Stoke 0-1 Liverpool
by Simon Williams
at Stanley Matthews Way

INTER MILAN midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri watched on from the stands as Liverpool snatched victory over Stoke City thanks to a late Philippe Coutinho strike yesterday.

The Switzerland international opted out of a move to Stoke after the Italian side accepted a £12 million bid last month.

But it seems as though the 23-year-old may have had a change of heart and will be heading to the Potteries before the end of the transfer window.

However, he saw his potential new suitors lose the match to a superb Coutinho strike on 86 minutes.

The Reds went into the game aiming to avenge last season’s humiliating 6-1 defeat — their heaviest defeat in the division and their worst in the top flight for 52 years.

In that game Stoke took a convincing 5-0 lead into the break. Unfortunately, the first 45 minutes of the most recent meeting between the two clubs failed to deliver the anywhere near the excitement.

Though it was the home side who had the best chance to open the scoring. Former Liverpool defender Glen Johnson blazed over the bar from 14 yards after some good build-up play from Jonathan Walters and Marco van Ginkel down the right.

And it was the Potters who started well after the break when Van Ginkel tested Simon Mignolet with a low effort that the Belgium did well to field at his near post.

Liverpool were lucky not have a man sent off when Dejan Lovren was only shown a yellow card after catching Mame Diouf with a glancing elbow.

Midway through the half the hosts again had a good chance to take the lead, this time through Diouf.

The Senegalese striker did well to get a foot on a curling free-kick from Charlie Adams only for Mignolet to turn his effort away for a corner.

Soon after the Reds had their only chance of note when Martin Skrtel’s looping header from a James Milner corner was theatrically saved by Jack Butland before Coutinho grabbed the points late on.