Reds Held To Bore Draw

English Premiership

Aston Villa 0 - 0 LIVERPOOL

Thomas Sorensen pulled off a magnificent save to deny Liverpool an undeserved win at Villa Park as both teams huffed and puffed their way to finish line without much action. Jermaine Pennant's delicious ball in was well met with veteran striker Robbie Fowler's head but the Villa goalkeeper reacted brilliantly, getting down fast enough to save Villa from a suck punch right on the 90th minute mark.

In perhaps one of the most dour and boring game, chances were few and far between. Goalkeeper from both sides were largely untroubled while the defence ahead of them were on top of their game. Perhaps critics will bring up the fact that Villa are culpable of being too negative but to be honest, it was all about Liverpool's insipid and lacklustre performance.

The visitors were on a run of two consecutive losses and with the long break before the game, you'll expect them to be fresh and more organised albeit a little lack of match practice. But other than the Fowler's last minute header and Riise's rising shot earlier on, they had nothing to show for.

Villa, meanwhile, tried to hit Liverpool on the counter attack and did cause some problems for Carragher and co. John Carew did well to hold up ball with his physical strength while Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young bombed down the flanks with pace.

They had a controversial penalty turned down after Agbonlahor's cross bobbled around Liverpool's penalty box and with Stilian Petrov approaching the ball, Carragher and Finnan both caught the Bulgarian's leg. He went down but referee, Lee Mason, turned it down despite being a few yards away.

Apart from that, there was little to talk about.

Kuyt once again underlined Liverpool's chief weakness that is, finishing. Fabio Aurelio pinged a fantastic cross in front the left and the Dutchman, despite being unmarked, sent his header over the bar.

With the team giving little for Rafa Benitez to be happy about, he will certainly be pleased with the performance of Javier Mascherano. Although not an all round performance but the Argentinian didn't look all out of place and did pretty well with a few good tackles and interceptions.

Not having too much match practices, the midfield destroyer put up a decent performance while the Liverpool fans will most certainly look forward to seeing him next season, with pre-season training and all.

With Arsenal already managed to take over them in the league at 3rd place, they'll now face an uphill task to once again, consolidate 3rd place for themselves. The outcome of it might just be the important game next week as Liverpool will face off with Arsenal at Anfield.

3rd is probably means nothing to many but to this two teams, it's the least they could get now. And with that, Liverpool will probably have to buck up to mount a challenge before it's too late.