As soon as we failed to win - or even score - in Germany, this was always going to be tense and nervy. Do we ever win at home by more than a single goal margin? Of the 20 games we’ve played at Anfield, a dozen of them have ended in a result that would have saw us knocked out, so I’m just relieved we got through as frankly I had major doubts that we would.
I expected us to dominate the game but go out after a 1-1 draw, probably after conceding a late goal when nerves became frayed. That’s almost how it unfolded too, but thankfully that terrific last minute free-kick from their left back drifted an inch wide of the post. That’s how close we came to going out, but it’s ridiculous that it came to that. Over 180 minutes against one of the worst teams in the Bundesliga we had only a dubious penalty to show for it. That’s shite.
These are the games we used to win three or four nil without even breaking sweat. I don’t just mean in Europe either, we struggle to beat crap English sides at home too. It’s hard to explain why, as often the performances have been quite good. Even when we play well we just can’t seem to put anybody away though. All our big wins have come away from Anfield, which is why I was so critical of the players after last week’s game in Germany. That was our best chance of comfortably winning the tie, because home games are always on a knife edge.
Sturridge coming back was supposed to change that, and I’m sure it will soon enough. He’s not quite got into his stride yet, although I thought his performance in this game was good and had he put away the great chance he had just after half time we might have ran out very comfortable winners. As long as he stays fit he’ll be fine and we’ll be at least 30% more effective.
On that note I was happy to see Kloppo drag him off just after an hour to make sure he didn’t come to any harm. Sturridge looked pissed off, which I suppose is a good thing although I couldn’t help wondering if that was just for show after his “you don’t know me, I’m devastated when I can’ play” guff from the day before. Let’s hope the fucker delivers for us at Wembley on Sunday. He’s had £10m for doing absolutely fuck all since he signed that new contract, so it’s about time he gave a little back.
There were some encouraging signs with how he linked with Coutinho and Firmino though, especially in the first half when some of their interplay was brilliant. It didn’t result in any goals though (due to a combination of errant finishing and good goalkeeping), and the only one we did get was incredibly lucky.
I didn’t think it was a pen although obviously the ball did hit the lad’s hand. The ref was well within his rights to give it but if it were me I wouldn’t have done for two reasons. Firstly, he didn’t deny any of our players a chance at getting the ball, and secondly the only reason he handled it was because he had one of his team-mates climbing over him and impeded his attempt at heading it.
We’ll take any bit of good fortune that’s going though, as let’s face it this team needs it. They don’t seem capable of helping themselves half the time, so if a ref wants to give a helping hand then great. Milner showed a customary cool head to slot the penalty and it should have been a springboard for us to win comfortably. For a little while it looked like it might be, but when we failed to add to it by half time the signs were there that it could be an arse clenching second half, and it was.
We wasted some great chances but the most pivotal was when Hendo missed a sitter in front of the Kop. That was the big moment to put the game to bed and when he didn’t take it Augsburg must have really fancied their chances of nicking a late goal. They had a great chance to do it as well when they got in down the left and the ball was drilled across the box. They had runners coming onto it but the lad at the near post tried to control it instead of leaving it and we were able to clear.
It wasn’t their only dangerous moment, as earlier we had needed Mignolet to rush off his line and make a great tackle on the edge of the box to deny them. He played well actually, he wasn’t overworked but was there when we needed him.
He was nowhere near that free-kick right at the end though, conceded by Lucas again. No surprise there. He played well at centre back again but he almost gave a goal away in the first half with an underhit backpass, and had that free-kick been six inches to the left then a lot of fingers would be being pointed at him today. Thankfully it went wide and we live to fight another day.
I can’t see us going much further though in all honesty. Whereas domestically our main issue is inconsistency and we have shown in flashes that we can be as good as anyone, in Europe it’s a different matter entirely. There’s enough of a sample size now over the last two seasons to say that we’re just not very good at this European lark anymore. I don’t know why it is, but we’ve not had a single straightforward, convincing win over European opposition for two years now. You could put us up against a Latvian pub team and we’d make hard work of it.
Maybe we’ll be better against higher class opposition? That’s just about the only hope we have really. That or get drawn against United or Spurs, and none of us want that, do we?
Team: Mignolet; Clyne, Lucas, Sakho, Moreno; Can, Henderson; Milner, Firmino, Coutinho (Teixeira); Sturridge (Origi):
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