Late equaliser leaves hopes hanging by a thread -Liverpool 2 Young Boys 2

Report by David Douglas - dedlfc


After the positive result of Anzhi winning earlier in the evening we went into the game knowing a win would put us through.

In the pre match interview by our manager, Rodgers he stated that due to the fact we have 4 games in the next 10 days he would be using the whole squad.

The decision to play Shelvey up front was a gamble with no natural front man - my concern going into the first of the aforementioned 4 games is that the other strikers/forwards are just not utilised enough.

From the kick off Young Boys went straight for the jugular and nearly scored after 9 secs with a sweeping move easily saved by Reina. An excellent one-two with Suso and Assaidi got us our first corner but nothing came of it.

Another quick counter attack from Young Boys brought another save to keep Reina's hands warm! Shelvey then played a nice through ball to Cole which he shot just wide after 16 mins.

An excellent flick shortly afterwards by Shelvey leading the line well put Henderson through on goal but he again lacked the confidence and convinction and his shot was tipped wide.

The whole crowd then stood to applaud the unveiling by the visiting Young Boys fans of a banner that stated "In Memory of Hillsborough" they were a class act all evening.

Unfortunately due to an injury to Andre Wisdom, Gerrard started warming up after 29 mins , Wisdom produced the best cross of the night from the right which didn't surmount to nothing just before he was brought off for Gerrard.

The deadlock was finally broken through a brilliant interchange between Suso playing the ball to Cole who chipped the keeper for Shelvey to head home for the lead.

Suso who was again having an excellent game and had a good run and shot just wide shortly afterwards. A clear chance then fell to Cole whose shot ricochet off Skrtel and then was cleared off the line. Another through ball from Cole to Suso went unpunished when the youngster again pulled his shot wide.

So at half-time with a 1-0 lead we were almost there into the next round.

The summary of the first half was that we had chances to wrap up the game with Suso, Cole and Shelvey being the stand-out performers.

The second half started quite cagey until Cole missed a great chance to double the lead and then from the counter attack Henderson now playing as the emergency right back got caught too far up the pitch with the ball dropping over his head and Young Boys striker Bobadilla thudded a shot past Reina before he could blink to equalise and silence the Anfield crowd.

The equaliser prompted Rodgers to bring on our talisman Suarez who we are trying to wrap him in cotton wool and play him in all the league games until January when we can get reinforcements to assist him rather than subject him to having to save our Euro league skins!

With our top scorer now on the pitch we showed more vigour and movement and got a deserved second goal after some neat work by Gerrard with the rejuvenated Joe Cole finishing with aplomb!

Cole was taken off for Sterling after 71 minutes to a standing ovation for the first time that I can remember in a LFC shirt and it may be a sign of things to come, that finally that he is prepared to fight for his place or a determination to impress prospective buyers in January.

Liverpool pushed for a third goal but were found wanting by their naivety with seconds to go with Suarez losing the ball and the Young Boys quick counter attack leading to a smash and grab equaliser in the 88th minute from just outside the area from Zverotic.

Same old story from our team not getting the win at home by not having the experience to either take the ball into a corner and run down the clock or keeping possession to complete a vital win.

Man of the Match - Joe Cole - showed glimpses of the player we thought we had bought two years ago.

Now he is without the pace to get past players, but possesses the experience to pick out decent passes to team mates. For his sake I just hope it's a turning point in his LFC career as he seems determined to succeed.

Negatives
With Anzhi already through, there is now a three-way fight for the remaining qualifying place - we now need to win in Italy in a couple of weeks time which will not be easy.

The game should have been dead and buried with us again not having the killer instinct to finish our numerous chances and again being sucker punched which could now mean we will be out of Europe unless we better Young Boys result in the last group game.

The reliance on Suarez is again a major worry as Gerrard no longer looks a goal threat and only Shelvey looks able to get regular goals in this squad.