Liverpool - 0
Crystal Palace - 2 (Gray 55. Henchoz og 79.)
Hayden Mullins was appointed skipper for the night, and winning the toss he chose the end he wanted to play towards, and Liverpool kicked off. Cedric Berthelin had to be alert to turn aside the danger as John Arne Riise sent in a cross that Bruno Cheyrou hit goalwards, and the resulting corner found Sami Hyypia, who really should have done better than to head the chance wide of the post. One gets the impression this might become a long list of Liverpool chances!
Riise was caught offside before Jamie Carragher managed to get clear of the defence, his shot going well wide of the mark. Danny Murphy got a dangerous ball into the feet of Michael Owen, but fortunately he sent his shot wide. Hayden was deemed to have brought down El Hadji Diouf, but the defensive wall took care of Murphy's free kick
Once again the ball came through to Owen, but even though the Palace faithful called for "offside" no flag came from the official concerned, and it looked fairly clear that he would score. Once again luck was on Palace's side, and his chip over Cedric again went wide of the post. Danny Butterfield had to concede a corner from a dangerous forward move by the home side, and Tony Popovic cleared, but the ball came straight back at us. Cedric did very well to deny Cheyrou, and then the follow up shot from Emil Heskey was saved by the keeper.
Julian Gray finally won our first corner of the match, but the inswinging ball was headed straight into the waiting arms of Jerzy Dudek by Dele Adebola. A dangerous cross in by Diouf was cleared by Tony, and then Darren Powell managed to get a foot to the ball as it swung in towards Owen. The next forward move by the home side saw Owen blast the ball over the top from close range, before Cedric punched the next cross away, once again before Owen could pounce.
SDanny Granville put in a good cross that Hyypia cleared, and as Owen raced down to the other end Cedric came out of his goalmouth to claim the ball before the striker could get the final, telling, touch. Darren cleared the next move, once again denying Owen; the subsequent corner being cleared by Tony.
It was mostly one-way traffic, and it was starting to look as if it was just a matter of time before Liverpool opened the scoring.
Heskey appeared, at least to the Palace faithful, to be offside once more, but again the flag stayed down, his shot going wide once more, and even though not much more than half-an-hour had elapsed Trevor Francis made his first change in the game, Danny G making way for Dougie Freedman. A bold, attacking, move it was by the Palace management, but would it be prudent at this point in the match?
An appeal for handball against Darren fell on deaf ears, then Cedric held on well to a quick shot taken by Dietmar Hamann. A good forward move by Dougie found Andy Johnson in the area, and Palace forced their second corner of the match; but despite pressure from the Palace forwards the chance went begging. Owen got clear once again, but Cedric half cleared the ball before Tony booted it away to safety, and with little further action the first half came to an end. Once again Palace had managed to keep Liverpool off the scoresheet, the third consecutive half of football they had managed this.
Trevor, surely, must have been pleased with this effort, but it was certainly starting to look as though it might be more down to good luck than good management! What would the second half bring?
Palace got the second half underway, and Dougie got a chance, his shot going tamely to the keeper. Heskey got past Kit Symons, but good reactions from Cedric saved the day, whilst at the other end Dele found Dougie, his shot going over the top of the crossbar. A free kick to Liverpool hit the wall once again, and shortly after Riise hit a long-range shot that Cedric hung on to, albeit at the second attempt.
Danny got a good stop in before Owen could snap a shot at goal, and in what can only be described as somewhat against the run of play Danny got a cross in to Dele, and his flick found Julian Gray at the back post, his shot sailing sweetly into the back of the net. Finally we had scored!
A corner to Liverpool was cleared by Tony, but Cheyrou was again loitering in the area, this time his header going wide of the mark once more. AJ almost made it two, Dudek tipping his shot just wide of the post, and Darren denied Owen a shot, the ball going out for yet another corner to the home side. Once again Tony cleared the danger, and Liverpool made their first change, Milan Baros coming on for Murphy.
Bad luck, or should that be bad judgment, saw Dougie receive his marching orders following a retaliatory strike on Hyypia, but really there was nothing that Palace could complain about, an elbow to the face is an automatic red card offence. Suddenly we were down to 10 men, and there was still 20 minutes or so to go in the match. This really could make life difficult!
Cedric held on to a goalward bound drive from Hamann, then claimed a cross from Baros when the attack was waiting to pounce, and at the other end Julian beat the defence, sent in a good cross, and Hyypia managed to turn the ball into the back of the net, the problem being that it was his own net, and the scoreline now read 2-0 in favour of Palace. Surely we could win from here?
The crowd started to leave, but one can be sure that none of the 4,000 strong Palace contingent was going anywhere, and the next action saw Cedric claim the ball as Heskey got free behind the defence. Darren cleared the ball from another Liverpool attack, then Heskey's header was easily claimed by our keeper once more.
With time running out Palace brought Steve Thomson on for AJ, and as Owen fired another shot wide of the goalmouth Ade Akinbiyi came on for Dele. These substitutions were more a matter of trying to run the clock down, rather than being forced on the side, and only two minutes of time was added on to the end of the match. Tony had time to worry us, as he headed the ball past the post at his own end of the field, and the final whistle sounded; the match was over; and the Palace faithful would have sung all the way home, looking forward to the visit by Leeds in the 5th round.
Colin Pryce
Liverpool: Jerzy Dudek, Jamie Carragher, Stephane Henchoz, Sami Hyypia, Bruno Cheyrou, Dietmar Hamann, Danny Murphy (Milan Baros 67), John Arne Riise, El Hadji Diouf, Michael Owen, Emil Heskey.
Substitutes not used: Salif Alassane Diao, Djimi Traore, Igor Biscan, Pegguy Arphexad.
Crystal Palace: Cedric Berthelin, Kit Symons, Darren Powell, Tony Popovic, Danny Butterfield, Hayden Mullins, Shaun Derry, Julian Gray, Danny Granville (Dougie Freedman 36), Dele Adebola (Ade Akinbiyi 90), Andrew Johnson (Steve Thomson 88).
Substitutes not used: Lance Cronin, Tommy Black.
Attendance: 35,109
Referee: Mr P Dowd (Stoke-On-Trent)