Football story by Boris Webb, Mon, 09 Jan 2006 10:04:00 GMT


Xabi Alonso and Sinama Pongolle showed exactly why Liverpool are the reigning European Champions with a stellar display against Luton in a FA Cup third round tie last night. Liverpool let their guard down after Steven Gerrard had put them in front on the 16th minute.

But Luton refused to be overawed by the occasion and Steve Howard equalized on the 31st minute. In a dramatic half hour Luton surged to 3-1 lead courtesy strikes by Steve Robinson and Kevin Nicholls. The latter was a penalty strike after Djibril Cisse had missed a penalty at the other end. At 3-1 Luton were on the way to scripting a most amazing win in the FA Cup's history, but they had reckoned without Xabi Alonso and Sinama Pongolle, who pulled one back on the 62nd minute.

Thereafter Alonso took over to lob over Beresford's head from 40 yards and Liverpool were level. Pongolle then headed in a goal from a cross by Steve Finnan to give the visitors the lead and Alonso finished off a night's good work by putting in the ball from 60 yards. It was a remarkable game full of action from the word go and Luton were unlucky to lose the game from 3-1 up. But full credit should go to "comeback kings" Liverpool, who proved that their Istanbul showing was not a flash in the pan.

Rafael Benitez was happy with his team's showing, but said that comebacks were not good for his heart, "We looked as though we thought it would be easy after the first goal," he added "We gave them a lot of opportunities. We need to learn that if you're better than the other team you have to finish them off." Luton manager Mike Newell said that the lack of experience had done his team in, "At 3-1 we had them. But you have got to get people behind the ball. You can't play teams off the park for 90 minutes. It was a bit of naivety on our part," he rued.

Match Details
Referee: M Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear).

Luton: Beresford; Foley, Coyne, Heikkinen (Barnett 74), Underwood; Edwards (Showunmi 81), Robinson, Nicholls, Brkovic (Feeney 81); Vine, Howard.
Goals: Howard 31, Robinson 43, Nicholls 53 penalty

Liverpool: Carson; Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Riise; Gerrard, Sissoko (Sinama-Pongolle 57), Alonso, Kewell; Crouch (Kromkamp 79), Cisse (Warnock 89).
Goals: Gerrard 16, Sinama 62, 74, Alonso 69, 90

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