Roy Hodgson satisfied as Liverpool progress in Europa League
Manager Roy Hodgson was satisfied with his side’s performance on Thursday night after Liverpool FC progressed to the round of 32 in the UEFA Europa League. The Reds secured a 1-1 draw against Romanian side FC Steaua Bucuresti that
meant Liverpool would end up as the winners of Group K.
The English team has 9 points after 5 matches while Steaua, who are in 2nd place, have scored 6 points.
Hodgson fielded a relatively inexperienced side and key players such as Fernando Torres and Dirk Kuyt were rested for the night.
Liverpool took the lead through Milan Jovanovich; however, a blunder from goalkeeper Pepe Reina allowed Eder Bonfim’s shot to sneak into the goal and levelled the score line.
Roy was considerably pleased by the performance put on by his side, which was missing some fringe players in the line-up.
He said, “I'm very happy and happy most of all that the team we had the confidence to take on this tough task of playing Steaua away and were able to produce the performance and get the result we needed. We always knew it was going
to be tough because it was a bit of a last chance for Steaua to qualify so I was a little bit concerned with my team selection but the players served the club well and stuck at our task very well. It was a big ask for those players to stand up to some of the
pressure and deal with some of the quality football and I am delighted for them and we now top the group in the final game.”
Reina, who was acting as Liverpool’s captain for the night, admitted his mistake and apologized for his error after the match.
He said, "I thought one of their players was offside for the goal but I've watched replays and it's my fault. It's my mistake and I have to handle that and get through. He was definitely obstructing me, but I definitely should
have reacted much better than I did. I will handle the mistake and improve."
After securing qualification into the next round of Europa League, Hodgson will turn his attention to the English Premier League when he faces Aston Villa FC on Monday.
Torres is also expected to be back in the side when Liverpool meet Villa at Anfield, next week. However, Reds’ captain-fantastic Steven Gerrard, who will start training on Monday, is likely to miss the clash.
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