Wigan Athletic 0-0 Liverpool: Reds slip up at the DW as Al Habsi stars

An action packed, end-to-end, game at The DW Stadium failed to provide any goals as Wigan Athletic and Liverpool saw their game end in stalemate on Wednesday night.

With the game just hours away the Liverpool players issued a statement of support for teammate Luis Suarez, who had been charged with racially abusing Manchester United full-back Patrice Evra, much to the bemusement of those associated with the club.

That support for the former Ajax forward continued once the team arrived at the DW Stadium, with every Reds player in the warm-up sporting a white T-Shirt with ‘Suarez 7’ across the back.

The opening five minutes saw Suarez involved in the game on multiple occasions, looking alert and desperate to prove a point to the booing Wigan supporters whilst thanking the travelling Anfield faithful, who had been signing the name of the Uruguayan forward from well before the start of the game.

It was Jordan Henderson who had the first chance of the game, latching on to a knock back from Maxi Rodriguez and firing his shot towards Al Habsi’s top left-hand corner, but the shot was too close to the keeper who palmed the effort away comfortably.

Minutes later it looked liked Wigan could have scored the opener, with Conor Sammon making a break into the box before having his shots blocked by a barrage of Liverpool defenders, with Jordi Gomez being pulled back by the referee for a foul shortly after his effort was fantastically saved by Pepe Reina.

Wigan followed up with another fantastic opportunity, as Mohamed Diame broke into the middle and fired a power shot from long-distance, with the effort going just wide and hitting the side netting, much to the relief of Reina and the Liverpool back-four.

Liverpool responded quickly, with Maxi Rodriguez playing a chipped ball to Downing on the left which the England international fired into the box towards Kuyt, whose shot was too close to Al Habsi to trouble the keeper, who collected easily.

Maxi continued to trouble the Wigan back line, this time playing a perfectly weighted ball to Glen Johnson, but the full-back couldn’t steer his shot away from Al Habsi who once again pulled off a great save to stop the visitors taking the lead.

A late surge from Wigan - which saw Victor Moses make a magnificent run before Reina just punched to punch away his shot – wasn’t enough to break the stalemate at the DW Stadium and the half-time whistle blew with the score still all even.

Moments into the second-half Liverpool won a penalty, with Gary Caldwell sticking a hand out to stop a Luis Suarez effort, but Charlie Adam – who stepped up to take the penalty from the visitors – saw his penalty saved by the on-form Al Habsi, leaving the score all level.

With sixty minutes gone Wigan made their first change of the game, taking off Sammon, who had been lively throughout the first half, and bring on former Chelsea forward Franco Di Santo.

Shortly after Liverpool had a fantastic chance to take the lead, with Charlie Adam dipping a free-kick from distance towards Dirk Kuyt, who move well to get into the path of the ball, before seeing his close range effort  on goal go well wide.

With twenty minutes to go Kenny Dalglish opted to make two substitutions, taking off Maxi Rodriguez and Dirk Kuyt and replacing them with Craig Bellamy and Jonjo Shelvey. Wigan quickly responded bringing on Watson and Rodallega for Gomez and Jones.

Rodallega nearly made an early impact, breaking through the Liverpool defence and blasting a shot towards goal, but Pepe Reina was well-placed to control the shot and put an end to any threat created by the substitute forward.

Despite a wave of pressure in the last ten minutes, Liverpool failed to create in the final third, with Suarez often left isolated up top as the Reds midfield were left struggling to find a way through a resilient Wigan back-line.

The addition of Andy Carroll did little to help Liverpool's attacking moves, with the score remaining level at full-time.