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By Greg Robertson
Join the team at 3news.co.nz/sport for live video updates of the opening match of the English Premier League 2011/12 season as Liverpool take on Sunderland at Anfield. We will keep you up to date with all the action.
Refresh your browser occasionally and keep an eye out for added video as we go. We’ll warn you with a VIDEO UP sign every time we update the action.
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LIVE VIDEO and COMMENTARY: FINAL Liverpool 1 Vs Sunderland 1
90+4-ish: One last chance for the Reds but it's wellied away... anywhere. Whistles sound in the crowd egging the ref to blow it up and he does. Sunderland gate crashes the party at Anfield today.
90+3 mins: Sunderland has a chance to win it but the shot ends up at the back rows of Anfield.
90 mins: It's all Liverpool late in the piece. But 1-1 wasn't meant to be the script at Anfield today that's for sure. Four minutes added.
85 mins: Well, well... football aside...
Wales beat England in a friendly as we build up to the Rugby World Cup... if you'd like to check out the try
click here. And back to the football... desperation creeping in for Liverpool and home fans as they charge forward and try and snatch the goal that will give them the three points they thought were in the bag by the first half.
75 mins: That's the end of the day for Suarez. After a terrific first half the secodn spell has been scrappy at best - the highlight, for sure, the Larsson volley.
73 mins: All fluidity gone from Liverpool's game - seemingly - then Carroll breaks clear and dances with the ball on the edge of the penalty area. If not for a touch it may have bent into the corner. Video up. How costly will that first-half penalty be?
65 mins: Things are heating up out on the pitch and no doubt Kenny Dalglish would have a few choice words for his boys - they should have had this wrapped up after 45.
57 mins: Stunning goal by Larsonn! Video up. WHAT A GOAL! It's tied up.
54 mins: Chances at both ends. Video up of the Sunderland effort by Sessegnon that went straight to Reina. Either side of him and Sunderland were in like Flynn. Carroll has two chances at the opposite end. Video up.
52 mins: Eerie... Anfield has gone a touch quiet. I could swear they're up 1-0. I think there are nerves creeping in because their side should be more up and the longer it stays at 1-0 the more dangerous for their lads.
47 mins: Early shout for a handball turned down and rightly sow then Adam makes a nuisance of himself and shoots with his left peg. Not bad. Showing the goods. Video up.
HALFTIME" Liverpool 1-0
45+2 mins: Ref blows and it signals a half that Liverpool owned, asking Sunderland who their daddy was for most of the first spell. Back after the break.
45 mins: Two minutes of added time.
42 mins: Great organisation at the back snuffs out a Sunderland attack. That back four looks sharp. Reina, just then, made up his mind to come and things looked wobbly for a moment when he never got to the ball. Great delivery in though and all it needed was a touch into an empty net. Video up.
38 mins: It's raining shots on Sunderland's goal with Lucas making a great challenge just outside the box and letting fly. It went well wide but Liverpool looking so likely.
37 mins: John Flanagan has been playing Monopoly and must have produced the get out of jail free card - lunging in and somehow escaping the ref's book.
34 mins: What a crack! What a crack! Yes it was that good it was worth saying twice. Downing dribbled and let fly with a left peg that smashed against the bar. Oh that was worth a goal. Magical stuff. Video up.
29 mins: Another Liverpool corner and Adam steps forth again. He hits this one too strong but he's making an early impact for his new club.
27 mins: Suarez's first touch was all class to get away from Brown and he tries to thread the needle for Carroll cutting through but a desperate foot in means sighs of Sunderland relief.
23 mins: Charlie Adam has a dig from distance but it's straight at the Sunderland keeper. That would have stung Belgian hands.
20 mins: Well what a start. Liverpool should be two up and Suarez should have a double under his belt. Andy Carroll puts one away but the flag goes up early for a push. No goal. Class finish. Video up.
12 mins: Liverpool goes 1-0 up as Charlie Adams delivers a killer ball and Suarez makes up for the missed penalty by heading it home. Video up.
10 mins: Sunderland pushing way forward and the Anfield fans may just be shouting with joy soon with a goal to celebrate on the break.
5 mins: Luis Suarez breaks and is pulled down. Liverpool penalty! Suarez blasts it WAY over the bar! Video up. Sunderland's Richardson is only book - surely that should have been a red? Suarez's touch was strong trying to round Mignolet so maybe that saved him.
3 mins: An early corner for Sunderland comes to nothing despite a poor effort to clear that saw the ball drop to the floor of the six yard box. Video up.
1 min: The season has rolled off and we are underway. If Liverpool get an early one and light this Anfield crowd up any more than they already are then Sunderland could be in for a long afternoon.
We will bring you live commentary from the match, in the meantime watch video of Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish talking ahead of the new season
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Teams
Liverpool: Reina; Enrique, Agger, Carragher, Flanagan; Downing, Adam, Lucas, Henderson; Carroll, Suarez.
Sunderland: Mignolet; Richardson, Brown, Ferdinand, Bardsley; Larsson, Cattermole, Colback, Elmohamady; Sessegnon, Gyan.
Pregame banter
Liverpool completed the signing of left-back Jose Enrique shortly after manager Kenny Dalglish held his final press conference ahead of the 'Reds’ opening match of the new English Premier League season against Sunderland.
Dalglish was unwilling to make any comment on the subject during a scheduled press conference, but the 25-year-old Spaniard had a medical at the club's Melwood training ground on Thursday after the Merseysiders agreed a fee - believed to be in the region of six million pounds - for the Newcastle United defender.
Little was given away on the proposed transfer of Jose Enrique from Newcastle.
The Spaniard later completed his move to Anfield, becoming Dalglish's fifth signing of the summer, following midfielders Stewart Downing, Charlie Adam and Jordan Henderson and back-up goalkeeper Alexander Doni.
"We are delighted with who we have brought in. I think that it helps the squad, it helps the supporters look forward to a bit more. So we always had to improve the quality of the squad that we had, and that is the important thing," says Liverpool manager Dalglish.
"I can't stop people making comparisons (to the Liverpool side that Dalglish managed in the late 1980s). But they (the current squad) are not going to be judged against anybody else. They are going to be judged against their performances, and that will be it.
So whatever the comparisons are from other people, it is something that they enjoy discussing in the pubs - let them have their discussions. There is no doubt about it, (John) Barnes, (Peter) Beardsley, (Ray) Houghton, (John) Aldridge - that team gave fantastic satisfaction to millions of Liverpool fans," he says.
3 News
source: newshub archive
