After a goalless first forty-five minutes, in which Blues had Damien Johnson sent off on 28 minutes, Steven Gerrard opened the scoring for the hosts just past the hour-mark. Blues made a confident start as Chris Sutton and Emile Heskey did their best to unsettle Liverpool debutant Dan Agger and Jermaine Pennant and David Dunn looked dangerous on the wings. Dunn went close ten minutes in with a jinking run and chip that almost caught out Pepe Reina. But the Blues' early good work was undone inside half an hour when Damien Johnson was given a straight red card for his mis-timed, but not seemingly malicious, late lunge on Agger. The Blues were cursing their luck minutes later when the influential Dunn was also forced to leave the pitch, hobbling off injured. Blues re-shuffled into a 4-5-1 with Heskey left isolated up front on his own as they scrapped to stay level up to the break. In the second half the Reds pressed home their numerical advantage with a string of attacks as the beleaguered Blues dropped deeper and deeper. Gerrard's free-kick was clipped onto the post by the giant Latka and Fernando Morientes breached the backline on numerous occasions only for his touch and poise to desert him. And then, with just over an hour gone, the Kop got sight of one thing they have become increasingly used to and another they thought they would never see again. Within the space of a minute Gerrard had put them ahead, firing in a deflected effort from Morientes' cross, and Robbie Fowler appeared from the dug-out to relieve Peter Crouch of his striking duties. It is a measure of just what the Toxteth-born striker means to the Liverpool fans that his arrival got the bigger cheer. Luis Garcia should have made it two after a lightening Liverpool break saw Morientes flick the ball into his path six yards out. But the frustrating Spaniard's sliding right-footed stab trickled wide of the post to let Blues off the hook. Steve Finnan had a legitimate claim for a penalty turned down after an uncharacteristic foray forward. The full-back found himself on the end of another break-out but as he jumped to connect with John Arne Riise's pass Julian Gray was clearly guilty of a timely nudge in the Irishman's back. Fowler barely had a touch in a fruitless half-hour outing but with his first real contribution his powered cut-back could not be directed goalwards by either Morientes or the impressive Harry Kewell. Just when it seemed that the Reds had the game sewed up Heskey wriggled free to head what looked like a certain equaliser goalwards. Reina saved superbly but from the resultant corner Pennant's cross eventually found its way to Alonso's chest and trickled into the net. Liverpool rallied and in a frantic last few minutes Alonso had a superb free-kick tipped over by Maik Taylor and another effort cleared off the line, with Didi Hamann smashing the ball against the bar from the corner that followed. The grandstand finish was almost completed when Fowler acrobatically volleyed an overhead kick into the back of the net with the last kick of the game. Anfield erupted in hysteria but their jubilation was quashed when the linesman raised a late flag to scupper the fairytale finish.
Liverpool looked to be heading for the three points until Alonso inadvertently diverted the ball past Jose Reina into his own net two minutes from time to give Blues a deserved share of the spoils.
Steve Bruce made a number of changes to the side that had drawn at Reading at the weekend with new signing Martin Latka making his debut at the heart of the Blues defence alongside the returning Matthew Upson. In midfield Neil Kilkenny replaced Muzzy Izzet and David Dunn started in place of Jiri Jarosik who was taken ill just prior to the game. Julian Gray took over at left back from Stan Lazaridis who was dropped to the subs bench.