Liverpool come from behind to beat Villa 2-1
Liverpool registered a 2-1 victory over Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday.
BIRMINGHAM (AP) - Steven Gerrard s penalty sealed a second-half turnaround by Liverpool in a 2-1 win over relegation-threatened Aston Villa on Sunday, boosting his team s hopes of playing in Europe next season.
Villa, which is now third from bottom with seven games to play, took a halftime lead thanks to Belgium striker Christian Benteke s 14th goal of the campaign but Jordan Henderson started Liverpool s comeback with an equalizer in the 47th minute.
Luis Suarez then tumbled in the area under a challenge from Nathan Baker 13 minutes later and Gerrard converted the spot-kick into the bottom corner to keep Liverpool five points behind fifth-place Arsenal, which occupies the final European position.
The Reds will require an almost-perfect end to the season, and for a few of the teams above it to slip up, to qualify for either the Champions League or Europa League next season.
"Sometimes you can let the season fizzle out but we don t want to do that," said Gerrard, who needed an injection in his heel to make the starting line-up before scoring his 98th Premier League goal. "We want to see if we can nick fifth or sixth in the table."
The nature of this comeback showed once again that Liverpool, under Brendan Rodgers, is a side on the up after its slow start to the season. This was its fourth win in the past five league games.
