Full-time: Sion 0-0 Liverpool
Job done. Liverpool are through as group winners, Sion go through as runners-up and they celebrate their achievement with justifiable glee. Now let us never speak of this match again. Thanks everyone, and goodbye. Oh go on then, let’s have a farewell limerick from Michael Cosgrove:
The Swiss are not well-known for warring
And footie-wise they’re pretty boring
But they held the Reds
Fair enough, all is said
Except that I spent the whole match snoring
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90 min: There will be at least three more minutes. The fourth official’s indication is greeted by loud boos in the MBM bunker.
89 min: Liverpool sub: having realised that Firmino was still on the pitch, Klopp takes action and hauls off the Brazilian, replacing him with Brannigan.
88 min: Well, whaddya know, Firmino’s still on the pitch! He’s just made his presence felt by clanking into into Carlitos and conceding a freekick wide on the left.
84 min: Smith - a definite plus point for Liverpool tonight, going forward at least - rollicks down the left and sends in a lovely cross. Origi launches himself at it and gets a touch, but not quite firm enough to direct the ball past the keeper from seven yards.
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82 min: Clyne booked for clunking into a Sion player from behind. No argument there.
81 min: Pass, pass, miscue, fall. And repeat. Now you’ve got the ryythm of this game. Which is to say, it’s time for another limerick. Take it away, Andrew Kenfield.
The middling footballers of Sion
Do disservice to their namesake mountain,
With no hope that the Lord
Would appear to us, bored,
I’ll make do with a shoulder to cry on.
78 min: Here’s another limerick, this time from Tom Parr. Rest assured you are not missing anything on the pitch.
FC Sion is found in a land
Where life is incredibly bland
Nothing catches the eye
But rather makes you ask why
You decided on snow over sand.
77 min: Bordeaux and Rubin are drawing 2-2. Rubin can only get through if they win in France and Liverpool win here. A’int gonna happen.
76 min: Liverpool sub: Henderson is withdrawn after a useful work-out. The Liverpool captain started brightly and remain dutiful enough throughout a test of limited difficulty. Rossiter comes on in his place. And now time for another limerick, this one courtesy of Robert Critchley. Unfortunately I’ve had to refrain from publishing the last line ...
All the swiss mountains are nice
They are covered with snow and with ice
But that doesn’t matter
As they produced Blatter ....
74 min: Herman Geiger pioneered the landing of airplanes on glaciers. He was from Sion. Just thought I’d mention that lest you start thinking that things are always this boring there.
73 min: Sion sub: Assifuah off, Mujangi Bia on. Can the former Wolves and Watford man inject life into this?
70 min: Action! A clipped pass from Can found its way to Origi, who was suddenly face-to-face with Vanins, who had rushed off his line to confront the striker near the corner of the box. Origi tries to take the ball around him but the keeper does well to dive and palm the ball away.
67 min: Coutinho almost slips on the band of ice-covered grass running along the left-hand side of the pitch. He manages to stay on his feet but, being off-balance, he miscues his pass, giving the ball back to Sion, who, it has to be said, have not looked good enough to do much with it tonight.
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64 min: Liverpool fans may be interested to know that Fenerbahce are leading against Celtic thanks to a goal by Lazar Markovic. It’ll be interesting to see what Klopp does with him when he returns from his gap year in Turkey. You might also want to find footage of the goal and try to figure out what Craig Gordon was doing in the Celtic goal...
62 min: Sion have cranked up the tempo a little on the pitch and they’re rewarded with a corner after Assifuah’s 20-yard shot skids off Lovren and flops wide. Meanwhile, here’s a dandy Swiss Limerick from Joshua Reynolds.
There once was a man named Shaqiri
Whose antics made Inter feel weary
They thought he would bomb
But he played with aplomb
And today the Potters feel cheery.
60 min: Liverpool sub: Milner off, Coutinho on. Hats off to Klopp, who has clearly not lost sight of the fact that part of his mission is to spread joy. He could settle for a 0-0 but instead he’s thrusting on Coutinho, presumably to search for a winner. Let’s hope that boldness doesn’t backfire and Coutinho avoids injury on this rink of a pitch.
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58 min: It would be a potentially career-ending violation of the rules but, in the spirit of the game, I’d like to see the referee send a couple of players off, award a penalty or two and perhaps even deflect a few passes into the path of attackers. He’d be doing Uefa a favour. Someone needs to liven things up here.
55 min: Freekick to Sion in a dangerous cross position on the left. Carlitos is the man charged with delivering it. He takes a short rehearsed one to Ziegler, who had snuck in the Liverpool box unnoticed. He bangs a ross towards the penalty spot, but Liverpool are well staffed there and clear without bother.
52 min: Kouassi booked for sliding in rashly on Lallana, who escapes unhurt. Meanwhile, people are playing cards and drinking hooch in the stands: at least I assume they are, for there appears to be no other reason for the sounds of levity.
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50 min: Pa Modou makes good ground down the left, flying past Clyne. But Lovren cuts out his cross before any real danger developed.
48 min: Origi wins a loose ball in the Sion box and flips it across the face of goal. Milner tries to improvise a shot with his thigh, sending it straight into the keeper’s arms. A resonable effort from the Englander, but if he had let the ball run, it would have travelled across to Firmino, who was unmarked at the back post. But you can’t blame Milner and the defenders for forgetting Firmino was on the pitch: the Brazilian’s done nothing so far.
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46 min: We’re back, and to make it all worthwhile, here’s a limerick from Marie Meyer:
There once was a people called “Swiss”
Whose country was said to be bliss
But football Helvetic
Is nigh apathetic
Give all their matches a miss.
Half-time: Sion 0-0 Liverpool
There can be no dressing this one up: it’s a naked bore. And both teams look like they’ll be satisfied if it continues this way. Anyone know any good limericks about Switzerland?
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41 min: Milner drives down the left and pulls the ball back from the byline, but Origi can’t get to it amid a crowd of defenders.
38 min: Ooops! Smith jumps into the back of Carlitosin a rather clumsy attempt to win a high ball. Sion players converge on the referee to demand the harshest retribution possible, but the Greek official keeps a fair sense of perspective and just wags his finger and the youngsters and warns him to cool his engine a tad. Meanwhile, the cameraman pans to one of the other officials: four of them are men, one is a blonde woman .... so can you guess on which one the camera lingered?
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36 min: An excellent tackle by Carlitos puts an end to another promising burst down the left by Smith.
34 min: Assifuah races past Lovren but then catches Can on the ankle when the German intervenes. That’s a booking for the Sion player and a pain to Ca, who limps off the pitch for some magic spray and water.
33 min: In this group’s other match, Rubin are leading against Bordeaux. If that scoreline stays the same, then Sion must take at least a point here or be eliminated.
31 min: Lallana sends a 20-yard shot skyward. Either there was a bobble or he was indulging in some personal challenge. New pitch please!
29 min: Lallana nicks the ball in opposing territory and slips a pass through to Origi. The young Belgian sidesteps one defender but fails to keep control of the ball, allowing another defender to charge across and clear.
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28 min: Another hefty touch, this time by Fernandes, closes an opening that Sion had wrought, allowing Smith to smother the danger.
25 min: Sion corner as Liverpool remain far too passive. Lallana heads the corner clear at the near post. Ziegler retrieves it and tries to welly one past Mignolet from 30 yards - their homework seems to have led to the conclusion that Liverpool’s keeper is dodgy. But the evidence so far suggests that Sion’s shooting is even dodgier. New balls please!
22 min: Liverpool’s pressing has abated, at least they are certainly not going at it full gun. Rather, they are generally allowing Sion to knock the ball about until the Swiss get deep into the Liverpool half. They could have been punished just how for allowing Fernandes to carry the ball within 25 yards of goal, but the midfielder mangled the shot and the ball trickled sadly wide.
19 min: After a period of indifference, Liverpool find enough motivation to venture forward again. Lallana makes a dash into the box and calls for a pass but Origi has another plan: but is cross-shot from 20 yards flies fails to find the target.
17 min: Sion enjoying a bit of possession. Carlitos jinks past Can and shows how highly he rates Mignolet by trying to beat him from 30 yards. A reasonable theory, but in practice his shot flew into the stands.
15 min: Touré tries to shepherd the ball out of play but the ball is one slacker sheep and won’t travel fast enough - so, under pressure from a forward, Touré has to concede a corner. Which is also wasted.
13 min: Smith has been a welcome inclusion so far. He’s full of enterprise down the left and delivered a couple of good crosses already. Milner has just invited him to charge forward again but this time the left-back’s cross is put behind for a corner, which is wasted.
10 min: Yikes! As Liverpool start to take control, Carlitos jumps into a tackle and upends Origi. Happily the player’s OK to continue.
7 min: Henderson has made a brisk start to life under Klopp. He’s been busy early doors here, getting around the pitch well and using the ball progressively when he gets it. Nothing magical, of course, but his manager must be liking what he’s seeing so far.
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4 min: Chance for Liverpool! They work the ball wide to Smith, who runs on to it in the left-hand side of the box and pings a fine cross toards the back post, where Origi arrives at speed. But it’s at an awkward height for the Belgian and he doesn’t manage to get his foot over the ball, instead jabbing it high and wide from close range.
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3 min: Liverpool scampering around eagerly in their now familiar way. It pays off as Sion cough up possession, but they’re quick to file back and prevent Liverpool doing much with it so far. Meanwhile, the 10,000 fans in this bijou ground are creating a pleasant buzz.
1 min: Liverpool kick off. And within 15 seconds they’ve lost the ball and allowed Assifuah to dash behind their defence to collect a lofted pass. Mignolet hurtles out of his box to try to intercept. The forward gets their first but Liverpool get lucky because his touch is sloppy and enables Mignolet to recover!
Clickety-clack! Here come the teams. Liverpool are in mean black, Sion all in red with a splash of white stars.
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So then, what chance the hosts making a whirlwind start at the Stade Tourbillion? If form is your informer, then not much: Sion have only won one of their last seven matches and none of their last four and they’re struggling in the Swiss league, lying sixth, 21 points below leaders Basel. On the other hand, they have some dinky players and showed at Anfield that they could be troublesome
Teams: Henderson returns! Smith starts!
Sion: Vaņins, Ziegler, Zverotic, Lacroix, Pa Modou, Kouassi, Fernandes, Salatic, Carlitos, Assifuah, Ruefli,
Subs: Fickentscher, Akolo, Sierro, Vanczák, Bia, Adão, Follonier
Liverpool: Mignolet; Clyne, Toure, Lovren, Smith; Henderson, Can, Milner; Lallana, Origi, Firmino
Subs: Bogdan, Randall, Skrtel, Rossiter, Brannagan, Coutinho, Benteke.
Independent arbiter: M Koukoulakis (Greece)
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Preamble:
Check out this collection of teams: Liverpool, Manchester United, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli, Sevilla, Porto, Schalke, Tottenham, Sparta Prague, Ajax, Galatasary, Lazio, Shakhtar Donetsk, Basel, Valencia and Saint Etienne. And after tonight we may be able to add the likes of Besiktas, Sporting Lisbon, Partizan Belgrade, Anderlecht and Marseille. The list is long, the point is clear: it will be really hard to win the Europa League this season and that, in turn, means it is well worth winning. There’s authentic glory to be had in this tournament. Qualification for next season’s Champions League is a bonus.
We already know that Liverpool are through to the next stage but tonight they can confirm that they will go there as group winners. A draw in Sion will suffice, and that result would also do for the hosts, sending them through at the expense of Rubin Kazan. So there is an obvious risk that the sides will play out a tedious draw but happily, there is actually an incentive not to do that, at least for Sion, who will leapfrog Liverpool if they beat them and then, as group winners, avoid other group winners in the next round as well as the four best cast-offs from the Champions League (United, Porto, Olympiakos and Leverkusen). Liverpool could not be drawn against United (or Spurs) until the last eight anyway because of country protection but topping the group would definitely spare them a last 32 duel with Porto, Olympiakos or Napoli, amongst others. Besides, Jurgen Klopp didn’t get where is today by playing for draws (strictly speaking he got where is today by petering out at Dortmund but listen, this preamble is all about the big picture). What’s more, Liverpool need to get the grubby taste of that Newcastle defeat out of their mouths.
All things considered, this could be a thrilling match in what is shaping up to be a thrilling tournament. Yes it could.
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