Thursday, July 29, 2010

Liverpool Defeated Rabotnicki 2-0 in Europa League 2010-11

A second string Liverpool side clinched an easy 2-0 victory over Macedonian club Rabotnicki on Thursday in the first leg of the third qualifying round of UEFA Europa League 2010-11. French striker David Ngog scored both the goals for the Reds.

There was no shortage of fuss around this match which many considered would be a tight one and Liverpool, missing the key players like Steven Gerrard, Joe Cole, Jamie Carragher, Fernando Torres and some others, would face a tough challenge from the home side.

However, the reality was that Liverpool keeper Cavalieri faced no threat from Rabotnicki. Visitors opened scoring in the 17th minute when Ngog capitalized on a defensive howler of the opponent following a free-kick by captain Lucas.

Ngog got the second in the 59th minute when he was set up by a collective effort of Stephen Kelly and Amoo down the right wing. The winning margin could have been bigger, had the Liverpool players not squandered off a number of scoring opportunities.

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson is pretty much delighted to have won his first competitive match in charge and has got the confidence to declare that there is no need of ‘major overhaul’ at the club right now.

It is true that Liverpool players were impressive and the fringe players showed their character. So, it is definitely good news for the club. However, one can not deny that performance against a club of Rabotnicki’s stature can not be the benchmark as there are much tougher matches involving stronger opponents coming up next.

Liverpool will face Rabotnicki at home on 5 August in the second leg of the match and it seems Hodgson would feature a similar line up in the return leg too, resting his star players.

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