Liverpool claimed a first victory at Selhurst Park in seven attempts to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals on Saturday, coming from behind to win 2-1 against Crystal Palace
Liverpool's Adam Lallana celebrates his goal
London: Liverpool claimed a first victory at Selhurst Park in seven attempts to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals on Saturday, coming from behind to win 2-1 against Crystal Palace.
Liverpool's Adam Lallana celebrates his goal. Pic/Getty Images
Liverpool's Premier League title challenge ran aground in a 3-3 draw at Palace last season and they lost 3-1 there in November, so they had reason to fear when Fraizer Campbell netted a 15th-minute opener.
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But the half-time introduction of Mario Balotelli tipped the tie in the visitors' favour and after Daniel Sturridge equalised, Adam Lallana scored in the 58th-minute to give Liverpool a first win at Palace since 1997.
"After we scored, I thought we were very good. We had 15 efforts on goal in the first half, but we weren't aggressive enough," Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers told BT Sport."I wanted us to keep the width on the pitch. We changed it around at half-time and it worked well for us."
With captain Steven Gerrard and Raheem Sterling injured, Rodgers brought Lallana and Joe Allen into his starting XI. Palace manager Alan Pardew scored a famous semi-final winner against Liverpool as a player in 1990 and he had another goal against the seven-time winners to celebrate when Campbell broke the deadlock.
Martin Skrtel failed to clear Joe Ledley's lofted pass and although Dwight Gayle's brave header was blocked by outrushing Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, Campbell found the net with a tidy volley.
Liverpool piled forward and a flurry of chances saw Palace goalkeeper Julian Speroni thwart Lallana, Philippe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson, while Allen and Lazar Markovic shot narrowly off-target.
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