London - Arabstoday
The home side went into the lead just before the quarter hour mark when Lars Iver Strand picked the ball up in the middle of the park before finding the unmarked Havard Nielsen on the left wing, who then proceeded to play the ball back to the on-rushing midfielder who dispatched the ball beyond the helpless Pepe Reina and into the Liverpool net. Minutes later the Norwegian’s went two ahead as the ball broke to Yssouf Kone inside the Liverpool box and, while he was in the act of shooting, he was clipped by Charlie Adam and the referee showed no hesitation in pointing to the spot. That allowed Fegor Ogude to power the ball past Reina in order to double the lead for the Oslo side and shock the majority of the crowd inside the Ullevaal Stadion who were wearing the red of Liverpool. Just before half-time the visitors got back into the game as Stewart Downing exchanged passes with Jordan Henderson after a short corner, then the former Aston Villa winger swung the ball onto the head of Andy Carroll, who bulleted his header beyond Lars Hirschfeld and into the Valerenga goal. The Premier League side started the brightest a the start of the second half, with new signing Adam drilling an effort from 25-yards out that was deflected beyond the left-hand post of substitute keeper Gudmund Taksdal Kongshavn. Valerenga had a golden chance to put the game beyond any doubt as substitute Sidoine Oussou received the ball on the right wing, slipping the ball past Daniel Agger, but as the striker bore down on Reina’s goal, he could only hit the ball straight at the keeper. Then just over a minute later it was to be Liverpool’s turn, as Downing swung a cross from the left towards Carroll, but the England striker could only direct his header into the body of Kongshavn in the Valerenga goal. With 10 minutes left Kongshavn was called into action again as he was forced to stretch and palm an Alberto Aquilani strike from the edge of the area wide for a corner. From the resulting set-play Liverpool scored as Agger got his head onto the end of the corner and powered it into the net to put his side back on level terms. Then with two minutes left Liverpool looked to have claimed victory from the exact same methods, as firstly Aquilani had a shot tipped away for a corner, and once again Agger got his head to the ball to score from close in. Deep into injury time the Norwegians got themselves back on terms, however, as Mohammed Fellah came in from the right-hand side and unleashed a strike past Reina to claim a draw.