Europa League: Liverpool v Trabzonspor full time report
Liverpool 1 Trabzonspor 0
Liverpool will only take a one goal lead to Turkey next week after a frustrating Europa League playoff first leg against Trabzonspor at Anfield – which saw Joe Cole miss a penalty.
Ryan Babel scored his side’s only goal of the game in first half stoppage time after linking up well with Cole, but the well-organised Turks kept the hosts at bay for the rest of the night, with goalkeeper Onur Kivrak saving Cole’s penalty early in the second period.
Debutant Christian Poulsen had a goal controversially ruled out for an apparent foul on Kivrak, while half time substitute Fernando Torres and Milan Jovanović were also denied by the Trabzonspor ‘keeper.
Pepe Reina made a terrific stop to deny Umut Bulut in the second half, and the fact that his side didn’t concede an away goal will at least be a boost to Reds manager Roy Hodgson.
But Liverpool will know that they should have won this game by more, with Cole in particular sure to be disappointed as he followed up Sunday’s red card on his Premier League debut by fluffing his lines when presented with the chance to score in front of the Kop, on what was a difficult night for a much-changed Reds.
The Turks started by taking the game to their hosts, but the first chance fell to the Reds, and big centre back Sotirios Kyrgiakos drew a good save from goalkeeper Kivrak when he met a Maxi Rodriguez corner with his head.
At the other end, Selçuk İnan’s free kick caused problems, and Burak Yilmaz came close with a header from the resultant corner.
Trabzonspor appeared to be quicker to the ball than Liverpool, and as a result the Reds were struggling to get any fluency into their game, with Cole closely watched. Fabio Aurélio curled a free kick over the crossbar amid mounting unease. That frustration was soon to end though.
There was an element of fortune in the way that the ball dropped to Cole in first half stoppage time, but what followed certainly wasn’t lucky, as Cole picked out Babel with an incisive pass, and the Dutchman raced through before coolly slotting an effort beyond Kivrak and into the corner of the net. It would prove to be Babel’s last kick of the game, as the Dutchman was replaced by Torres at the break.
Almost inevitably, the Spaniard was instantly in the action, and a stinging long range drive from the corner of the box was just about saved by a nervy Kivrak. Lucas missed a free header from the ensuing corner.
The presence of Torres had galvanized Liverpool, and after Christian Poulsen had driven over, Rodriguez should have been awarded a penalty when he was felled.
A spot kick was around the corner though, and after Lucas had been tripped by Serkan Balci, Cole immediately grabbed the ball in the hope of scoring his first Liverpool goal. However, the midfielder – eager to make up for Sunday’s red card against Arsenal – blotted his copybook yet again by hitting a tame kick that Kivrak did well to save to his left.
The missed penalty didn’t stop the one way traffic heading toward the Turkish goal though, and Kivrak was soon racing out of his goal to brilliantly block a Jovanović effort after the Serb had combined well with an effervescent Torres.
Then, almost out of nowhere, Bulut broke the Liverpool offside trap and saw his powerful effort superbly saved by Reina – who would have been eager to make up for his mistake which cost the Reds victory at the weekend.
Torres saw a brilliant header well saved by Kivrak, before the goalkeeper escaped trouble after flapping at an Aurélio free kick, and then got away with dropping a Kyrgiakos header which Poulsen then bundled into the net, only to see the goal controversially disallowed by referee Thomas Einwaller for an apparent foul on the goalkeeper.
Mystified by that, Liverpool kept searching for a second, throwing on the in-form David Ngog to partner Torres.
But that second never materialised, and the Reds now know that they face a potentially tricky tie in Turkey next week. Fail there, and the absence of more goals tonight will come back to haunt them.
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