Birmingham City stayed in the Premier League relegation zone after throwing away a two-goal lead in a 2-2 draw at home to Liverpool.

Goals from Mikael Forssell and Sebastian Larsson - a wonderful free-kick - seemed to have put the Blues on target for 16th place before Peter Crouch's sidefooted strike and a deflected Yossi Benayoun header drew the weakened visitors level.

Birmingham stay 18th on 32 points, one behind Bolton Wanderers and Reading who also drew. Fulham's remarkable victory at Manchester City means they move to within two points of the Blues.

Bolton and Reading managers Gary Megson and Steve Coppell might not have appreciated Rafa Benitez's team selection, but a virtual reserve Liverpool side was more than good enough to see off Fulham last weekend.

Benitez can hardly be blamed for rotating his squad, who are all but certain of finishing fourth and have a Champions League semi-final second leg against Chelsea on Wednesday.

Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher sat on the bench, while Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano were among the regulars left out altogether.

Of those likely to play on Wednesday, John Arne Riise got a run-out, possibly to help him forget his dramatic own-goal against Chelsea, while Jose Reina continued in goal.

It meant another start for the increasingly marginalised Crouch, who almost scored early on with a spectacular long-range volley that Maik Taylor pushed behind at full stretch.

Forssell's ambitious turn and left-foot volley was about as good as it got for the hosts in the opening stages, but his effort sailed straight into Reina's gloves.

James McFadden was the architect of the first goal. He tricked his way into a yard of space beyond Riise and sent in a right-footed cross that cleared Olivier Kapo and fell for Forssell, who slammed the ball past Reina from close range.

It seemed like game over on 55 minutes when Larsson scored a free-kick reminiscent of David Beckham in his pomp.

It was the classic Beckham trajectory; just left of centre, 25 yards out, arrowing into the top left corner. Although it is fair to say the England centurion never had Radhi Jaidi dancing on the penalty spot to put the goalkeeper off.

Birmingham were comfortable and their visitors seemed resigned to their fate; Benitez preparing to remove Riise for the untried Emilio Insua.

Yet somehow, almost reluctantly, Liverpool came back. Jermaine Pennant eased past four opponents on an ambling dribble infield and found Andriy Voronin, who in turn laid off for Crouch to sidefoot into the bottom-right corner.

Jaidi missed a chance to kill the game off when he headed wide from a Larsson free-kick, while at the other end Voronin sliced wildly wide having got into a fine shooting position.

The equaliser was cruel, but Alex McLeish will ask how Lucas Leiva had so much time to line up his 76th-minute cross.

The Brazilian found the head of Benayoun for an effort that took a huge deflection off Jaidi, wrongfooting Maik Taylor and trickling in.

The dubious goals panel can decide whether the Israeli's header was on target or whether Jaidi scored an own goal, but the result was the same - Birmingham stay stranded in the bottom three.

Alex Chick / Eurosport