A return to Turkey and the scene of arguably Liverpool’s most famous European win wouldn’t prove to be two times lucky as the Reds crashed out of the Europa League at the hands of Besiktas.
Failing to capitalize on a dominant first half that saw Raheem Sterling’s powerful shot parried away by home ‘keeper Cenk Gonen, the Anfield outfit couldn’t keep up the pressure following the interval as Ataturk Stadium roared on Slaven Bilic’s men. As time ticked down, it looked like the visitors would be relying solely on Mario Balotelli’s penalty in the first leg to see them through to the next round only to have Tolgay Arslan punish them with a spectacular effort from the edge of the box to send this one into extra time.
With a number of players missing through injury, this was always going to be a big ask; in my match preview I said the job was less than half done, but it didn’t look that way in the early going. Without the midfield tenacity of Jordan Henderson and the creative outlet that Philippe Coutinho provides, Emre Can was pushed into the center of the park to provide an extra bit of oomph, Dejan Lovren was handed his second start on the bounce and Mario Balotelli was handed his first place in the starting eleven since November — that looked like more than enough to push us on as Besiktas wilted against our counter-attack, but things weren’t about to be all that easy.
Sterling, Daniel Sturridge and Alberto Moreno all saw good chances go begging as the first half drew to a conclusion and it was that inability to do more than merely run the match that really hurt us in the end. The hosts, no doubt spurred on by the unwavering support from the stands, looked far more like themselves as the second period kicked off with Ba, Gokhan Tore and Olcay Sahan the chief architects of the resurgence. It would be through a substitute in the newly arrived Arslan that the host would find the breakthrough though when the young German latched onto Tore’s pass to level the aggregate score.
Ba would almost do away with the formality of extra time when he smacked a half-volley against the bar from only a few yards out, but the Reds would be forced to play out 120-minutes of football — in which they failed to produce almost anything of note outside the first half — before being forced into a shoot-out. Liverpool have fond memories of European spot-kicks, but into a sudden death situation, Lovren missed from 12-yards out to send the Merseyside giants crashing out of Europe.
Sure, it’s a second tier competition and the lack of continental commitments should help our domestic campaign, but I’m all about the silverware. After a profoundly disappointing run in the Champions League, wining the Europa League would have been the perfect answer to the question of whether or not we could still swing with the (second) best UEFA has to offer. While I don’t think this particular tie settles the arguement one way or the other, it does re-affirm the indesputable fact that there’s no easy matches. It’s a long, hard road back to the top…
–Steven
It’s that time of the year again — things are going to be quiet around here for a few weeks since I’m heading out on a much needed vacation. If you’re following me on Twitter, I’ll still be talking LFC and other assorted jibberish from time to time. In the meantime, hit up our friends over at the Liverpool Offside and Oh You Beauty to get your blogging fix.
