Liverpool FC 1 - Unirea Urziceni 0
Liverpool kicked-off their Europa League campaign with a 1-0 win over Unirea Urziceni last night and although Torres was missing another Spaniard stepped up to the mark with an outstanding performance.
The game started promisingly when less than 60 seconds in Kuyt and Aurelio combined to set up Steven Gerrard and forced a diving save from Unirea goalkeeper Giedrius Arlauskis.
However, there wasn’t too much else to get excited about for the rest of the first-half as Unirea worked tirelessly to suffocate the Reds.
At the 75-minute mark Dani Pacheco came on as substitute for Alberto Aquilani and managed to inject some impetus into a side that although they had plenty of possession seemed unable to do anything with it.
The likelihood of Liverpool scoring seemed to be dwindling until ten minutes before time when Ryan Babel, another substitute, curled in a cross from deep on the left and Pacheco nodded the ball into the path of Ngog who bundled it home.
A sight of relief rang out around the Kop and Pacheco was particularly affected by hearing them chant his name.
“It’s a really special feeling when you hear the crowd singing your name and it was a nice moment for my family”, he said later.
Gerrard nearly increased the goal tally in the dying minutes but had a penalty claim waved away.
Liverpool can be content in knowing that they are in the driving seat for the away tie on the 25th February in Bucharest but will need to step it up a notch to preserve any chance of silverware this season.
Liverpool kicked-off their Europa League campaign with a 1-0 win over Unirea Urziceni last night and although Torres was missing another Spaniard stepped up to the mark with an outstanding performance. The game started promisingly when less than 60 seconds in Kuyt and Aurelio combined to set up Steven Gerrard and forced a diving save from Unirea goalkeeper Giedrius Arlauskis.
However, there wasn’t too much else to get excited about for the rest of the first-half as Unirea worked tirelessly to suffocate the Reds.
At the 75-minute mark Dani Pacheco came on as substitute for Alberto Aquilani and managed to inject some impetus into a side that although they had plenty of possession seemed unable to do anything with it.
The likelihood of Liverpool scoring seemed to be dwindling until ten minutes before time when Ryan Babel, another substitute, curled in a cross from deep on the left and Pacheco nodded the ball into the path of Ngog who bundled it home.
A sight of relief rang out around the Kop and Pacheco was particularly affected by hearing them chant his name.
“It’s a really special feeling when you hear the crowd singing your name and it was a nice moment for my family”, he said later.
Gerrard nearly increased the goal tally in the dying minutes but had a penalty claim waved away.
Liverpool can be content in knowing that they are in the driving seat for the away tie on the 25th February in Bucharest but will need to step it up a notch to preserve any chance of silverware this season.
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