After the defeat against West Brom, Liverpool travelled to Russia to face Zenit St Petersburg in the 1st leg of the last 32 of the Europa League.Rodgers included Sterling, Allen and Skrtel in place of Shelvey, Lucas and Agger and in the opening minutes both sides could have scored as Hulk volleyed at Reina only to be denied by a low stop and a Liverpool attack saw Suarez hit a shot which narrowly went past the far post.
Hulk was denied again after a low drive was parried by Reina and in the 16th minute, Suarez had a great chance to open the scoring when he ran clear of the Zenit back line and took the ball round Malafeev but his final touch proved to be too heavy and the Lombaerts caught up and denied Liverpool from taking the lead.
Suarez and Hulk seemed to be causing the most trouble for their opposition and Hulk smashed a shot against the post with Reina stranded but the ball rolled across the goal and with no Zenit runners to tap in it allowed Liverpool to clear to safety.
Suarez went close just before the break as he flicked Sterling's cross towards goal but it went the wrong side of the post and just after the restart, Johnson's pacey run took him into the box and hit for goal with Malafeev successfully denying him and Suarez later curled a shot wide on the hour mark as Liverpool pushed just like they had done on Monday but with no goals for their effort.
Their lack of conversion proved costly in the 69th minute as Hulk unleashed a stunning effort from 30 yards out which sailed past Reina and into the top corner to give Zenit the lead and with the momentum they quickly added a second ad Semak latched on to a deep cross while unmarked at the back post to tap home and leave Liverpool stunned and with a mountain to climb to stay in the tie.
Sadly, Liverpool were unable to muster any further clear chances and as the final whistle went they knew a historic night at Anfield next Thursday would be needed in order to stay in the competition.
No comments:
Post a Comment