Trabzonspor Vs Liverpool [UEFA Europa League Qualifier 2nd Leg 2010-11]

The humiliating defeat at Eastlands has been marred by the revelations that Mascherano refused to play, after it was cited that Barcelona had made a lowly £12 m offer for the want away midfielder.. And its so shameful for a professional footballer to behave like this towards a club who saved him from the brink of anonymity at Hammers reserves to the best defensive midfielder in the world and the freaking captain of Argentina ffs !

But focusing on the football side , Liverpool now turned their attention to the midweek away fixture against Trabzonspor to qualify for Europa League proper. Even though the team played well in the first leg, we were wasteful and only had a slender lead to carry to Turkey where the Reds braced themselves for a hostile atmosphere. The manager opted to leave Torres,Gerrard and Jovanovic back at home. We started with a 4-2-3-1 formation with Lucas and Poulsen anchoring the midfield and Aurelio Kuyt and Cole supporting Ngog upfront..

We were hoping for the best possible start and got off to one of the worst ever, with Trabzon scoring through their striker Gutierrez in the 4th minute . It shook the team, who were initially outplayed, but as the half progressed , started playing on a more competitive level. But the only notable chance of the half was when Johnson put the ball in the back of the net from an Ngog through ball only to be ruled offside.
The second half, though, was much better. There was a bit more purpose about the team.. And we managed to get back , even though a bit luckily, when after some good work on the right flank by Johnson, his low cross was deflected into the net for an own goal by the Trabzon defender . And the scoreline was made safe by Kuyt , who put the ball into the empty net after Kivrak failed to hold on to Pacheco's low shot.



Don't get me wrong , the 2nd half performance was much better than the 1st, but overall,pretty average. We are seriously short of ball playing players, and precisely why we have suffered during the past 12 months, where we have tried to compensate for quality too often with hardwork . One last thing, would like to see Babel and Pacheco get more match time.. YNWA.