Report by Steve Horton at the City of Manchester Stadium

A lacklustre Reds display in Manchester saw us fail to put further pressure on Everton in the race for fourth place. A late goal by Kiki Musampa prevented us from going above the Blues on goal difference, but it was no more than City deserved for their efforts.
 
After such a monumental performance against Juventus in midweek, there were hopes that our great European form could be transferred onto the domestic stage.

But from the start, we were a step behind City, who should have gone ahead after ten minutes through Sylvain Distin, only for Scott Carson to make a great save from his header.

Up front we posed little threat, with Anthony Le Tallec providing little potency alongside Fernando Morientes and City deploying an effective offside trap.
 
It led to a very subdued Reds following, who rarely made their presence felt all afternoon, which was the same thing that happened last time. Maybe it's the fact our support was spread over two tiers, or maybe it was just too cold and wet. The home fans were even quieter, breaking their silence just once or twice to sing "sign on".
 
Except for a brief spell midway through the half we rarely looked like breaking the deadlock. Igor Biscan had more attempts on goal than anyone else, with a header going wide and David James gathering his goal bound shot at the second attempt.

Luis Garcia fired a speculative strike way over the bar and Le Tallec blazed the ball high and wide from little over six yards. Morientes didn't manage a goalbound effort at all, in part due to him having to backtrack to play provider to Le Tallec as nobody else was.
 
Only the efforts of Mauricio Pellegrino and Stephen Warnock at the back kept City at bay and when the defence was breached Carson put in a fine performance, being on hand to keep out Antoine Sibierski on the brink of half time.

Mike Riley was doing his best to help City as well, giving them every 50-50 decision and failing to take action against the ridiculous diving antics of Musampa, which marred what was an otherwise great display at left wing.

On one occasion he went down clutching his chest as if he'd been shot and on another dived theatrically when he realised he had nudged the ball forward just a little too much.
 
We came out for the second half with a bit more urgency and dominated for the first ten to fifteen minutes, with Gerrard shooting just wide and Le Tallec being put through only to be denied by James after a moment of hesitation.

City weathered this storm and began to assert some authority, going closest when Musampa stunning volley was tipped onto the bar by Carson after 65 minutes. 
 
The expected spate of substitutions came from each side, but it looked clear that Rafael Benitez seemed happy to settle for a point when he took off John Arne Risse and sent on Djimi Traore, as well as getting a few boos for replacing Morientes with John Welsh.

Garcia made way for Vladimir Smicer, but that may have been down to the Spaniard feeling the effects of a nasty challenge in the first half.
 
Our one great chance came in the 80th minute when a flowing move saw the ball end up at the feet of Steven Gerrard, who disappointingly fired into the side netting.

It was the captain's only contribution to the game and his mind clearly looked elsewhere. He certainly showed no interest in motivating the rest of the team.
 
With five minutes remaining many of the away support began to head home, knowing it wasn't going to be our day. We had a major scare in the 87th minute when Musampa went spinning through the air as soon as he got to the edge of our penalty box.

Riley gave the free kick which was taken by Richard Dunne and charged down by Jamie Carragher.  It was felt we had got away with it then, but the winner came with 20 seconds remaining when Musampa drove home from the edge of the box.
 
Whenever a team hasn't won for a while, or a manager needs a debut win, or a shit striker needs a first goal Liverpool FC are always on hand to oblige.

All three came City's way yesterday and it's so frustrating when such things happen, especially at such a crucial stage of the season. I couldn't even raise a laugh when watching United get humiliated by Norwich later on.
 
I have no doubt the players will raise their game for Juventus on Wednesday, because they have no reason to be bothered about the Premiership.

So many of them are unlikely to be around next season it doesn't matter to them whether or not we finish fourth. The Champions League is another story, as they can achieve personal glory and are in the shop window at the same time.
 
Had we even got a draw, I'm sure Everton would have imploded once they saw us below them in the table. As it was, they were spurred by our loss and stormed to their best win of the season.

A crucial win at Palace was the springboard for their early season form that has allowed them to cling on to fourth despite having been showing relegation form since January.

If the same thing happens again, there is absolutely sod all we can do about it and the unthinkable will become reality. At least Charlton and Boro lost so we look consolidated in a UEFA Cup spot, unless we can go on to glory in Istanbul of course.

Liverpool: Carson, Finnan, Carragher, Pellegrino, Warnock; Garcia (Smicer), Biscan, Gerrard, Riise (Traore); Le Tallec, Morientes (Welsh):

Agree or disagree? Email me at steve@liverpoolway.co.uk

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