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.