.

It was a deserved point for the home side, and given how we'd played in the second half, a deserved point for us.

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