Full-time: Liverpool 2-1 Bordeaux
Job done for Liverpool. Here’s the match report.
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90+ 2min: Liverpool sub: Origi on for Ibe.
90+1 min: Mignolet does save! It wasn’t especially difficult but he punched Saivet’s curling shot to safety.
90 min: Danger here! Lovren trips Rolan at the edge of the box, conceding a freekick in a very dangerous position. Mignolet to the rescue?
87 min: Benteke flicks on a long ball towards Lallana. It runs out of play. But at least the ball is down the other end. Bordeaux’s territorial dominance was starting to spread edginess around Anfield.
85 min: Benteke booked for catching a player slightly late.
84 min: Bordeaux make their last sub before taking a corner: Ounas on, Plasil off. Corner cleared by Lucas.
81 min: Liverpool are retreating deeper and deeper. Not quite clinging on, but they sure don’t have control of this game.
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79 min: Bordeaux are having plenty of the ball and popping it around competently until they get near the Liverpool box, whereupon their lack of imagination and precision makes things relatively easy for Liverpool. But it’s still a dicey 10 minutes for Liverpool to navigate and Klopp’s anxiety on the sideline is obvious.
77 min: Bordeaux change: Mbelay on, Jussiê off.
76 min: Saivet sure fancies himself from distance. He tries another crack from 40 yards. This one wobbles way wide, too.
74 min: Liverpool sub: Firmino off, Lallana on.
73 min: Liverpool roll forward. Can and Milner connive down the left before the Englander runs on to a pass from his German chum and hammers the ball into the sidenetting from an acute angle.
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70 min: Benteke does his best to bully the two centrebacks and retrieve a long ball forward. For a moment it looks like he’ll bustle his way into the box but he never quite gets the ball under control and eventually the combined persistence of the centrebacks overpowers foils the striker.
67 min: Liverpool sub: Can on, Allen off. The Welshman is applauded generously as he departs. He was a bit off in the first half but came on strong in the second. Until he was hauled off.
66 min: High endeavour from both sides but not much magic at the moment. It’s clear that most are missing their most creative players. Let’s see if a Bordeaux substitution can shake things up: Crivelli is replaced by the gigantic striker Diabaté.
63 min: Ibe booked for wellying the ball away in anger after a freekick is given against him.
62 min: Nice tidying up by Touré after a loose pass by Allen put Liverpool in bother. Touré and Lovren have been solid enough so far.
60 min: Lucas booked for a lubberly challenge in midfield on Plasil, who’s copped some stick tonight.
58 min: Bordeaux surround the ref and demand a penalty after a header from a corner hits Benteke’s hands! They’ve got a strong case, in my view: there was no justifiable reason for Benteke to have his hands up around his face. But the ref disagrees.
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56 min: Carrasso saves his team again, this time blocking Ibe’s shot with his feet after a good header by Firmino set the winger running clear on goal.
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55 min: Allen suddenly got the funk! He shimmies past his man and then lets fly from 25 yards, forcing Carrasso to bat the ball away awkwardly.
54 min: Goal! Allen and Firmino have been making up for their disappointing first halves since the resumption and they combined to tee up another chance for Benteke, who slapped into the net from 12 yards. But the ref rules it out for reasons that are not clear: he seems to have decided that Benteke fouled the defender in the build-up.
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50 min: After several minutes of aimlessness from both sides, Liverpool piece together a lovely move. Allen plays his part, taking possession and slipping a pass through to Firmino, who pulls the ball back to Benteke. It’s a great chance for the striker, 15 yards out and in front of the goal .... but he leans back and launches it skywards!
47 min: Saivet attempts a shot from 40 yards and it doesn’t even make it as far as the box. Liverpool build from the back ...
46 min: The second half starts with the same personnel who started the first.
As for the home players, Moreno and Ibe have been decent. Allen’s been sketchy but the msot disappointing has been Firmino, who has barely featured.
Half-time: Liverpool 2-1 Bordeaux
There was a point in that half when the match seemed to be lurching towards dreariness. Even Mignolet started dozing and that, paradoxically, perked things up, as Bordeaux scored a fine goal and triggered a finer reply from Liverpool. Benteke needs a big game to impress his new boss and Klopp has got to be chuffed with the goal that has put the home team in front. Round about now, Mignolet is getting the rollicking of his life in the Liverpool dressing room, I’ll wager. Bet he’ll be out for the second half bang on time.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-1 Bordeaux (Benteke 45)
No blunders around that goal, that’s just stonking centreforward play from Benteke! Clyne raced down the right and hoiked in a good cross. Benteke took a touch to create space for a shot and then walloped it into the net from 18 yards!
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44 min: Fine play by Moreno down the left. He nutmegs Poko and bursts into the box. But, as too often tonight, his subsequent cross fails to beat the next defender.
42 min: Benteke tries to barge his way into the box but is repelled. Meanwhile, here is the truth, courtesy of Niall Mullen: “Daniel Sturridge is allowed to do whatever the hell he wants with his own body. Some players (Tommy Smith, say) play through injury with painkilling injections and end up with crippling osteoarthritis. Some players want their bodies to feel perfect (Ruud Van Nistelrooy say) before playing. Whatever the case it’s their bodies so their decision.”
40 min: Sané tries to make up for his blunder. He rises well to meet an in-swinging freekick but heads high over the bar. Mignolet is going to retrieve the ball. And maybe look up and contemplate the clouds while he’s at it, perhaps compose a gentle verse of poetry. This could take a while.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-1 Bordeaux (Milner pen, 37)
Carrasso saved a stoppage time penalty last weekend but he got nowhere near Milner’s well-struck spotkick, diving to his right as the ball went the other way into the bottom corner. The sides are level, each having committed incredible goofs!
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35 min: Liverpool are applying pressure now, in a helter-skelter kind of way. But Bordeaux have been buoyed by the goal and aren’t going to give up anything easily. Oh .... scrap that, they’re just given away a penalty! The ref rules that Yambaré tugged Benteke as the ball sailed way over the striker’s head! More dumbness!
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GOAL! Liverpool 0-1 Bordeaux (Saivet 32)
Brilliantly finished! Faced with a vast wall, Plasil rolled the ball a yard to his left and Saivet spanked it into the top corner! Mignolet gets the punishment he deserved for his inexplicable slackness. What a dumb goal to give away, even if Bordeaux seized their chance superbly.
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32 min: Oh, for goodness sake, Mignolet! The keeper has just conceded an indirect freekick about 16 yards out, right in front of goal, for holding on the ball for too long. He just stood there with the ball in his hands for about 20 seconds. GOod to see the ref punishing that. Can Bordeaux inflict further justice?
29 min: Most of Liverpool’s menace is coming down the left, through Moreno and Ibe. The latter has just galloped forwar 40 yards before slipping a pass into the path of Benteke, who slid it under the advancing keeper and into the net .... but the cheers are stopped by the realisation that the linesman’s flag was up, correctly.
27 min: Touré runs on to a breaking ball about 25 yards out and decides to have a shot. Well, why not? Because it’s Kolo Touré, some may say, and the ball will balloon way, way over. And so it did, as it happens.
25 min: Wonderful inviting cross from Ibe towards the back post. Benteke’s lurking with intent ... but not enough belief that he can get on the end of it, and the ball droops wide.
24 min: One French team who’ve already made it to the last 32 tonight are Saint Etienne, who drew 1-1 at Rosenborg. Lyon couldn’t resist tweeting the following: “Congratulations friends, when’s the parade down the Champs Elysée?”! Got to love a bit of inter-club joshing, even if Lyon’s would look much smarter if they hadn’t lost at home to Ghent last night.
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22 min: Nice take on the chest by Benteke as he runs on to a curling through-ball and then bashes off a decent shot on the run. It flashes into the sidenetting from 18 yards.
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20 min: Allen concedes a freekick with a dumb foul on Crivelli. It’s about three yards outside the area, a touch to the right. Mignolet demands a six-man wall, and Bordeaux stick two interlopers in it for mischief’s sake. Saivet runs up and ... donks the shot into the wall. All-round low quality there.
19 min: Liverpool’s early vim has abated for the moment and their play is becoming slow and ragged.
16 min: Bordeaux are gaining confidence and enjoying a bout of probing in the Liverpool half, with Liverpool scampering around after them.
14 min: It’s not just Bordeaux’s defence thats shaky: Liverpool have just presented their guests with a great chance through a pitiable mix-up. I think it was Allen who played Lovren into trouble, and Mignolet then rushed out of his box to mop up but headed the ball all over four yards. Touré had to throw himself in front of the subsequent shot to save his team-mates.
12 min: Allen, who has plenty to prove tonight, gets a bit carried away and lunges into a tackle on Plasil in midfield, creasing his fellow midfielder and conceding a freekick.
10 min: Moreno is getting plenty of the ball so far, all in dangerous areas as Liverpool dominate territorially. The Bordeaux defence looks shaky: there are goals in them their hills.
8 min: more mayhem in the Bordeaux bos as the visitors struggle to keep track of Liverpool’s raiders. Firmino took a long diagonal pass on his chest ... but Poko recovered sufficiently to interfere with his shot, and the keeper hurtled off the line to drop on the loose ball.
7 min: A corner by Moreno is headed back to him and the young Spaniard lofts a nice cross towards the back post .... where Benteke is penalised for pushing the defender.
5 min: Mignolet swings his leg at the loose ball, and his mighty hoof floats over the top of the visiting defence and into the path of Firmino, who goes for a spectacular half-volley from 16 yards but fails to connect properly, sending the ball bobbling wide of the target.
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3 min: Moreno charges down the left and wins a corner when his cross is deflected behind by Saivet. “The problem with The Sturridge Situation is that we can’t shake what Steven Gerrard said about having to cajole him to play,” writes David Horn. “I’ve no idea how serious his injury is - although Klopp saying he was relaxed at the hotel, and then had to leave for a scan, suggests it might be a bit of a stubbed toe/hurty foot - but when many players might play through little niggles, Sturridge seems to need something else. That’s what is frustrating.” I get that. It might be worth noting that Gerrard has just said in the BT studio that Sturridge “has worked his socks off to get back to action and will be desperately disappointed to miss out tonight.”
1 min: Off we pop. Liverpool kick off. Bordeaux attempt to inflict a dose of their own medicine by frantically pressing high up, but Lovren keeps cool and plays his way tidily out from the back.
Here come the teams. Liverpool are all in red, save for the white lettering of a bank across their chests. Bordeaux are in white with a marine blue chevron across their chest and a large banner in their arms: It features the French and British flag and two simple words: “Thank you”. That brings a standing ovation from Anfield.
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“Thank goodness cooler heads than Don Carter are running the club,” says a sympathetic Evan Jones. “Sturridge is a class act - two goals and three points v Aston Villa point to what he is able to do. I notice that Don was not calling for other injured players such as Ings and Henderson to be axed as well.”
Jurgen Klopp speaks: “Many people are talking [about home form] because there is a difference between home and away results. But always in life if you make the problem too big, you can’t solve it.”
On Sturridge: “I can’t say so much about this because we trained in the morning, went to the hotel and Daniel was relaxed. Then he had to leave. We have to wait for the scan results.”
Spurs have just booked their passage to the last 32 by winning 1-0 at Qarabag, Harry Kane’s netting the winner.
“I’m fed up with Sturridge!” storms Don Carter. “Does he even want to play for us?! We should sell him in January.” Not sure there’s any point blaming the player. As far as I understand it, some folks reckon these injuries are all part of god’s grand design.
Those of you who followed the match in France between these sides earlier in the tournament (1-1) may recall that Bordeaux’s attack tends to be orchestrated by Wahbi Khazri, with whom they must do without tonight because of suspension.
Whispers concerning Sturridge are that he complained of a sore foot earlier this evening and was sent to hospital for a scan.
In tonight’s other match in this group, Rubin won 2-0 at home to Sion. That brings the Russians back into qualification contention and increases the need for Liverpool to get their job done tonight so as to avoid a fraught trip to Sion for the last game.
Teams:
Klopp has evidently chosen to rotate a tad: Lallana, Can and Skrtel are on the bench, Coutinho is out – and so is Daniel Sturridge, who had to pull out with a foot problem, apparently. But it’s still a strong looking side. “It seems impossible and crazy … but we believe!” boom Bordeaux on their twitter thing. I’m assuming their talking about their chances of winning and not a central defensive partnership of Lovren and Touré. The two may be linked, mind you.
Liverpool: Mignolet, Clyne, Touré, Lovren, Moreno, Lucas, Allen, Milner, Ibe, Firmino, Benteke.
Subs: Bogdan, Lallana, Can, Origi, Skrtel, Brannagan, Randall
Bordeaux: Carrasso; Poko, Sané, Yambaré, Contento; Pasil, Chantôme, Saivet; Rolan, Crivelli, Jussie
Subs: Prior, Traoré, Diabaté , Maurice-Belay, Guilbert, Poundjé, Ounas
Ref: A Yefet (Israel)
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Preamble
Win and Liverpool will be safely into the last 32 of the Europa League. Bordeaux, meanwhile, will be out on their ears if victory eludes them, and history does not offer them much encouragement: they have never so much as scored in England. More recent form doesn’t offer much encouragement either: they are without several players through injury and have won only two of their last nine matches in all competitions and only a last minute penalty save by Cédric Carrasso enabled them to nick a draw with Rennes last weekend (Rennes, incidentally, have now missed eight of their last 10 penalties, which is a rate of bungling that almost makes you want opponents to kick them in the box).
Klopp mania is on the rise. Amazing what a bit of bold and clear thinking can do. Gone is the overcomplicated fumbling seen towards the end of Brendan Rodgers’ reign and instead we have simple and vibrant marauding that looks a lot of fun. Flaws remain, of course, but let’s go ahead and wonder whether Liverpool could actually win this tournament if they seal their passage tonight? They’re got to be in with a fair shout along with the likes of Dortmund, Napoli, Spurs, Lazio and likely Champions League drop-outs such as Skakhtar, Monchengladbach and Manchester United. On the other hand, it’s only a couple of weeks since Crystal Palace swaggered into Anfield and made the hosts look wan, so let’s steady on Have to admit, though, there’s a feeling of something on the rise around Liverpool and we don’t just mean Everton.
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