Sunderland 0 Liverpool 2

Liverpool made it two wins in three games with a victory against Sunderland.



Mohamed Sissoko scored his first goal for the club in the 37th minute to put the visitors in control and Ukrainian Andriy Voronin sealed victory with four minutes to go.

Voronin pounced on Greg Halford's short back-pass early on and struck a low shot which squeezed under the impressive Craig Gordon but wriggled agonisingly wide of target. The early loss of Sami Hyypia with a bloody nose seemed set to matter little to Liverpool, who remained camped in the home half, while Sunderland suffered a bigger blow when Kieran Richardson limped off.

superb chance

Xabi Alonso screwed a rising shot just wide in the 14th minute after Ryan Babel had cleverly laid off a Steve Finnan right-wing cross, but Liverpool were finding clear cut chances hard to come by.

Sunderland substitute Anthony Stokes, on for Richardson, had a superb chance to give his side a shock lead. Stokes was played clear by Michael Chopra into the right side of the Liverpool box and hit his shot under the advancing Jose Reina, only for Agger to clear from the edge of the six-yard box.

Liverpool took the lead in the 37th minute when the lively Voronin laid the ball back to Sissoko on the edge of the box and the Mali international drilled a low right-foot shot past Gordon into the corner of the net.

clear header

With the visitors finishing the second half strongly, McShane needed a big interception to prevent Fernando Torres getting in a clear header, then Gordon grasped another effort by the Spaniard on the line.

Liverpool resumed their dominance in the second-half and Alonso played in Torres who was denied by Gordon. The latter saved Sunderland again three minutes later after Torres burst through the home defence and fired a fierce low shot that was brilliantly blocked by the goalkeeper.

Ross Wallace's deep cross into the Reds box in the 68th minute was punched away by Reina under pressure as the Stadium of Light crowd sensed a comeback. But Liverpool's frontline was proving hard to handle and Gordon was required again in the 79th minute to produce a point-blank save to deny Voronin in front of goal.

Voronin wrapped up the victory with four minutes to go with a clinical finish into the bottom right corner.