Dour draw means Klopp’s frustrated boys have work to do at Anfield in 2nd leg -Augsburg 0 Liverpool 0

Blog by dedlfc (David Douglas)

Pre –Game Build- up:The same XI start tonight as started against Villa, hopefully that means good things. The front three of Firmino, Coutinho, and Sturridge should give us plenty of firepower in the final third, and this is as good a night as any for Sturridge to finally show what he can do for us in Europe. Very nice to see our captain Jordan Henderson leading us out of the tunnel on a European night at last. 

Fantastic atmosphere in the stadium. Loads of flags waving and an electric feel about this arena.

Thirty seconds in and we are nearly caught out napping with a well-placed long ball that is just beyond the Augsburg striker. Disastrous early start averted. Just.

Some good pressing leads to an early chance for Firmino, but he shoots a weak effort straight at the keeper and the game remains at this early stage.

A nervy, sloppy start for both sides here in the first 20 minutes. Possession is split about evenly, but neither has shown much cutting edge in the attacking third. Very disappointing showing especially from our midfield who are not grasping this game by the scruff of the neck so far.

WWK Stadium is rockin'. The fans are putting on a better performance than either side right now.

Augsburg forced into an early sub as their main striking threat Bobadilla pulled up with an apparent hamstring knock. Bobadilla has been struggling since the opening couple of minutes, but finally decided he had had enough.

Henderson is furious at Sturridge for not playing him through on a 3 on 3 break. The simplest of through balls would have seen the captain in on goal, but Sturridge instead decides to selfishly shoot from well outside the box. The shot is deflected behind for a corner, but still a huge missed opportunity there.

Loads of players slipping around out there, and a Coutinho slip helped lead to an Augsburg break. The slick pitch is definitely something to keep an eye on in the second half. Maybe a change of boots is in order?

Augsburg create the best chances of the half, both in stoppage time. The defense completely switched off, and Mignolet had to make a big one vs one save and then struggles to collect a dangerous cross just moments later. We are lucky to go into the halftime break on equal terms.

Halftime: A disappointing first half where we struggled to make our mark on a side that we should be comfortably beating. Prior to the very end of the first half, we probably had slightly better chances, but poor decision-making and sloppy build-up play cost us in the final third. Both sides have had an equal share of the ball, but Augsburg look more confident in both attack and defense. I hope Klopp has some not-so-cool words for the lads at the half. On the plus side, Mignolet stopped the first shot on target. So that's something very rare and needs to be applauded.

Our build-up play is much better to start the second half. Henderson was picked out on a nifty little through ball, but was incorrectly called offside. Moments later Coutinho and Moreno combine to create a shot, and then Milner just misses picking out Sturridge on a dangerous cross. A more sharper Sturridge would have put that chance away.Whatever was said at halftime seems to be working so far.

Augsburg produce some very sloppy defending on a free kick, which Kolo Toure fails to head home, unfortunately, the ping-ponging ball refuses to cross the line, and the score remains tied.

Origi on for Sturridge. Another vital 67 minutes for our best striker since his return to fitness.

After a promising start to the half, we are looking out of ideas. Augsburg haven't seen as much of the ball in the second half, but they've remained dangerous on the counter attack.

Ibe on for Milner, whose first involvement is to dribble a ball into a defender and over the touchline for a goal kick. Not the greatest start for our young winger this evening.

Ibe then takes a tame shot which goes through to the keeper. From the resulting counter attack Augsburg go close as Ji drives a low shot off the outside of the near post. He had Mignolet well beat, and again, we are lucky to not go behind.

The predictable shot from Coutinho who comes inside from the left and tries a late shot as frustration justifiably mounts as the 90 minute mark approaches.

Man of the Match – Sakho

Never put a foot wrong and provided solid cover for Toure when required. With the rest of the defence will be happy with the clean sheet

Special mention – Kolo Toure – solid performance but is in reality 4^th choice centre back and should be going to another club from next season.

Augsburg (4-2-3-1): Hitz, Stafylidis, Klavan, Janker, Verhaegh, Altintop (Koo 86), Feulner, Kohr, Werner (Ji 80), Esswein, Bobadilla, (Caiuby 23).

Subs not used: Opare, Gelios, Max, Thommy.

Booked: Janker, Werner, Kohr, Feulner

Liverpool (4-3-3): Mignolet, Clyne, Toure, Sakho, Moreno, Henderson, Can, Milner (Ibe 80), Coutinho, Firmino, Sturridge (Origi 67)

Subs not used: Ward, Randall, Caulker, Lucas, Benteke 

Booked: Moreno 

Referee: David Borbalan (Spain)

Full Time: There are no easy games at this stage of the competition, but this will still be a disappointing result. Aside from a brief spell to start the second half, this side looked more likely to concede than to score. Very disappointing performance from Can and Henderson in my opinion this is a game they should be controlling and dominating but both players failed to do so.

An away draw isn't the worst, but the lack of goals will mean no margin of error when the tie resumes at Anfield next week. FC Midtjylland just served up a warning to English squads who think they can just stroll through to the next round. We will need to be at their best to be able to get the result at Anfield next week.

Manager’s comments

"Had we won 1-0 or 3-0 nothing would have been decided. If we save power for the final we will lose Thursday and on Sunday.”

“We could have created more chances, that is clear,” conceded Klopp. “You can see when we played the wrong passes or made the wrong decisions, but you can say 0-0 is OK. There were a lot of chances with the counter-attack that were not necessary.

"This team have not played together too often. German teams are strong on the tactical side and offer no space. In the second half you could see the spaces we could use. If you play together more often and the players have more rhythm it’s better – and that is what we have to work on.”