LONDON: Liverpool scored a stunning 3-2 win over Queens Park Rangers with four of the five goals coming in the last seven minutes capping an astonishing finale to their Premier League match at Loftus Road yesterday.
Liverpool needed the help of two own goals for the win that lifted them to fifth in the table and left QPR bottom after a mesmerising finish.
Liverpool’s winning goal came in the fifth minute of added time after Steven Caulker scored Rangers’ second own goal with virtually the last kick of the game.
Richard Dunne scored the first own goal to put Liverpool 1-0 ahead in the 67th minute before Eduardo Vargas equalised for QPR after 87 minutes with a close-range shot.
But Liverpool went 2-1 ahead with 15 seconds of normal time remaining when Philippe Coutinho scored with a curling shot that took a deflection.
Rangers were still not finished as Vargas headed them level at 2-2 in the second minute of stoppage time.
With time almost up, one final Liverpool counter-attack in the 95th minute ended with Caulker putting through his own goal to give Liverpool all three points.
Liverpool came more into the match in the second half and had a great chance of their own to take the lead after 61 minutes when an Adam Lallana shot was parried away by keeper Alex McCarthy. Mario Balotelli also blasted high over the bar with the goal at his mercy.
The breakthrough came in the 67th minute when Liverpool took the lead through Dunne’s own goal – the 10th of his career – but QPR looked like they had saved a point when Vargas levelled with his first equaliser with time running out.
Meanwhile, Stoke came from behind to beat Swansea 2-1 at the Britannia Stadium. Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.
It was a tale of two penalties as the first half ended all square at 1-1.
Referee Michael Oliver first pointed to the spot after Stoke defender Ryan Shawcross grappled Wilfried Bony to the ground as the pair waited for a Swansea corner to come in.
Shawcross was booked while the decision was met with disbelieving jeers from Stoke fans who, in common with many English football-watchers, had grown used to seeing such incidents go unpunished.
However, Oliver had issued a warning before the corner. Ivory Coast striker Bony then got up to send Stoke goalkeeper Asmir Begovic the wrong way as Swansea went 1-0 up in the 34th minute.
But shortly before the interval Stoke were level when Oliver awarded a penalty at the other end.
Swansea’s Angel Rangel made minimal contact with Victor Moses, who then appeared to dive in the box.
Nevertheless, Oliver signalled a penalty and Charlie Adam’s spot-kick beat the dive of Swansea keeper Lukasz Fabianski.
The 67th minute saw Swansea’s South Korea midfielder Ki Sung-yueng twice denied as he tried to restore the Welsh club’s lead but his first shot from 12 yards out was blocked and the follow-up saved by Begovic.
Instead it was Stoke who went 2-1 up nine minutes later when Jonathan Walters planted a header beyond Fabianski following a good cross by Oussama Assaidi for his first league goal of the season.
As the match entered the final minute of normal time, Ki tried to curl in a 25-yard free-kick but Begovic repelled the effort and Swansea were unable to force an equaliser in four minutes of added-on time.AGENCIES
