CHAMPIONS LEAGUE REVIEW
Michael Owen hit the perfect hat-trick as Liverpool created history by becoming the first English side to beat Spartak on their own pitch. Owen's treble, comprising a header, a left foot strike and a right foot tap-in, couldn't have been more timely as it dug Liverpool out of a hole they had fallen into against the groups whipping boys.
Spartak, winless, goalless and pointless and propping up the group, made a bright start to the game, much to the delight of the sparse Muscovite crowd numbering just 5,000. Conversely Liverpool, with Baros and Owen up front, were not punching their weight in a game that had to be won to keep Champions League hopes alive. Moscow dominated the opening period but their only threat to Dudeks goal was a right wing cross that the Pole punched away.
Embarrassingly for Liverpool the game was very much one-way traffic towards their goal and the first opening game after 17 minutes when Beschastnykh burst forward and fired in a right foot shot that wasn't too far wide of Dudeks left hand post.
Liverpool responded with a chance that should have given them the lead. Murphy's corner fell at the feet of Baros, just three yards out, but the young striker instead of lashing the ball high into the net tried, instead, to side foot home and that allowed the keeper to smother the effort. Moments later Baros shot from the edge of the box but pulled his effort wide.
Spartak continued to carry the game to a lack-lustre Liverpool and Sonin was just off target with an acrobatic attempt, on 20 minutes. The pressure had to pay and it did in the 24th minute when Moscow took the lead following a fine move and a Liverpool mistake.
A poor defensive header by Emile Heskey fell to Dansihevskiy and his terrific right foot drive was hit with such venom that Dudek was motionless as the ball zipped past him to register Spartak's first Champions League goal of this seasons competition. Paradoxically it was the first goal Liverpool have conceded in more than seven hours of football.
But, just when the most unlikely result of the champions League looked on the cards, Michael Owen came up trumps for the Premier League leaders, just short of the half hour. The England man started the move by feeding Jamie Carragher, who sped down the right. Just as the fullback was about to cross the ball it took a fortuitous bounce and enabled Carragher to get a fraction more height on the cross. When it reached Owen his perfectly executed downward header bounced on the six-yard line before zipping off the wet surface and up past the keeper.
It was Owen's first Champions League goal of the season, and it could not have come at a better time. Liverpool went in at half-time with a 1-1 scoreline that you would not have got odds on an hour earlier. There was certainly no suggestion of what lay ahead in the second period.
Seven minutes after the restart Owen might have scored again. He burst past two heavy challenges and after shrugging off a third he wasn't able to get any strength behind a left foot shot. If the ball had fallen on his right, Liverpool would have been ahead.
Just past the hour hopes rose that Liverpool would force themselves ahead but when Murphy waltzed down the right flank like an old-fashioned winger his subsequent cross was too high and too long. Shortly afterwards there came the games defining moment. Pavlechenko produced a quality right wing cross and it was met, full force, on the volley by Banichevsky. The ball was net bound until Dudek earned most of his new contract with a wonderful save that kept Liverpool in the game.
Living on that good fortune Liverpool took the game to Spartak and they went ahead from a left wing free-kick. Murphy flighted the ball into the box and Hyypia headed against the bar. The rebound fell to the Liverpool skipper and his follow-up header bounced off a defender into the path of Owen. Two yards out Owen wasn't going to miss, even with his left foot, and he didn't.
With five minutes left Owen squandered the chance of a hat-trick. Murphy played the England man down the right hand side of the box but instead of shooting, Owen slipped the ball in to Diouf, but it never reached its target and Liverpool remained just 2-1 ahead. But there was no such waste with exactly ONE SECOND left of normal time.
Danny Murphy ploughed, once more, down the right flank, crossed low and hard and there was Owen to tap home from inside the six yard box to complete a memorable night for Liverpool and Owen. The hat-trick was Owen's second of the month, the ninth of his Liverpool career and he is still the only Liverpool player to hit a European hat-trick, away from home, something he has now done twice.
Ironically, in Moscow, Owen scored more Champions League goals, in one game, than he managed in the previous 12.
Liverpool boss Houllier was, understandably, full of praise for his 'special star' and said afterwards: "Michael deserves special credit for his hat-trick, to do that away from home in Europe is a special achievement. I remember that a couple of months ago Michael was getting all sorts of stick for not scoring goals. Now he's done it for us and England.
"I rested him because that game for England in Bratislava was on a very heavy pitch and took a lot out of him. But when I bring him back I know he is the one to score the important goals on big occasions."
"I knew Leeds would be a hard game for him and he had played seven matches on the trot, so it was right to rest him. Now we have a run of home games and we can push ahead on all fronts."
