Liverpool labour to goalless draw at Palace

LONDON, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Liverpool completed a difficult week with a frustrating 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace on Saturday that did little to enhance their prospects of finishing in the Premier League’s top four.

Thrashed 5-2 at home by Real Madrid in their Champions League last 16 tie on Tuesday, Juergen Klopp’s inconsistent side laboured against a Palace team who kept a first clean sheet against Liverpool for 18 years.

The Reds moved up a place to seventh, six points behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur with a game in hand.

Without a win in eight league games, Palace are 12th, six points above the relegation zone.

Mohamed Salah hit the woodwork for Liverpool in the second half but Palace had two gilt-edged chances in the first period with Marc Guehi heading wide and Jean-Philippe Mateta firing a shot against the crossbar.

Liverpool will take some comfort from a third successive league clean sheet but they were well short of their best as they struggled to find any rhythm.

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“We’d like a better performance and three points but we didn’t get that,” midfielder James Milner said.

“We have to keep going. We’re our harshest critics. It’s important we don’t listen to the noise outside. It’s down to us. We’re the only ones who can change it.”

Liverpool dominated early on without really opening up Palace’s defence and were lucky that Patrick Vieira’s side’s problems scoring goals again surfaced.

Palace had the best chances before the break, the first when Michael Olise delivered a superb cross from a free kick but Guehi could not direct his powerful header on target.

The hosts were close again when Jeffrey Schlupp seized on some poor defending by Trent Alexander-Arnold and crossed low for Mateta who should have scored but clipped the crossbar.

Liverpool started brightly in the second period with Harvey Elliott coming off the bench to liven up their midfield and they nearly scored when Diogo Jota’s shot was blocked and the ball fell to Salah whose shot hit the bar.

Their threat receded though and the hosts looked just as likely to take maximum points, though a draw was about right as Palace earned a first home point against Liverpool since 2014.

Reporting by Martyn Herman; editing by Clare Fallon

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