Europa League Qualifier, Trabzonspor 1-2 Liverpool; Reds Advance to the next round
Trabzonspor’s Giray Kacar’s own goal gave Liverpool the lead and a late goal by Dirk Kuyt ensured that Liverpool made it to the Europa League group stages.
Liverpool travelled to Turkey without Captain Steven Gerrard, who was ruled out because of a back problem. Fernando Torres, who was suspected of not being fully fit was also rested against the Turkish side, however the Spaniard will most probably feature in the upcoming Premier League clash against West Brom.
Mascherano was left out, because of the uncertainty which surrounds his future at Anfield. Inter Milan and Barcelona have shown interest in the player and Mascherano has made it clear that he wished to leave this summer and refused to participate in the match. Fellow countryman, Maxi Rodriguez also missed the match, but for different reasons, he was out with an illness.
Jamie Carragher wore the captain’s armband in the absence of Steven Gerrard and Joe Cole, who is facing a three match ban after the red card against Arsenal in the opening fixture of the Premier League, returned for the European fixture. The former Chelsea player vowed he will not take any more penalties after missing one in the first leg of the same fixture.
The Turkish side made two changes to the side that had lost 1-0 to Liverpool at Anfield last week, bringing in Ibrahima Yattara and Giray Kacar to replace Umut Bulut and Arkadiusz Glowacki, respectively. It seemed to make a difference as the home side scored first to level the score.
It was Dirk Kuyt’s mistake that led to the first goal, he allowed the home side to make a run forward and Colman’s cross fell to Teofilo Gutierrez who fired past the Spanish goal keeper to give his side a life line in the competition. The home side dominated the match after that, presenting lone striker David Ngog with little opportunity in the box.
Thirty minutes into the match and Glen Johnson scored, only for the goal to be disallowed. Though the score was still level, Liverpool were now looking for comfortable as they controlled the game with more possession. They created several chances, which were effectively dealt with Trabzonspor’s back four.
In the first few minutes of the second half, the Turkish side also had a goal disallowed, striker Burak Yilmaz was flagged as offside even though he was seemingly level with Carragher. Liverpool were easy to have had the goal disallowed, because the match would have ended differently had the home side been 2-0 up at the start of the second half.
Liverpool concentrated on their attack and had some really good chances at the goal, the best ones coming from Joe Cole and Ngog. But both fell short, as their efforts were always inches shy of the goal. The Trabzonspor goal keeper should also be given credit for his contribution to keeping a clean sheet for as long as he did.
As the second half was coming to a close both sides were pushing for another goal, which would see them through to the next round. Pepe Reina also made an impressive save off of a deflected free kick to keep the score at 1-0, and it was after Pacheco was brought on for Aurelio that Liverpool scored both their goals.
Glen Johnson made the run and played the ball across the opposition’s goal which caused Kacar to turn the ball into his own net. This was probably not how Liverpool had expected to go through to the group stages, but it counted as their goal nonetheless and the Reds were through.
They were not done though. Hodgson brought on Babel for Ngog, and a short while later Kuyt made up for his early blunder and scored a second for Liverpool. The goal keeper made his first and only error of the game as he parried a shot directly to the striker, who did not waste the opportunity.
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