Suarez Goal Secures Liverpool Progress

Suarez pays tribute to an injured Lucas after scoring...
Image: sportpulse.net
Liverpool secured their progress to the group stages of the Europa League last night after a 1-1 draw with Hearts. The Reds were supposed to go through with ease but a rather dire majority of the game was only livened up when Hearts found a goal late on, luckily for Liverpool Luis Suarez managed to find a return.

Rodgers made quite a few changes to his side and true to his word he played Stewart Downing in a left back role, explaining to the player and the press recently that if he wanted to stay here he would need to fight for his place and think about trying out that position. Adam Morgan also started for the Reds to the excitement of many fans.

The first half for Liverpool despite being in the lively Anfield was very similar to the one at Tynecastle. Hearts this time though were less effective themselves but were dealing pretty well with the Liverpool attacks.

Luis Suarez for had a few chances to nick the lead in the first half but he was taking a few too many touches for me, sometimes and it's clear he doesn't mean it, he'll try to be too clever and against a side like Hearts why not I suppose but it bloody frustrates me sometimes. He was constantly creating problems for the Hearts back four though.

Adam Morgan was very unlucky in the first half after he put the ball in the back of the net, unfortunately the ball had gone out of play before it was crossed in to him. There were some promising signs from the youngster last night though.

Another Liverpool player having a good game was Jonjo Shelvey. He was superbly calm and played some brilliant balls throughout the game, he really began to come into his own in the second half though.

Raheem Sterling entered the fray on the hour mark replacing Adam Morgan. The Anfield faithful applauded both as the change was made.

Hearts found their goal very late on and it wasn't a pretty sight for Reds fans. A fumble from Pepe Reina after what should have been an easy save for a man as experienced as himself allowed Templeton to score for the away side. To be fair to Templeton, he was one of the more impressive players in both legs and perhaps deserved a goal but not like that. Reina was visibly gutted and I just have no idea how he managed that. Thankfully though Suarez made sure we wouldn't have to dwell on it.

Luis Suarez 3 minutes later found himself applying the pressure once again in the box and in what seems to be his favourite challenge he scored from another tight angle to secure Liverpool's progression. The keeper perhaps should have done better at his near post but there we go.

A boring performance but aren't they always in the early stages of the Europa League? The main thing is Liverpool are through. I'd like to say thank you to the Hearts fans after hearing on Twitter that several of them placed scarves and flowers at the Hillsborough memorial on their visit, pure class.

Liverpool will now have to face Udinese, Young Boys and Anzhi after the draw was made in Monaco this afternoon. I personally think that's a pretty good group, the only thing that concerns me really is the travelling to Russia and from what I know about Anzhi the area isn't the most pleasant but hey ho.

Next up for Liverpool is Arsenal at the weekend but will we have any new faces signed by then? I hope you're all enjoying deadline day!