Sunderland 0 Liverpool 1

Aug 17 2008 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

SUNDERLAND suffered late heartbreak as Fernando Torres condemned the Black Cats to a losing start.

Liverpool’s £25million man scored the only goal of the game seven minutes from time to sink Roy Keane’s men at the Stadium of Light.

It was rough justice on the Wearsiders, who had outplayed the Reds in the first half and were good value for a point.

A year ago, it was Sunderland who grabbed a late winner through Michael Chopra against Spurs on the opening day of the season but this time the Black Cats found themselves on the receiving end.

But Keane and the Sunderland fans will take heart from their side’s much-improved performance against one of the Premiership’s Big Four.

Last season Sunderland did not take a single point against the big boys and, in all honesty, never looked likely to.

This time round they look a much stronger outfit and Liverpool will have been delighted to have escaped without dropping points on the opening day of the season.

Keane gave debuts to all four of his major summer signings, with El Hadji-Diouf, Steed Malbranque, Pascal Chimbonda and Teemu Tainio all included in the starting line-up.

There was no place, though, for Black Cats skipper Dean Whitehead, who found himself amongst the seven subs with central midfielder Andy Reid taking the captain’s armband in his place.

Diouf partnered Daryl Murphy up front while Tainio played just in front of the back four as the holding midfielder.

Chimbonda played right-back with Malbranque in front of him on the right side of midfield while Kieran Richardson played on the left.

With Jonny Evans having returned to Manchester United at the end of his loan spell, Danny Collins — who played left-back for most of last season — reverted to his preferred centre-back spot alongside Nyron Nosworthy.

And that meant that right-sider Phil Bardsley had to fill in at left-back.

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez included two new signings of his own, with frontman Robbie Keane and right-back Andrea Dossena making their Premiership debuts for the Reds.

Sunderland started positively and Diouf might have marked his debut with a goal against one of his old clubs with less than five minutes on the clock.

Sami Hyypia’s slack headed backpass dropped short inside the box and the alert Diouf immediately latched onto the ball but, instead of hitting his shot first time, he took a touch and that allowed Alvaro Arbeloa to make a tackle and avert the danger.

Richardson fizzed a shot wide of the left-hand post but Sunderland missed another golden chance to go ahead in the 13th minute when Murphy met Diouf’s left-wing cross with a downward header eight yards out but could only direct the ball straight at goalkeeper Pepe Reina, who grabbed it at the second attempt.

Liverpool steadied the ship and put the Sunderland goal under more pressure as the half went on and won a succession of corners, although without causing Craig Gordon too many problems.

The only exception came a couple of minutes before the interval when Keane turned neatly on the edge of the box and hit a low shot which had the keeper scrambling across his goalmouth, but he was grateful to see the ball whizz wide of the left-hand post.

Liverpool improved after the break and started to dominate but Sunderland still created chances.

A good run by Murphy down the left ended with him cutting the ball back for Diouf but the striker had to hit it on the turn from an awkward angle and it was easy for Reina to collect.

Liverpool had to wait until the 55th minute for their first on-target effort and when it came courtesy of Israeli winger Yossi Benayoun, Gordon dived low to his right to push the ball away and Keane’s follow-up was deflected behind for a corner.

Just before the hour Benayoun teed Steven Gerrard up for a shot inside the box but, while the England man’s low strike evaded Gordon, it looked to be going wide and Collins cleared in any case.

Sunderland had a lucky escape in the 73rd minute when Dirk Kuyt tried his luck from just outside the box and Collins stuck out a leg and got a foot to the ball, completely changing its course.

It was heading for the bottom right-hand corner but Gordon was quickly down to make the stop and then Keane and Torres got in each other’s way as they both tried to follow up six yards out and in the end Keane’s shot hit his strike partner and went wide of the target.

In the 81st minute, sub Xavi Alonso spotted Gordon off his line and tried a spectacular 50-yard shot which had the Scotland stopper backpedalling but, fortunately for him, the ball dropped just wide of the right-hand post.

But Gordon could do nothing about Torres’ goal. The Spaniard picked up a loose ball outside the penalty area, the Sunderland defence did not close him down quickly enough and Torres needed no further invitation as he cracked a low right-footed shot past Gordon and into the bottom left-hand corner.