And that’s all from me. It’s been, well, significantly less enjoyable than it should have been, truth be told. If you still want more, here’s Andy Hunter’s match report. Bye!
It’s still 0-0 between 10-man Rubin Kazan and Bordeaux, which would put Liverpool ahead of Bordeaux on goals scored, but behind Sion, who sit two points clear having actually won a match.
And boos ring out at the final whistle. To say it’s been lacklustre would be to understate quite how little lustre there has been.
Final score: Liverpool 1-1 Sion
90+4 mins: Nope.
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90+2 mins: One minute to play. Liverpool have the ball. Could they?
90+1 mins: In the first half there were two goals, lots of fun and three seconds of stoppage time. In the second half there have been no goals, but there will be at least three minutes of stoppage time. Go figure.
90 mins: Another Sion sub: Konaté comes off, and Mujangi Bia replaces him.
88 mins: Coutinho is played in down the left and runs into the area, a beautiful bit of ball-carrying, but then he sidefoots a shot into the legs of Lacroix.
86 mins: Assifuah comes off, having been a bit limpy since that Moreno foul. Birama Ndoye comes on.
84 mins: Liverpool should really have scored at least one more goal, and have created enough chances to have won with something to spare. It would still have been a pretty underwhelming performance, but a victory might help it whelm just a little.
81 mins: Moreno also finds his way into the referee’s book, after taking out Assifuah.
78 mins: Another foul on Can, another Coutinho free-kick, from the right this time, and it picks out Can’s bonce! He heads wide, though.
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76 mins: Kouassi thunders into Coutinho on the left, and rightly gets a yellow card for it. Liverpool make their third substitution, replacing Touré with Sakho.
74 mins: Another impossible miss! Moreno crosses from the left and Lallana’s in acres of space in the middle. He controls brilliantly, turns and spears the ball straight at the keeper, who appears to be some kind of supernatural ball-magnet.
72 mins: Can strides out of defence, goes past one man and is brought down by the next. Coutinho shoots from the free-kick, even though it’s quite a way out, and his effort is saved.
69 mins: Down the other end Coutinho slides in Origi again, who tries to slide the ball past Vanins but it just clips the keeper’s foot!
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68 mins: Great save! And Sion nearly scored there! A lovely ball finds Assifuah in the area, who spins nicely while his marker, Gomez, slips, and then shoots from eight yards – a wonderful chance, but Mignolet keeps it out!
64 mins: Inexcusable miss! Allen finds Origi’s run beyond the defence, and he leaves one defender on his backside by delaying his shot nicely (this may have been an accident), but then he blasts it straight at the keeper, when the other half of the goal was empty. Gah!
61 mins: And that’s the end of Ing’s evening. He’s played pretty well, I think.
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60 mins: Ings hits an overhead kick now! It’s not as good as Touré’s.
60 mins: First, though, Origi spins on the ball in midfield and sprints at the defence before hitting a shot that’s deflected wide. Nice play from the youngster, that.
59 mins: I’m sure that Rodgers would have liked to leave Coutinho on the bench while his bit-part players secured a straightforward victory. Instead, he’s about to come on.
57 mins: Liverpool pass the ball around a bit before booting it out of play (well, hitting a pass too long for Ibe) for no good reason.
55 mins: A vaguely acceptable Liverpool move ends with Moreno booting well high from 20 yards.
53 mins: Can slides through the back of Konaté, handing Sion a shooting chance. Carlitos and his expertly sculpted beard takes it, but it’s easy for Mignolet.
52 mins: Meanwhile, down the other end, Salatic shoots from about 50 yards, and misses by about 30 yards.
50 mins: Kolo Touré hits the bar with an overhead kick! Well, it clipped the top of the bar, anyway.
48 mins: Half-chance for Ings, out to the left of goal, but he shoots when he might have crossed and the keeper pushes it wide, and flaps away the corner for good measure.
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47 mins: Whether Clyne has been taken off to make sure he’s fit for Sunday, or because he wasn’t playing very well, is not certain. “I assume that the shirtless Sion fans in the photo left their chests bare so they can wear their newly-purchased Liverpool kits out of the club shop after the match?” writes Peter Oh.
47 mins: Moreno has slotted in at left wing-back, with Ibe on the right.
Peeeeeeeep!
46 mins: They’re off! Again!
Alberto Moreno is standing by the touchline as the players return after half-time. Nathaniel Clyne’s race is run.
Boo to groups D, E and F in the Europa League, where in six games precisely one goal has so far been scored.
It’s not been irredeemable, but it certainly hasn’t been a very impressive first half from Liverpool. Also in this group: Rubin Kazan 0-0 Bordeaux.
Half time: Liverpool 1-1 Sion
45+1 mins: Konaté turns and shoot high from an acute angle, and with stoppage time all of two seconds old, the referee decides he’s had enough.
45 mins: The corner goes to Gomez, beyond the far post, who sends a weak header onto the roof of the net.
44 mins: Bad miss! Lallana passes to Ings, Ings passes to Origi, and the Belgian is 18 yards out with a wonderful chance! But he doesn’t take it, delaying long enough for a defender to dive in and block the shot.
42 mins: A nice pass from Allen to Ibe, who cuts in from the right, keeps cutting in, cuts in a little bit more and then passes to Clyne, bursting into the box, whose first touch sends the ball straight to Ziegler, who boots clear.
39 mins: Michael Owen on BT Sport is rightly furious as a Liverpool free-kick from way out is delayed while the referee paints pretty lines on the pitch, even though there’s a no-man wall and nobody’s shooting. Rossiter’s ball does set up Can at the back stick, though, but the keeper grasps his header.
37 mins: This is as scrappy as a scrap of scrap. Finally Liverpool keep the ball for more than about two seconds, Ibe runs down the left, looks up, and calmly sidefoots the ball to a defender. Sigh.
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33 mins: And another chance for Sion! They poke a free-kick from deep into the area, and have two players running onto it all by themselves. They helpfully distract each other, and Lacroix heads wide.
32 mins: Chance! Kind of! A lovely ball in from Lallana on the left, who spots Ings running clear of his marker. But the ball bounces awkwardly, and he doesn’t so much as touch it as it fizzes by.
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30 mins: Liverpool attack down the right again, this time with Can, and he produces a fine cross, but the defence deals with it. Quite what a centre-back was doing rampaging down the right I’m not sure, but it was worth the effort.
28 mins: Sion’s supporters seem an excitable bunch. And this was pre-match!
25 mins: I didn’t really mean to insinuate that there’s nothing to do in Liverpool, just that the commentator’s list of things to do in the city seemed awkwardly brief. Honest.
@Simon_Burnton Albert Dock, Three Graces, Liverpool/Maritime/Natural History museums. Liverpool One. We don't all live in Landan mate.
— Jimmy Riddler (@WightAndWrong) October 1, 2015
24 mins: “Some of us had heard of FC Sion before the draw,” insists Jez Smith, “in my case because they’re much hated by the fans of my local team in Geneva, Servette. It might be of passing interest to someone, somewhere, to know that the Swiss Super and Challenge Leagues (ie the top 2 divisions) highlights are free-to-view here and that all of Sion’s highlights going back to July 2013 can be viewed here.” That may, indeed, be of interest, cheers.
22 mins: Chance for Sion! they win a corner on the right, which is whipped into the area where it hits Lacroix on the chest and bounces to Mignolet. Could’ve gone anywhere, that.
19 mins: Clyne should be immediately be removed from the field and given a proper whoopin for that pass. But then he pops up at the other end, gets into the box and passes inside for Ings, who (good news) taps in, but (bad news) was offside.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-1 Sion (Assifuah, 18 mins)
Clyne gives the ball away with a criminal pass into midfield, and it’s played straight over the defence to Assifuah, who just about controls it and then prods the ball under Mignolet!
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16 mins: Chance for Liverpool! Allen plays a one-two with Lallana then passes through to Ings, whose shot loops wide off the onrushing keeper.
15 mins: The commentator informs us that Sion’s fans “have been enjoying their trip to Liverpool, visiting the Beatles museum and other such attractions”. Which other attractions? Name them!
14 mins: It’s a bit of a mess, to be frank, but then Origi is played through on the right, cuts inside and his shot across goal is deflected wide. Ibe picks it up, and shoots low and hard towards the near post, but it’s saved.
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11 mins: The early goal hasn’t prefaced a spell of remorseless home domination. Instead, Sion hog the ball for a while, until Assifuah falls over again – this time with no one anywhere near him. He’s fine, but Liverpool have a throw-in.
11 mins: Liverpool’s record in their last 24 European matches: W8 D8 L8. Sadly the symmetry will be broken tonight.
9 mins: Now Sion attack down the right, with Assifuah, who attracts a couple of defenders and then falls over, hoping for a free-kick that never comes.
8 mins: Origi heads down the right again, but this time his cross hits only a defender’s leg.
5 mins: Turns out Lallana was offside when he flicked the ball on to Origi, so Sion can feel themselves a little hard done by.
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GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Sion (Lallana, 4 mins)
Liverpool make the breakthrough! Origi runs onto Lallana’s headed flick and down ye olde inside right channel, is tripped, falls down, gets up, runs to the byline and pulls back for Lallana to finish with ease!
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3 mins: Lallana takes it, but the goalkeeper punches unconvincingly. It’s worked back to Lallana, who crosses again, and this time the goalkeeper catches convincingly.
2 mins: Ibe runs down the left, gets to the byline, turns around and runs back the other way. Then he’s fouled. Free-kick, from a decent position on the wing.
And they're off!
1 min: Peeeeeeep! The referee’s whistle is parped, and Sion get the ball rolling.
Other English links in the Sion line-up: former Tottenham ace Reto Ziegler, former Fulham star Elsad Zverotić, and former Watford loan flop Geoffrey Mujangi Bia.
The players are in the tunnel, Liverpool all in red and Sion all in yellow, though their shirts also boast a very fetching blue starburst.
Brendan Rodgers speaks to BT Sport about his Sion and his seven changes (a sequel to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, perhaps?):
It’s an opportunity for them. Home games are very important. The onus is on us to take the game to them and pick up the win, but it’s also an opportunity for the players who haven’t been playing in the league. I trust the squad, and this is a great experience for them.
Sion won their first game, which tells you they’re a good opponent. They’re obviously delighted and happy to be in Europe. For any player, no matter what level, coming to Anfield is a special occasion and they will always raise their game.
“I don’t have much to contribute to Liverpool Reserves vs Some Swiss Team No One Had Really Heard Of Until The Groups Were Drawn, but wanted to say great spot with that short film,” writes Drew Gough. “Is it a metaphor for tonight’s game, in which *CONTAINS SPOILERS* two relative strangers struggle to express themselves and ultimately cancel each other out, proving only the futility of modern life? Or will tonight’s game simply be a nice little story about a pile of sand and a pile of snow?” Neither, in all likelihood, but I’ll certainly keep my eyes peeled for any sudden and unexpected snowfall.
The big question: if Danny Ings is wearing his suit, what’s in his suit-carrier?
The teams!
Here’s Uefa’s official team sheet. If you can’t see it, it says:
Liverpool: Mignolet; Clyne, Can, Touré, Gomez; Allen, Rossiter; Ibe, Lallana, Ings; Origi. Subs from: Bogdan, Coutinho, Sakho, Moreno, Brannagan, Randall, Chirivella.
Sion: Vanins, Ziegler, Lacroiz, Kouassi, Fernandes, Salatic, Carlitos, Konaté, Modou, Assifuah, Zverotic. Subs from: Fickentscher, Zeman, Vanczak, Ruefli, Ndoye, Mujangi Bia, Follonier.
Referee: S Vincic (Slovenia).
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Hello world!
Welcome to the latest European adventures of Liverpool’s kind-of-reserves. “Our approach to this game is how it’s been in the competition,” Brendan Rodgers explained, when asked about his likely line-up. “This is an opportunity for young players and an opportunity for players on the fringe of the team that aren’t getting so many games. But it’s also going to require players that have been playing.”
To say that Liverpool have half an eye on Sunday’s Merseyside derby would be to ignore the other eye and a bit that’s also on the derby. Will a fraction of an eye be enough for them to spot whatever Sion have got to throw at them?
Well, quite possible. Sion lost 1-0 at home to Vaduz on Sunday, a performance their chairman described as “awful, awful, awful”. “Every adjective is applicable, so long as they are negative,” sniffed Christian Constantin. “It was pathetic. I never thought that we could fall so low. The players should be ashamed of being paid. Didier asked me to calm down, not to be impatient, but my patience has limits.”
Crikey. Didier, incidentally, is the Sion manager Didier Tholot, a man who has experienced success in European competition – as a striker he played for Bordeaux in the 1996 Uefa Cup final (he started both legs, with team-mates including Bixente Lizarazu and a certain Zinedine Zidane, but they lost 5-1 to Bayern Munich). He’s also experienced playing in England, as within two years of that final he was turning out on loan to Walsall, for whom he scored four goals in 14 league games.
“We’re playing a formidable opponent in a legendary stadium, but we’re not just here to sightsee,” said Tholot. “We want to foil Liverpool’s plans. Unfortunately, my team responds beautifully to these showpiece events. These games really galvanise my players. The hard thing is to take the same approach into the other games.” He says that he has prepared two gameplans, one for Liverpool’s first team and another for something like the side that played Bordeaux. “Liverpool always play in the same way, but there might be a little less quality on the pitch on Thursday night than usual – and we can profit from it.”
And that, unusually for someone based in Switzerland, is fighting talk. We’ll see how it plays out. In the meantime, and apropos nothing at all, here’s a short film:
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