Liverpool 2-2 Manchester City

Liverpool and Manchester City battled out a 2-2 draw at Anfield in Saturday's first match.

Substitute Yossi Benayoun saved a point for Liverpool in a tense Barclays Premier League match at Anfield. Manchester City had been ahead deep into the second period before Benayoun's close-range intervention.

Liverpool took the lead when Martin Skrtel converted Steven Gerrard's free-kick early in the second half. Emmanuel Adebayor's header and Stephen Ireland's clever close-range flick put City ahead before Benayoun forced home the equaliser.

Players Line-up
Liverpool: 25-Pepe Reina, 5-Daniel Agger (16-Sotirios Kyrgiakos 11), 37-Martin Skrtel, 22-Emiliano Insua, 23-Jamie Carragher, 21-Lucas, 20-Javier Mascherano, 24-David Ngog, 8-Steven Gerrard, 19-Ryan Babel (15-Yossi Benayoun 19/12-Fabio Aurelio 85), 18-Dirk Kuyt

Man. City: 1-Shay Given, 19-Joleon Lescott, 28-Kolo Toure (4-Nedum Onuoha 45), 3-Wayne Bridge, 5-Pablo Zabaleta, 18-Gareth Barry (32-Carlos Tevezs 60), 34-Nigel De Jong, 25-Emmanuel Adebayor, 7-Stephen Ireland, 39-Craig Bellamy, 8-Shaun Wright-Phillips

Final Score
Liverpool 2 - 2 Manchester City : (Skrtel 50', Adebayor 69', Ireland 76', Benayoun 77')

Skrtel 50'

Skrtel broke the deadlock

Adebayor's header, makes it 1-1

Benayoun makes it 2-2

Daniel Agger was forced to leave

"We're a little bit disappointed, we had chances at the end. But with the problems we had, making two substitutions in the first 18 minutes, to still come back we showed very good character. Until the last minute we were still pushing. The players worked so hard. In the circumstances I thought we were very good."

- Rafael Benitez

"We're disappointed because I think we were the better team today. We showed great character to come from a goal down. We were in a winning position and that's the frustration for us at the moment, allowing those winning situations to go away from us. That's the disappointing thing. Really, Liverpool had not caused us too many problems."

- Mark Hughes

source: premierleague.com