Defoe double denies Liverpool a successive fifth League win
Jermain Defoe denied Liverpool a fifth successive English Premier League win by scoring twice to give struggling Sunderland a 2-2 draw yesterday.
Sadio Mane, playing his final game before heading to the African Cup of Nations with Senegal, looked to have won the game for Liverpool in the 72nd minute after Defoe had cancelled out Daniel Sturridge’s opener by converting a penalty.
However, Mane’s handball within five minutes presented a second penalty that Defoe also scored to secure a valuable point in Sunderland’s bid for survival.
Liverpool is in second place, five points behind Chelsea, which can pull eight points clear of Juergen Klopp’s side with a victory at Tottenham tomorrow.
The manner of Liverpool’s 19thminute opener jarred with the quality of the early attacking play in northeast England. Defender Dejan Lovren scuffed his attempted volley from James Milner’s corner harmlessly into the ground but saw the ball bounce up off the turf for Sturridge to head past helpless goalkeeper Vito Mannone from close range.
But Sunderland was level six minutes later. Liverpool defender Ragnar Klavan clumsily upended midfielder Didier Ndong as he burst into the penalty area and Defoe slammed the resulting penalty into the bottom corner.
Defoe should really have scored another almost immediately after he ran on to Adnan Januzaj’s through-ball but could not go round goalkeeper Simon Mignolet. Fabio Borini fired wide from the rebound.
Liverpool regained the lead following a corner when Papy Djilobodji could only help on Alberto Moreno’s corner to Mane, who tapped into the empty net.
Mane’s joy was short-lived when he conceded the game’s second penalty by blocking Sebastian Larsson’s free kick with his arm. Defoe’s equaliser prevented Sunderland slumping to a third successive loss. Sunderland is one point from safety, in 18th place. and James Morrison also scored in West Brom’s comeback.
The victory cemented the central England team's grip on eighth place, while Hull is three points from safety without a win in nine league games.
Southampton lost its third English Premier League game in six days after conceding three late goals in a 3-0 defeat at Everton.
On-loan striker Enner Valencia made a game-changing substitute appearance at Goodison Park.
The Ecuador international came off the bench to score the 73rdminute opener and then won a penalty that allowed Leighton Baines to double the lead. Romelu Lukaku gave the scoreline a flattering appearance with his team's third.
Midtable Southampton will want to forget this festive period after losing 4-1 to Tottenham on Wednesday and 2-1 to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
The result kept seventh-placed Everton firmly in the race for European football next season.
Yesterday Birmingham City-Bren ord . . . . . . . . 1-3 Blackburn Rovers-Newcastle . . . . . . 1-0 Bristol City-Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3 Burton Albion-Preston . . . . . . . . . . . 0-1 Cardiff City-Aston Villa . . . . . . . . . . . 1-0 Fulham-Brighton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2 Leeds United-Rotherham U . . . . . . . 3-0 Norwich City-Derby County . . . . . . . 3-0 No ngham Forest-Barnsley . . . . . . . 0-1 QPR-Ipswich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1 Sheffield W-Wolves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-0 Wigan Ath.-Huddersfield . . . . . . . . . . 0-1
Standings
League One
D L F A Pts 6 2 40 15 54 1 7 48 20 52 4 6 36 32 46 4 7 30 28 46 3 8 34 24 45 6 7 28 24 42 7 7 24 18 40 5 9 43 37 38 4 10 41 37 37 9 6 41 30 36 6 9 33 32 36 11 6 26 24 35 8 8 30 35 35 6 10 32 31 33 7 10 25 29 31 8 10 32 34 29 5 12 24 36 29 3 14 33 35 27 6 11 27 38 27 5 13 37 45 26 7 12 26 34 25 6 13 29 40 24 7 14 20 31 19 4 18 25 55 13
Yesterday Wimbledon-Millwall . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2 Bury-Sheffield United . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3 Charlton Athle c-Bristol R . . . . . . . . . 4-1 Chesterfield-MK Dons . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-0 Coventry City-Bolton W . . . . . . . . . . 2-2 Gillingham-Oxford United . . . . . . . . . 0-1 Northampton Town-Bradford C . . . . 1-2 Oldham Athle c-Port Vale . . . . . . . . 0-0 Scunthorpe Utd-Peterborough . . . . . 1-1 Shrewsbury Town-Fleetwood . . . . . . 0-1 Swindon Town-Southend U . . . . . . . 0-0 Walsall-Rochdale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-2
League Two
Today Accrington S-Hartlepool . . . . . . . . . . 2-2 Barnet-Plymouth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-0 Blackpool-Mansfield Town . . . . . . . . 0-1 Cambridge United-No s County . . . 4-0 Carlisle United-Grimsby Town . . . . . 1-3 Colchester U-Cheltenham Town . . . . 2-0 Crawley Town-Yeovil Town . . . . . . . . 2-0 Doncaster Rovers-Stevenage . . . . . . 1-0 Exeter City-Leyton Orient . . . . . . . . . 4-0 Morecambe-Crewe Alexandra . . . . . 0-0 Portsmouth-Luton Town . . . . . . . . . . 1-0 Wycombe W-Newport County . . . . . 2-1