Liverpool Drew with Atletico Madrid 1-1 Thanks to Late Equalizer from Steven Gerrard

Liverpool was lucky enough to manage a point against Atletico Madrid at home in a Champions League encounter last night. Liverpool fans were preparing for a rare home defeat in Europe as the Spanish visitors were leading 1-0 even until 3 minutes of stoppage time. However, Liverpool was awarded a penalty in the fourth minute of the stoppage time when Gerrard was fouled by Mariano Pernia inside the penalty box. However, the penalty created some dispute because many think it was not a penalty. Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard executed the penalty successfully to salvage a point for the reds.

Earlier in the 37^th minute of the first half, Maxi Rodriguez put the Atletico Madrid ahead in the match, after receiving the ball from Antonio Lopez. It does not mean that Atletico was dominating over the home side. Rather, Liverpool was in control of the match most of the time and created a number of opportunities. However, Robbie Keane missed an excellent chance in the first half, but his volley went wide in the 15^th minute of the match. Keane got another chance in the 33^rd minute but was denied by the Atletico Madrid goalkeepers Franco.

In the second half, defender Daniel Agger’s head from Fabio Aurelio's close-range free kick went over the goal bar. Carragher also got a good chance to equalize but once again Franco turned rescuer for the Spanish side. However, the goalkeeper had nothing to do when Gerrard sent the ball home into the top right corner of the post. With this draw, Liverpool and Atletico Madrid have 8 points each from 4 matches and both are equally leading the point table of Group D.

Liverpool vs Atletico Madrid: Preview and Liver Score

Liverpool hosts Atletico Madrid in a very important Group D match of Champions League 2008-09 tonight (4 November 2008). The match will take place at the Anfield stadium of Liverpool with both sides looking to picking up all three important points. On the back of a disheartening 2-1 loss away at Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, Liverpool will be gunning for a comprehensive victory against the Spanish side in what would not only earn them three points and qualification into the round of 16, but also boost up their confidence level. For Atletico Madrid, they will look to continue their recently-found good form that saw winning two out of their last four matches, besides two draws.

Match: Liverpool vs Atletico Madrid, Group D, Champions League 2008-09

Date: 4 November 2008, Tuesday

Venue: Anfield

Kick off: 19:45 BST (British Standard Time)

Liverpool’s unbeaten run in this season ended after suffering a 2-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday. With this defeat, Liverpool has moved down to the second place in the league table, losing the top spot that they earned after pulling off a confidence-booster 1-0 victory away at Chelsea. From 11 matches, Liverpool has equal 26 points of leader Chelsea, but sits in the second place on goal difference. So, they are still very much in the title race of the league. Liverpool has got off to one of the best start to the current premier league season in the last few years. The All Reds spent some miserable time in premier league over the last few seasons, but their performance so far this season has come as their rescuer from the critics who adversely wrote off Liverpool’s chances of retaining the league title.

In Europe too, Liverpool got off to a good start in the Champions League campaign with a 2-1 away victory over French club Marseille. In the second match, Liverpool defeated Dutch club PSV Eindhoven 3-1 at home, before being forced to draw with Atletico Madrid away after suffering a late equalizer by Simao. So, Liverpool is now atop the point table of Group D with 7 points from 3 matches thanks to two wins and a draw. If Liverpool can bounce back from the loss at Tottenham Hotspur and win over Atletico Madrid today, and Marseille defeats PSV Eindhoven, then the English club will be through to the knock-out stage of the tournament.

Similarly, Atletico Madrid, who sits just behind Liverpool in the second place in the table with same 7 points of Liverpool, can also ensure their qualification into the round of 16 with a victory over Liverpool tonight, but to do so, Marseille must win over PSV Eindhoven too. Atletico Madrid started their Europe mission with an emphatic 3-0 away victory over the Dutch club PSV Eindhoven. In the second match, Atletico Madrid defeated Marseille 2-1 at home, before making a 1-1 draw with Liverpool at home. With PSV Eindhoven and Marseille standing at the third and fourth place with 3 and 0 points respectively from three matches, Atletico Madrid will still find their hopes of getting into the knock-out stage alive, even if they lose the match at Liverpool. However, at least a point from the match would boost up their confidence level further.

Atletico Madrid’s domestic form so far this season is not impressive at all. The Madrid based club has managed only 13 points from 9 matches with 4 wins, 4 defeats and a draw and secures the 6^th place in the league standing with 9 points behind from leader Barcelona. Atletico Madrid was under huge pressure before taking on Liverpool at home couple of weeks ago as they went into the match on the back of three back-to-back league defeats. However, they managed to pick up a point from the match thanks to a late equalizer. Since then, Atletico Madrid seems to have been back in from and looks stronger and more confident. In fact, their recent form looks better and leaves some hope for the fans who are frustrated at the overall performance of Atletico Madrid this season.

Liverpool striker Fernando Torres might come back in action to take on his former club after spending about a month on the sideline with a hamstring injury. His participation in the match is not yet confirmed but, there is every possibility Torres could be back in the starting line up of Liverpool against Atletico Madrid. Considering the fact that there is no other major injury problem in the squad, except the long-term absentee Martin Skrtel, manager Rafael Benitez may not rush Torres for the match, if he can not recover fully from his hamstring injury. Captain Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Xabi Alonso and Robbie Keanea are there to take a stern test of Atletico Madrid at Anfield tonight.

For Atletico Madrid, there are some injury concerns. Defenders Giourkas Seitaridis and Tomas Ujfalusi have been ruled out of the match with injury. Goalkeeper Gregory Coupet will be back in the starting line up after recovering from injury.

Online Live Score and Updates

Here, I am giving some names of online live score and update websites from where you can get the live score and updates of the match:

Live Score

Goalzz

Live Football Scores

Goal.com

Footie Scorez

Liverpool will have home advantage and they have a balanced side who won many matches so far this season and did not have any big blow, except the recent loss at Tottenham Hotspur. So, I think, Liverpool is favorite for the match. Having said that, I would like to say that you can not simply write off Atletico Madrid who have indicated to come back in from recently. So, I guess, there will be an interesting match between Liverpool and Atletico Madrid at Anfield.