Reds ease into last 16 of the Europa League with game to spare
Liverpool 4 LASK 0, 30th November 2023.
LIVERPOOL 4 (Díaz 12, Gakpo 15, Salah 51 and Gakpo 90+2)
LASK 0
Last evening, a frozen crowd of 49,666 descended upon Liverpool’s very own coliseum to be warmed by a cakewalk into the last 16 of the Europa League with a game to spare and on a night of positivity wherever you looked around the bitingly cold fields of Anfield Road. LASK arrived with nothing to lose and with only a win on their minds to keep alive their faint hopes of progression in this, Europe’s Thursday night footballing bonanza, and their fans continued a tradition for this European season of bringing such an abundance of colour, noise and spectacle to proceedings off the pitch whilst their heroes tried gainfully to repel a constantly rolling red tidal wave of attacking intent toward their goal. Roared on by their constantly singing merry band of supporters in the corner of the Anfield Road End stand, LASK were bright, adventurous and openly attacking, particularly through number 17 Moses Usor and substitute Ibrahim Mustapha who was sharp and posed defensive problems until a sad injury curtailed an otherwise bright cameo appearance from the subs bench.
But where LASK failed in the all important final third of the pitch with a lack of true goal scoring quality, the Reds were clinical, hungry for goals and the final score line of 4–0 could and should easily have been doubled. Liverpool weren’t wasteful. They were just denied by a dogged defensive rear guard effort as well as a string of saves from goalkeeper Tobias Lawal as the midfield in front of them were rather overrun and “played through” too easily by a Liverpool clearly intent on stamping their authority on the game, securing an early game winning advantage and with Toulouse’s draw with USG in the Group’s other game, a stroll into the last 16 of the Europa League with a game to spare.
My self-published book on Liverpool - Available via Amazon
The game and indeed result was never in doubt post an opening quarter of hour that ended with the Reds already holding a 2–0 lead. A header from Luis Díaz on 12 minutes was quickly followed by a tap-in from Cody Gakpo and whilst LASK continued in an attacking vein they were always far too open through the centre of their midfield to rapier like counter-attacks and quality progressive passes from the Reds midfield trio of Wataru Endō, Ryan Gravenberch and Harvey Elliott. Mo Salah’s early second half penalty was smashed gleefully into the corner of the visitor’s net and whilst Harvey Elliott and Darwin Núñez (twice in a matter of minutes) were denied by some eccentric yet vital saves from Tobias Lawal, Cody Gakpo’s injury time goal set the seal on another impressive outing from the 24 year old from Eindhoven.
Positivity abounds!
Two late game saves ensured a clean sheet for Caoimhin Kelleher at the start of a run of games for the 25 year old Irishman in place of the sadly injured Alisson Becker.
Kostas Tsimikas continues to wear an infectious smile as he deputises for the injured Andy Robertson.
Another start and defensive clean sheet for 20 year old Jarell Quansah.
The front attacking three of Luis Díaz, Cody Gakpo and Mo Salah all scored, with the Egyptian King now, in cricketing parlance, 199 not out, and a goal away from a double century of goals for the Reds.
And far from finally (there were substitute appearances for youngsters Luke Chambers and Conor Bradley too), step forward Wataru Endō. His performance of calm assurance and ball retention and rotation in the middle of the midfield will largely go unnoticed, but not by me. OK it was a rather easy night to impress against such opposition but the 30 year old Japanese international was brought into the squad at the last possible minute for the very footballing job he executed this evening.
He was magnificent, and is fast becoming a favourite player of mine in the Mighty Red shirt of Liverpool.
As I say, positivity abounds!
A final word from The Boss
“Two top results for us tonight in the group. It was clear, with the defeat at Toulouse we made it a bit more tricky, but because of our result and their result tonight we are now top of the table and that will not change. That’s good, very important in the busy, busy, busy schedule we have from now on. There were a lot of positives in the game, a lot of good football. The thing I didn’t like too much, and told the boys at half-time, was this game should have been put to bed already at half-time. A third, fourth, fifth goal… you cannot play better, you cannot set it up better, but you can finish it better obviously, but we didn’t”.
“So, what was it? Fifty-something minutes when we scored the third? That’s then very helpful as well. We made changes and lost a bit of rhythm. Then you see immediately, if you don’t play, you will not stay in charge of the game. If you lose balls in the wrong moment, LASK was there, had chances, Caoimhin worked for his clean sheet, which he desperately wanted, and that’s good. Scored a fourth goal in the last minute or whatever, so result top, performance really good and nobody got injured. All good”.
Thanks for reading. There’s a rather delightful 5 star rated book linked in the middle of this article and let’s be honest, it would look beautiful all wrapped up with a bow attached lurking beneath a loved one’s tree this Christmas. Go on, treat that Liverpool Red in the family this Christmas!
Is LASK an acronym or the name of a town I never heard of?