From Liverpool to Dublin via The Europa League

This European night though was slightly different; it was the night that Kenny returned to the Anfield dugout for his first European game as Liverpool's manager.  Would it be a good night for him - as I have said Liverpool never have a habit of going about things the easy way.

I will be honest when I say that the alarm bells began to ring with me, when I saw the team lineup for the game.  Jamie Carragher was on the bench and Ngog was up front.  We were still without Stevie - who going by his actions later in the evening had obviously been saved for the West Ham game at the weekend.  Suarez was cup tied and Andy Carroll is not yet fit enough - although I suspect a surprise may be sprung on Sunday.  Christian Poulsen was also in the team, which although he has been playing better Kenny, still ensure a scream of Oh No is made.  I have total trust in Kenny though, so put my doubts aside.

The match in Czechoslovakia last week had been a dire event and it was hoped that as this was the home leg, the situation on the pitch would improve and the elusive goal scored.  Of course the 12th man was there also which always helps.

The game had only been a few minutes old, when the referee made one of many mistakes. A Sparta player had handled the ball and although right under the nose of the referee, the call for a penalty was completely ignored.  Undeterred though the Liverpool team continued to try and break down the Sparta defence and for some time appeared to have the upper hand in the game. 

Of course being their away leg and worth the double goal advantage, they were not going to give in and although playing very badly did everything they could to give Liverpool a hard time.  Because of this I am pretty sure that if it had not been for young Martin Kelly and his fantastic work in the defence we may well have conceded several goals.  We also had to contend with a card happy referee, who seemed to be issuing cards here, there and everywhere, but we got to half time with the score still at nil-nil.

I suspect a lot of people spent the half time break praying that Kenny would make some substitutions.  Ngog was proving that yet again, he was hopeless in front of the goal and really needs to either go back into the reserves or sold on.  I will be devils advocate here and say that if young Raheem Stirling had been on the pitch, then we could quite possibly have been a good 3 goals up. There was also the engima called Christian Poulsen, who was having one hell of a dreadful game.  If he could make a mistake, he made it.  Kenny did make a change but this was to bring Jamie on for Martin Kelly, who unfortunately felt a small niggle in his leg.  Hopefully, though this will heal in time for the weekend, as we desperately need him.  Christian Poulsen was allowed to continue in the midst of the play for a good twenty minutes into the half before being replaced by Jay Spearing, who made an immediate impact by ensuring that balls were being sent through to Joe Cole and Ngog, although neither of them found the net.

Kenny's last substitution of the evening was hampered by several things happening on the pitch at the same time.  Kyriakos got into a tangle with Repka and came of worse.  He was not just bleeding, he was pouring, so had to leave the pitch for treatment.  Liverpool continued to play with ten men but several minutes later, Daniel Agger appeared to pull up, holding his leg.  Kenny did the sensible thing and waited.  Thankfully Kyriakos appeared with a massive red bandage around his head - now only he I believe could get away with carrying that off, so Kenny took the option of replacing Daniel with Martin Skrtel and with extra time beginning to appear over the horizon the match continued in much the same vein.

I don't know whether it had anything to do with Martin and Jay being on the pitch, but suddenly the team appeared to click and with several minutes remaining, Dirk who works extremely hard picked up a fairly low ball and hit the back of the net.  Liverpool was now in the lead and as soon as the linesman showed that a further three minutes had to be played, it was just a case of keeping their nerve as the clock counted down.