'It's clearly making the most of a keeper's recklessness and completely different to diving with no contact. Playing for pen? Yes. Diving? No '

'Much debate as to whether Suarez dived. Any striker knows in that position, if he can nudge it past on rushing keeper, he'll be fouled.... '

'Good result @ a tough place,the boys put in a great shift & thought it was a soft decision.dont think I touched him but that's football!'

A controversial penalty won by the artful Luis Suarez spared the blushes of Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers in front of his American bosses.



The sly Uruguayan collapsed after the faintest of brushes against Brad Guzan, though the Villa keeper almost invited his fate when he dived at Suarez’s feet but was beaten to the ball.



With the second half still young, Steven Gerrard completed the Liverpool comeback from two goals down by converting the penalty, although their dreadful disintegration before the interval suggested Rodgers had picked the wrong team at Anfield.



VIDEO Scroll down to watch the post-match reactions of Rodgers and Lambert



Falling down: Luis Suarez goes down to win a penalty for Liverpool, who were trailing 2-0

From the spot: Steven Gerrard converted the penalty to make it 2-2

Wry smile: Replays showed there was minimal contact between Suarez and Brad Guzan

Dropped points: Aston Villa had been leading 2-0 after an excellent first-half performance

MATCH FACTS

LIVERPOOL: Mignolet 6: Johnson 6, Toure 5, Skrtel 7, Cissokho 5: Sterling 6, Gerrard 6, Henderson 8, Coutinho 5 (Lucas 46, 6 (Allen 66, 6)): Sturridge 6, Suarez 7 Subs not used: Jones, Luis Alberto, Iago Aspas, Moses, Kelly. Goals: Sturridge 45, Gerrard pen 53.

ASTON VILLA: Guzan 6: Bacuna 7, Vlaar 7, Clark 7, Bertrand 6 (Luna 81); Weimann 7, El Ahmadi 7 (Sylla 64, 6), Westwood 7, Agbonlahor 8 (Holt 49, 6), Benteke 8, Delph 7

Subs not used: Helenius, Albrighton, Steer, Gardner. Booked: Clarke, El Ahmadi, Bertrand, Bacuna.

Goals: Weimann 26, Benteke 36.

Ref: Jonathan Moss. Att: 44,737.

*Player ratings by Dominic King at Anfield

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‘If you want to blame me, then blame me,’ he said, though he had defended himself by saying: ‘I go with my gut feeling. I thought it was an offensive team.’



As Rodgers knows better than most, a team can often be far more attacking with a stable midfield platform than if you pepper it with supposed showmen.



Rodgers picked the attacking Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling, even though he had Daniel Sturridge and Suarez up front. It was a gamble which failed dramatically.



Gerrard, who is not a natural holding midfielder whatever Rodgers might say, formed a rickety central pairing alongside Jordan Henderson, and Villa counter-attacked at will.



‘In the first half we should have been out of sight, three up,’ observed Villa manager Paul Lambert fairly.



Gabriel Agbonlahor could have scored after a minute and Ciaran Clark cracked a powerful header against the post but, not long after, Liverpool did fall behind.



Ryan Bertrand, on loan from Chelsea and ‘fantastic’ on his debut, according to Lambert, robbed Suarez and set a lightning counter-attack in motion. Christian Benteke helped release Agbonlahor, Andreas Weimann arrived in the middle and Liverpool were behind in 25 minutes.

Surprise: Andreas Weimann celebrates after making it 1-0 to Aston Villa Opener: The Austrian is mobbed after scoring the opening goal Comeback: Daniel Sturridge sparked Liverpool's comeback scoring just on the stroke of half-time Cameo: Lucas was substituted just 20mins after coming on as a substitute