{"id":59515,"date":"2014-10-25T17:00:05","date_gmt":"2014-10-25T17:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=59515"},"modified":"2014-10-25T17:00:05","modified_gmt":"2014-10-25T17:00:05","slug":"liverpool-held-at-home-by-hull-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=59515","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool held at home by Hull City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mario Balotelli suffered another frustrating day as his Liverpool team were held at home by Hull City.<\/p>\n

The striker missed an injury-time effort and had a shot saved, but remains without a Premier League goal since his \u00a316m move from AC Milan.<\/p>\n

Dejan Lovren had a header cleared off the line by Hull’s Ahmed Elmohamady.<\/p>\n

The Tigers had opportunities but Jake Livermore shot at Simon Mignolet, with Tom Huddlestone’s deflected effort also going narrowly wide for the visitors.<\/p>\n

Balotelli had been criticised during the week after swapping shirts with Real Madrid defender Pepe at half-time in the Reds’ 3-0 Champions League defeat.<\/p>\n

But manager Brendan Rodgers put his faith in the former Manchester City striker and was nearly rewarded inside 11 minutes when the Italian’s powerful effort from a tight angle was pushed wide by Hull’s third-choice keeper Jakupovic.<\/p>\n

Balotelli, who was also booked in the second half, had a late chance to win it, but failed to connect with the ball from close range.<\/p>\n

The result means Liverpool, Premier League runners-up in 2013-14, are eight points behind leaders Chelsea, who have played a game fewer.<\/p>\n

But for Steve Bruce’s workmanlike Hull it was another hard-earned point, their fifth draw of the season, after holding Arsenal 2-2 at Emirates Stadium last week.<\/p>\n

They also had chances to steal a win and Livermore should have done better than shoot at home keeper Mignolet when unmarked in the penalty area.<\/p>\n

Mohamed Diame, who had scored four times in five games after joining from West Ham, also dragged a shot off target, before Huddlestone’s effort bounced off Martin Skrtel and narrowly wide.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n
Lengthy run ended<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
\n

Liverpool had gone 48 Premier League games without a goalless draw, the longest run of any side in the Premier League.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Liverpool – coming off the back of successive league wins, despite their patchy early-season form – had the majority of the possession and chances, and were unlucky not to take an eighth-minute lead, when Elmohamady was well placed to clear Lovren’s header off the line from Steven Gerrard’s corner.<\/p>\n

The Reds captain curled an effort wide after a one-two with Raheem Sterling and the teenage England winger had a low 20-yard shot saved by Jakupovic.<\/p>\n

The hosts brought on Rickie Lambert, Philippe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson as they searched for a winning goal to match their second-half dominance, but could not make the breakthrough.<\/p>\n

Sterling’s injury-time effort was scooped wide by Jakupovic, who then made a stunning save to tip Coutinho’s 20-yard effort over as Bruce’s side held on for the draw.<\/p>\n

\"Liverpool<\/p>\n

Before the game, Liverpool fans protested about the rising costs of watching football at Anfield<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Mario<\/p>\n

Mario Balotelli has scored once in 11 games since joining Liverpool from AC Milan in August<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Steve<\/p>\n

Steve Bruce’s Hull side drew for the fifth time in nine Premier League matches this season<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC Sport<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mario Balotelli suffered another frustrating day as his Liverpool team were held at home by Hull City. The striker missed an injury-time effort and had a shot saved, but remains without a Premier League goal since his \u00a316m move from AC Milan. Dejan Lovren had a header cleared off the line by Hull’s Ahmed Elmohamady. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":59516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-59515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/59516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}