Liverpool 3-0 FC Gomel (4-0 on Aggregate) – Match Review

Liverpool confirmed their place in the Europa League play-off qualifiers with a confident and dominant performance against FC Gomel in Anfield’s opening fixture under the leadership of Brendan Rodgers.

Goals from home debutant Fabio Borini, Captain Steven Gerrard and Glen Johnson sent the Belarusian side home without really getting a sniff of goal all night.

The biggest positive from the night for Liverpool fans will have been the appearance of Daniel Agger after several days of speculation linking the Danish defender with a move to Manchester City.

Agger, sporting his new “YNWA” tattoo across the fingers of his right hand, had a relatively simple night alongside center-back partner Martin Skrtel. Both brought the ball forward to good effect, essentially starting attacks from the back. The two wing-backs in Johnson and Jose Enrique had a great night, constantly bombing forward and getting themselves heavily involved in many attacks, culminating in Johnson’s beautiful 20 yard volley in the 71^st minute.

Lucas returned to the midfield for his first competitive start since November 2011. He anchored the more attack-minded Jonjo Shelvey and Steven Gerrard. Lucas cleaned up very well every time Gomel threatened to break forward, but overall he had a very comfortable night as Gomel rarely threatened. Shelvey played decently, nothing special but still a good performance. He sprayed passes around beautifully but at times his touch was off and he was very reckless in his challenges on two occasions – getting cautioned the second time round.

Gerrard had an explosive game, in the first half particularly. He showed his wonderful understanding with Luis Suarez and also looked to be on the same wavelength as Borini as the three wreaked havoc amongst the Gomel defense time and time again. Gerrard’s goal followed excellent work from the brilliant Suarez, and it was a simple finish. He was unlucky not to add to his tally with a shot that hit the base of the post in the second half.

Charlie Adam replaced Shelvey in the 76^th minute and immediately showed his passing quality, firing passes from the ground and on the volley perfectly at their targets within just a few minutes of coming on. He was once again caught out with his poor tackling ability as he was guilty of cynically chopping his opponent down on at least one occasion in the few minutes he was on the field. Jay Spearing came on for Lucas late in the game and did not really have enough time to play a part, especially with both teams accepting the score-line and the game fizzling down to a standstill.

The attack looked top notch and a vast improvement from the first leg result. The catalyst for this was the return of Suarez who had previously been on Olympics duty with Uruguay. He slotted in seamlessly into Rodgers 4-3-3 system in the central striker role and tormented the Gomel back-line from start to finish. He ran circles around the center-backs, creating chance after chance for both himself and his teammates.

It is no surprise that it was one of his winding runs which left a Gomel defender on the ground after being dazzled by the Uruguayan which led to the opening goal. Suarez’s eventual cross was only half-cleared and Borini volleyed the ball underneath the goalkeeper to open his Liverpool account on his home debut. The Italian celebrated with his trademark “knife between the teeth” act – something Liverpool fans will hope to get used to seeing this season.

Suarez continued his menacing form as he again ran through the Gomel defense and selflessly squared the ball to Gerrard instead of going for goal himself, with his Captain finishing off the easiest of tap-ins to make the score 2-0 just before half time. Suarez could and should have added to the score-line himself but was denied by the in-form Gomel goalkeeper several times.

Stewart Downing was the other part of the forward three, and had a relatively quiet game compared to the dynamics of Borini and Suarez. He crossed well and showed variety in his play to both go inside and outside his man, but he wasn’t quite on the same wavelength as the rest, and his thought process seemed a little bit slower which held him back in joining the party football the likes of Borini, Suarez and Gerrard were putting on show.

Suarez, Borini and Gerrard were all denied on numerous occasions by the linesman flag, although replays consistently showed that they had in fact timed their runs to perfection and were harshly and wrongly flagged offside. On another day with two different linesmen the score could have been a lot more depressing for Gomel.

With the score 2-0 at half time and 3-0 on aggregate, the game slowed down understandably in the second half. Johnson still managed to snatch his wonderful strike to seal a great day for Liverpool and the Reds closed the game out with ease.

The performance was reminiscent of European nights under Rafael Benitez, which can only bode well for Rodgers after the glowing success Benitez enjoyed in the Champions League during his six-year tenure.

Despite the performance only being against Belarusian minnows FC Gomel, if this is a sign of what this season will be like under Rodgers, it is extremely encouraging to say the least.