Liverpool 1 Swansea 0: Liverpool and Milner Edge past Swansea

On blowy day when Anfield remembered one of its favourites sons Gerry Byrne with a minutes silence the poignancy of Daniel Sturridge’s resurrection to the match day squad would not have been lost on none of the 43,905 watching on.

Byrne who made his debut in 1957 played 333 games for the club went down in Anfield folklore after breaking his collarbone after seven minutes in the 1965 FA Cup final against Leeds United, remembering that those were the days without substitutes, he played on throughout extra-time to deliver the cross for Roger Hunt famous winning goal.

One wonders if reports of Byrne’s heroism in the final, rather than the words of Jurgen Klopp on Friday in which he’d stated the need for Sturridge to learn to manage his pain, was the real instigator for the player making himself available on match day.  It may have been both, but for Liverpool Supporters Gerry Byrne will forever be an intrinsic part of the club’s history.  You’ll Never Walk Alone Gerry Byrne.

The match itself started without Philippe Coutinho with Jurgen Klopp unwilling to take a risk with his suspect hamstring and the suspended Lucas Leiva, replaced by  Christian Benteke and Jordan Ibe from team who had summarily dismissed Manchester City.
Liverpool started like whirling dervishes pressing high up the pitch and giving Swansea little time to settle on the ball.

Jordan Ibe will feel disappointed he failed to get the through ball under control in the seventh minute although Bartley in trying to cover knocked the ball against the upright.
We were being helped by Benteke’s movement and ability to hold the ball up allowing his midfielders the chance to support him.   Unfortunately, after a lovely curled ball from Emre Can over Bartley and to the feet of Benteke which found him clear, his control let him down at the last.

Emre Can showed the other side of his formidable presence chasing back to overpower Éder as the frontman beared down on a confrontation with Lovren.

For all the majesty of our football in the first 30 minutes, the lack of a cutting edge in the final third meant that Swansea were going to get back in the game which they proceeded to do in the last quarter of the half where the enjoyed quality possession.
Swansea continued probing early in the second-half and as with Liverpool failed to carve out any real openings.

The game reached an impasse with the deadlock looking unlikely to broken apart from Jordan Ibe cutting in from the left and almost surprising Fabianski shooting from 20 yards which almost sneaked in at the near post.

When the goal did come Swansea could feel an unjustly treated about the decision to give Liverpool a penalty.  Jordan Ibe’s cross from the right was blocked by Taylor with his back turned, but arm up.  Referee’s assistant Simon Beck awarded the penalty with no hesitation.

James Milner decisively lifted the penalty high into the roof of the net.

Without much to write home about in the remaining minutes Liverpool and Klopp will be boosted by the returns of Henderson and Sturridge.

Liverpool will go into the Capital One quarter-final against Southampton encouraged with their sixth win in seven games and third in a week propelling themselves up to sixth in the League.

Man of the Match: James Milner – struck Liverpool’s winner from the spot and led the charge from the start and never stopped running leading by example.

Critical eye: Another game that a few months of ago we would either have drawn or lost.  Most pleasing is the fact that we are learning to defend in all areas throughout the team and we saw Daniel Sturridge heading balls out and trying stoically to mark Gomis at corners which shows Klopp’s discipline is being distilled throughout the team.

Liverpool missed the killer thrust of Coutinho in the final third and will hope he returns sooner rather than later.

The Liverpool mantra is to take each game as it comes and that is just what Jurgen Klopp is doing and winning after our European exploits was good to see.

Teams:
Liverpool: 22 Mignolet, 2 Clyne, 37 Skrtel, 6 Lovren, 18 Moreno, 7 Milner, 23 Can, 20 Lallana, 33 Ibe (K Toure – 95 mins), 9 Benteke (Sturridge – 71 mins), 11 Firmino (Henderson – 64 mins)

Subs: 4 K Toure, 14 Henderson, 15 Sturridge, 24 Allen, 27 Origi, 34 Bogdan, 56 Randall

Swansea: 1 Fabianski, 26 Naughton, 27 Bartley, 6 Williams, 3 Taylor, 7 Britton (Cork – 65 mins), 4 Ki Sung-yueng, 15 Routledge (Montero – 72 mins), 23 Sigurdsson, 10 Ayew, 17 Éder (Gomis - 69mins)

Subs: 13 Nordfeldt, 18 Gomis, 20 Montero, 21 Grimes, 22 Rangel, 24 Cork, 33 Fernandez

Referee: Anthony Taylor

Benteke strike gets us through to the last 32 of Europa League despite Mignolet gaffe

By dedlfc (David Douglas)

Liverpool 2 Bordeaux 1

After our fantastic headline making win away to Man City in the league on Saturday evening our manager decided to give Can a break with Coutinho out injured. He also gave a run out to Jordan Ibe and with Lallana also being rested Allen was brought into the team.  With  Skrtel starting from the bench Toure and Lovren were the chosen centre back pairing.

The biggest surprise before the game (or maybe not)  was yet another reported injury for Daniel Sturridge.  He had not only failed to make the bench but was out of the squad entirely with foot injury.

The early stages of the game brought about early pressure from Bordeaux with defensive mistakes helping to generate opportunities for them.

A poor backpass by Allen, put Lovren and then Mignolet in trouble. With Mignolet caught out of his box – in attempting to clear with his head, he unfortunately made poor contact with the ball falling to a Bordeaux attacker,  but fortunately the attempt was excellently blocked by Toure.

After early Bordeaux pressure and a Liverpool half-chance, the best early opportunity fell to Bordeaux after 12 minutes when a lazy Allen backpass put Lovren and then Mignolet in trouble. Caught out of his box, Mignolet tried to head clear.  It’s the right decision but he gets terrible contact. Fortunately, Toure blocks the subsequent effort on goal.

Bentekewas then played through by Ibe on the half hour before slotting the ball home in clinical fashion past the keeper Carasso.  Inexcusably, the Belgian striker had strayed offside..

Just a couple of minutes later we bizarrely went behind after Mignolet stupidly holds onto the ball for nearly 20 seconds (there is a 6 second rule on a keeper clearing a ball) – from the resulting indirect free-kick Bordeaux winger Henri Saivet blast the ball into the roof of the net after the ball is laid off for him.

Less than 5 minutes later we got an equaliser when the referee adjudged Benteke to have been abstructed even though Milner's cross was nowhere the "incident". Benteke wanted to take the penalty, but captain Milner stroked the ball home for 1-1.

In first-half stoppage time an ordinary cross by Nathaniel Clyne was controlled with a deft touch by Benteke with Bordeaux giving him the opportunity to turn, shape and then rifle the half volley home with Carasso not standing a chance.

Halftime thoughts

We were very fortunate to get the equaliser but on balance were the better side and deserved the lead – very disappointed with the performance of Mignolet for the goal and also the Firmino performance where he seemed to be unable to find a red shirt throughout the whole half.

We come out guns blazing in the second half when Benteke should have his second after a juggling Allen played in Firmino who squared to Benteke, who failed to get clean contact with his weaker left foot and balloons over.

Benteke had another goal chalked off shortly afterwards. Allen, who had steadily improved in the second period,  slipped in Milner this time who crossed to Benteke. The referee signals the striker shoved the Bordeaux defender to get clear.  It’s a very, very soft call. Just do not understand why the goal was not allowed, but to be fair one could say the same about our penalty award which led to the equaliser.

We remained the better side as Can and Lallana came on for Allen and Firmino with Klopp looking to preserve his players and manage minutes - as all will be expected to start against Swansea on the weekend.

Bordeaux had a few half-chances in the later stages of the second-half  - their best coming off a free kick in the first minute of stoppage time that Mignolet got a strong hand to. All in all, they did not put a great deal of pressure on our defence in their search for an equaliser.

Full-time thoughts

We are through to the knockout rounds (last 32)  and it’s fully deserved, even if Bordeaux—and a referee who seemed to think he was the star of the show—made it difficult at times.

It is very nice to put the Euro League to bed with a win at home until February 2016 with a round left to play. It will be nice to round off the Euro League group stages with a win away to Swiss side FC Sion but we are through so I am delighted for the result.

We now play on Sunday against Swansea at home and need to now get on track with our home league form – it would be highly encouraging to win on Sunday and keep the momentum going.

Hopefully, Coutinho will be fit to play on Sunday as Firmino played tonight as though he was missing his Brazilian team mate.

Biggest concern going forward is the continued injury worries of Daniel Sturridge – our best striker but never able to play for Jurgen Klopp. He now has a scan on Friday to find out how serious the latest foot injury is – more will be revealed – hopefully it is not as serious as we currently fear.

Teams:-

Liverpool: Mignolet, Clyne, Toure, Lovren, Moreno, Milner, Lucas, Allen (Can 67), Ibe (Origi 90), Benteke, Firmino (Lallana 74)

Subs not used: Bogdan, Brannagan, Skrtel, Randall

Booked: Lucas, Ibe, Benteke

Goals: Milner 38 (p), Benteke 45+1

Bordeaux: Carasso, Biyogo, Poko, Sane, Yambere, Contento, Plasil (Ounas 84), Chantome, Saivet, Rolan , Crivelli  (Diabete 67), Jussie (Maurice-Belay 76)

Subs not used: Prior, Traore, Guilbert, Poundje

Booked: Sane

Goal: Saivet 33 

Referee: Alon Yefet (Israel)

MOM: Benteke 

Att: 42,525 

Manager’s Jurgen Klopp’s comments:-

‘I’m very happy to have qualified,’ he said. ‘I told you when I came here - when I watched football from the German side - I thought that maybe the Europa League isn’t for English sides. When I came here everyone gave me the feeling: “You take your best squad to Kazan? Why do you do that?” And things like this.

‘So I’m very happy, the team is very happy to be qualified and the club is very happy.

‘So you can be very happy we qualified.’

Klopp knows there is room for improvement, even though they ought to have stretched their winning margin.

‘There were many good things tonight. We lost a little bit of control of the game. Too deep. This result was a big fight,’ he added.

‘Easy games everybody can win, you have to win the tough games.

A cool night.’

I just love this manager!!!! He just oozes charisma and is just so likeable.

Man City 1 Liverpool 4: Devastating Liverpool batter City into submission

After the tragic events in Paris on Friday 13 2015 which left so many dead and injured as with all Premier League games the French National anthem La Marseillaise was played and sung with both teams intermingled as one in an emotionally charged atmosphere.

After his acrimonious departure from Anfield, Raheem Sterling faced Liverpool for the first time.  James Miner was also facing his former team for the first time.

The order of the day could only have been smash ‘n’ grab with Jurgen Klopp choosing to start Christian Bentenke on the bench alongside Daniel Sturridge returning to the match day squad.

The performance wasn’t just about counter-attacking reactive football because make no mistake Liverpool were proactive. Very proactive.

From the onset, Liverpool were on the front foot pressing high up the field, shutting down space and pressuring City’s midfield which consisted of Yaya Toure and Fernando.   The industry of Can, Lucas and Milner was matched by the work rate of flair players Coutinho, Firmino and Lallana until now not renowned for their work going backwards.
Seven minutes in and Liverpool took a deserved a lead.

The effervescent Coutinho stole the ball from Sagna before making his way to the edge of the box before releasing fellow Brazilian Firmino heading for the by-line whose ball back across the near post was unfortunately for Mangala turned into his goal.

In normal circumstances the expectation would have been for City to hit back, but this was a Liverpool side full of verve, running down every ball and not giving City, especially Yaya Toure any rest bite. Liverpool pressure saw Milner taking a pot shot from 20 yards which he fired over.

It wouldn’t be long before Liverpool extended their lead.  The goal may have been born out City’s ineptitude, but ended with a sweeping flourish that was the signature of their play up to that point.

Firmino nipped in between Mangala and Demichelis before playing a stunning reverse ball into the path of the onrushing Coutinho to steer home under Hart.  The goal was devastating in its simplicity and said everything about the almost telepathic understating between the two Brazilians.

Liverpool were simply irresistible.

The front three weren’t just working hard they were creative, inventive and flourishing against a City side who looked punch drunk.

The third goal came and went in the blink of an eye. Lallana fed the ball into Coutinho who passed to Can moving away from the area.  The German produced a sensational  back heel to send Coutinho in behind Sagna and instead of shooting popped a pass off to the nearby Firmino to roll the ball into an unguarded net.

Liverpool were so good it was carnage.

Over the next few minutes Liverpool could so easily have been five up.  Mangala and Fernando made a mess of possession which emanated in Firmino being sent through one on one with Hart only to see his shot blocked by the England keeper.  Lallana gliding down the left found Coutinho who controlled beautifully before flicking the ball over Mangala to the arriving Firmino to control and hit a left-footed shot across himself and just wide of the far post.  In a game which had already seen some great moves leading to goals that would have been the crowning moment.

Liverpool were made to pay for the moments of profligacy when over confidence, with half-time beckoning presented Aguero with a half chance which his took in fantastic fashion, fantastically curling his shot into the corner of the net leaving Mignolet floundering.

In attempting to stem the tide in midfield City brought on Fernandinho and Delph to replace Navas and surprisingly Toure, respectively.

The changes made a difference with a lot less space in midfield for the first fifteen minutes of the second-half which saw City with a lot more of the ball without any real penetration.

It was Liverpool who had the real goal threat. On the hour Kolarov and Mangala lost the ball to the impressive Emre Can probably enjoying his most dominant performance as a midfielder in a red shirt.  He picked out Firmino with a slide rule pass for yet another one on one only with the same result as Hart blocked the shot with his leg.

Liverpool had the ball in the net when Firmino breezed effortlessly by the City backline before finding Coutinho who rounded Hart before slotting home, but unfortunately he had strayed offside.

The only way back for City was through a Liverpool mistake and James Milner, having his best game for Liverpool presented them with the opportunity.  His back pass was picked off by Sterling who found Aguero.  The Argentine side stepped past one defender before seeing his curling shot clawed out of the air by Mignolet.

That was to be Aguero final action in the match with Pelligrini looking to protect his star performer with the player only just returning from a hamstring injury.  His substitution ended the City threat.

Worryingly, Liverpool lost Coutinho after the ‘little maestro’ pulled up sharply clutching his leg in what looked liked a hamstring injury which Klopp will be hope is not to serious with his no10 in sparkling form.

Hart again saved Man City in a one on one situation after Benteke was put through by Ibe.

The game was ended as a contest from the resulting corner as Skrtel smashed home an imperious volley as the ball dropped from Benteke’s challenge with Mangala.

Man of the Match: Roberto Firmino – Involved in Liverpool’s first three goals either creating or finishing.  His reverse pass for Coutinho’s goal was stunning and he seemed to be on the same wavelength as country man with Adam Lallana seemingly tuning into the same band width.

He led the line with fortitude and gusto and is showing just how good a fit Firmino is.  In truth it could just have easily been Philippe Coutinho who was at his imperious best.

It was a brilliant performance by Liverpool aided by an energetic pressing game and the realisation by Jurgen Klopp that Liverpool had to contain the Man City midfield and get beyond a Kompany less backline which they did repeatedly.

Special word for Emre Can who strode the midfield in colossal fashion and whose delicious back heel helped set up the third goal.

Teams:

Man City: 1 Joe Hart, 3 Bacary Sagna, 26 Martin Demichelis, 20 Eliaquim Mangala, 11 Alexandar Kolarov, 42 Yaya Toure (45 mins – Fernandinho), 6 Fernando, 15 Jesus Navas (45 mins – Fabian Delph), 17 Kevin De Bruyne, 7 Raheem Sterling, 10 Sergio Aguero (66 mins - Kelechi Iheanacho)

Subs: 5 Pablo Zableta, 13 Willy Caballero, 18 Fabian Delph, 22 Gael Clichy, 25 Fernandinho, 30 Nicolas Otamendi, 72, Kelechi Iheanacho)

Liverpool: 22 Simon Mignolet, 2 Nathaniel Clyne, 37 Martin Skrtel, 6 Dejan Lovren, 18 Alberto Moreno, 7 James Milner, 21 Lucas Leiva, 23 Emre Can, 20 Adam Lallana (89 mins – Kolo Toure), 11 Roberto Firmino (77 mins – Christian Benteke), 10 Philippe Coutinho ( 68 mins - Jordan Ibe)

Subs: 4 Kolo Toure, 9 Christian Benteke, 15 Daniel Sturridge, 24 Joe Allen, 33 Jordan Ibe, 34 Adam Bogdan, 56 Connor Randall

Referee: Jonathan Moss

Attendance: 54,444

The Palace Jinx continues – Klopp team defeated for the first time under his tutelage Liverpool 1 Crystal Palace 2

Blog by dedlfc (David Douglas)

With Milner pulling out of the match with a hamstring issue – Jordan Ibe after his winning goal performance vs FC Kazan on Thursday replaces Milner in the side. Lucas takes over the captaincy.

It will be interesting to note whether that shifts Liverpool into more of a 4-2-3-1, which is Jürgen Klopp's preferred formation.

For Crystal Palace, injuries to one of our nemesis’s Gayle meant that Yannick Bolasie was played as a striker.

Mignolet’s sets the tone of the match by a nervous clearance to Bolassie and co pressing which was a nightmare scenario to start the match.

Palace’s defensive shape after the early exchanges falls back into a 4-4-2 with the Palace athletic wingers out wide allowing them to counter with strength and pace.

The early play was dominated by Palace and they took the lead after 21 minutes with poor defending the root of our defensive problems again !!!

Can provided a wonderful little touch in the box to lay it off for the effervescent Bolasie, who smashed it past Mignolet – extremely poor defending by us.

First third of the match gone, and we look pretty calm after going a goal down. Lallana and Coutinho are trying to find their feet as foils for the directness of the excellent wing play of Ibe and striker Benteke.

The only problem is Palace appear equally calm in soaking this stuff up and taking their chances on the break.

We are now playing better with the final ball again being the main problem and the potential toughest nut to crack in Klopp’s early games as Liverpool manager.

Everything reassuringly returns to being the worst as Sakho lands awkwardly unfortunately and Lovren warms up to replace him. The Beast Sakho tries to run off the injury but nearly gives away a second goal but for offside and then shortly after realises he can no longer continue – just hope the extra minute or two spent on the pitch has not made his injury worse. Lovren replaces him with Sakho’s name again being chanted around the ground whilst he is coming off the pitch.

The excellent equaliser comes after 42 minutes with Ibe playing the ball to Clyne who feeds it into Lallana who passes to Coutinho with Benteke dummying the ball for Coutinho to slot home. Excellent team play!!.

Lovren then produces two good headers from two set pieces which are saved on the line by keeper Hennessy and cleared by Delaney respectively just before half time.

Halftime 1-1 Pretty exciting game. Two teams that know each other well engaged in a game of chicken with both sides capable of blinking first. Just felt that our midfield players such as Can needed to impose himself on the game more.

Klopp starts the second half yelling in a way that makes us think his instructions aren't being carried out quite as precisely as he would like.

Benteke fluffs his lines to be the hero by missing a left footed shot which he hits over.

Then ten minutes later Palace produce a fast counter attack with Zaha holding off two LFC defenders playing a nice pass across to Sako who with his favoured left foot hits it to the near post wide when it would have been better to hit it across the keeper.

Benteke again heads over this time from about eight or nine yards.

Two thirds of the game gone and Crystal Palace are still totally dangerous on the break.

Roberto Firmino's introduction ends Can’s poor day at the office

The winning goal came after 82 minutes with local lad Scott Dann producing a header which was poorly parried straight in front of the goal for Dann to head home – disastrous keeping and we are again behind to Palace.

Mutch and Origi on for Cabaye and Ibe, respectively. Liverpool look up for the equalizer, but will they stitch it together with four minutes of stoppage time?

Coutinho has a late effort with his left foot parried over but to no avail and Klopp has his first loss as LFC manager.

Man of the match – Jordan Ibe – continued his form from Thursday night with a positive wing display but unable to help the side this time to get anything from the game.

Positives – we again showed the desire to keep going after going a goal down even though we ultimately lost the game through further bad defending.

Jordan Ibe’s confidence has now returned and he is a massive asset to have in the side.

Negatives – the defensive performance have again cost us points and another loss at home. Our keeper’s unsteady play at the outset of the game set the tone for a poor display. Now is the time for Emre Can to start imposing himself on games as our supposed driving midfielder – so far under Klopp he has not shown the determination and drive to push us on to victories which for me is very disappointing indeed.

The biggest concern is the fact that we are not producing a cutting edge in the final third with Coutinho being our only bright spark and also unable to score more than one goal in a game despite creating a couple of clear chances this afternoon.

Palace have now won the last four trips to Merseyside, sadly now there is an international break which now means we have to wait 13 days until we play Man City away – we failed to capitalise on a great win last week again which is become a standard problem with LFC sides over the years unable to back up great wins with another follow up win.

Liverpool (4-2-3-1): Mignolet: Clyne, Skrtel, Sakho (Lovren 40mins), Moreno: Lucas, Can (Firmino 65mins): Ibe(Origi 87mins), Lallana, Coutinho : Benteke

Subs not used: Allen, Brannagan, Bogdan, Teixeira.

Goal: Coutinho 42

Booked: Clyne

Crystal Palace (4-2-3-1): Hennessey: Kelly, Dann, Delaney, Souare: Zaha , McArthur, Cabaye (Mutch 86mins), Puncheon(Ledley 79mins): Bolaise , Sako  (Wickham 65mins)

Subs not used: Speroni, Ward, Hangeland, Bamford.

Goal: Bolasie 21, Dann 82

Booked: Souare, Puncheon

Referee: Neil Swarbrick

Attendance: 44,115

FC Rubin 0 Liverpool 1: Liverpool comfortably breeze past Rubin

Undoubtedly starting with a stronger eleven than has been the norm in the Europa League this season with Allen, Ibe, Firmino and Lovren the changes from the team which defeated Chelsea over the weekend showed we met business.

The new found confidence under Klopp was apparent from the first minute with his team pressing all over the pitch leaving FC Ruben very little room to operate in.

Six minutes in Liverpool almost took the lead with Firmino cutting inside before feeding James Milner to shoot past the approaching keeper only to see the ball clip off the bar.

Liverpool flowed in the pass and move way of old, with options galore  left, right and through the middle, slick passing from the back by Sakho and Jordon Ibe looking to cut inside supported by Clyne (on the overlap) or on the outside at every opportunity.

Clyne delivered a superb clipped ball on the run with Benteke lining up to score his fifth of the season only to see the defender pull off a miraculously hooked clearance.

Not for the first time this season Liverpool’s final ball lacked subtlety and precision providing Benteke very little quality, leaving the big striker frustrated and Liverpool left to shoot from long range without much success.

Liverpool almost took the lead in the final minute of the first-half with the impressive Ibe cutting through into the area with a one-two before his shot come cross deflecting off the defender only for the Rubin keeper Ryzhikov to pull of a fantastic instinctive save as the ball was almost past him before clawing the ball back as it landed behind him.

The second-half started as though first-half had never ended with Liverpool pouring forward and we finally got our just rewards.

Firmino collected Benteke’s flick just inside the Rubin half before pushing forward to find Jordon Ibe running into space. The young winger ran unchallenged to the edge of area before firing in a shot off Ryzhikov’s far post for Ibe’s first goal for Liverpool.

Liverpool could and should have wrapped up the match over the next ten minutes.

Moreno had his shot blocked and Milner following up saw his shot tipped over by Rhyhikov.  Lovren, from Ibe’s corner had his header well saved low down and Can’s shot straight at the keeper whereas a shot either side would have seen us go two-up.

Apart from Ibe shooting straight at the keeper following a Liverpool break both teams barely threatened the goal in the last quarter and Liverpool coasted to third consecutive victory.

Granted Rubin sat back and deep and defended, but Liverpool as the away team took the initiative from the first whistle and deserve to win more handsomely.  That being said, it may be a cause for some concern that once again we failed to provide quality service to Benteke who is living of scrap and the final ball in the last third was sub-standard to say the least.

The lack of a cutting edge again tonight showed just why Liverpool are so overly reliant on Coutinho’s creative skills and why we hark for a fit Daniel Sturridge.

It would be great if one of the midfielders and a defender develops a goal scoring habit as we are struggling to kill off teams, but we are a work in progress and the signs are encouraging especially with man of the match Jordon Ibe who had his best game since last season.

Teams:

FC Rubin: 1 Ryzhikov, 21 Cotugno (Ustinov – 81 mins), 5 Kverkvelia, 3, Nabiullin, 77 Georgiev, 15 Kislyak (Akhmetov – 70 mins), 99 Kanunnikov, 10 Marques (Ozdoev –45 mins), 61 Karadeniz, 11 Devic

Subs: 4 Lemos, 13, Haghighi, 14 Bilyaletdinov, 22 Dyadyun, 27 Ozdoev, 49 Ustinov, 85 Akhmetov

Liverpool: 22 Mignolet, 2 Clyne, 6 Lovren, 17 Sakho, 18 Moreno, 23 Can (Skrtel – 93), 24 Allen, 33 Ibe, 11 Firmino (Lucas – 81 mins), 7 Milner (Lallana – 61 mins), 9 Benteke

Subs: 10 Coutinho, 20 Lallana, 21 Lucas, 27 Origi, 32 Brannagan, 34 Bogdan, 37 Skrtel

Referee: Kevin Blom