A win is a win no matter how you do it, but Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has called on his side to up their game after barely scraping past Bulgarian minnows PFC Ludogrets at Anfield last evening.
The Reds first Champions League match in five years came close to being spoiled when a late flurry of goals saw them come within moments of drawing with Georgi Dermendzhiev’s feisty side. Mario Balotelli’s first goal in the famous red shirt looked to have handed his side all three points, but the visitors pulled one back in the 90th minute to send their travelling fans into hysterics. It took a moment of madness from Eagles ‘keeper Milan Borjan to set up Gerrard to seal the points from the penalty spot, but 34-year old would rather not have to rely on last minute heroics in the future.
“We did OK but it wasn’t better than OK,” said the Reds captain after the match before conceding there’s a long road ahead for his young side. “There’s a lot to learn.”
Liverpool face Swiss side FC Basel in their next Champions League fixture on October 1st and they’ll be looking to avoid the kind of problems that they ran into against yesterday evening — namely, those in the final third. The Reds have lacked cohesion up top with the addition of a number of new faces and an injury to Daniel Sturridge throwing off the balance.
Despite their evident problems in front of net, the team never stopped working and their persistence paid off when Balotelli fired them ahead late in the second half. “You have to give Mario credit. It didn’t go his way for long periods but the sign of a good goalscorer is to keep going and get a chance” explained Gerrard. “If we win in Basel now it puts us in a good position but we must do better.”
