Late leveller leaves Liverpool with work to do

Elsad Zverotic's stunning late equaliser left Liverpool in a precarious position in Europa League Group A last night. A win would have seen the Reds' progress to the knockout stages of the competition with a game to spare, but the home side failed to hold on to the 2-1 lead they secured heading into the closing stages of the contest, and therefore the Merseysiders will travel to Turin to face Udinese in just under two weeks time knowing they must earn at least a point to stand any chance of progressing past the group stages.

Rodgers selected a weaker than expected starting line-up, as Gerrard, Suarez, Sterling and Allen were all left on the bench. Reina made his 81st European appearance, a record for goalkeepers at the club, while Joe Cole was afforded a rare start and Shelvey began up front as a lone striker. 

Young Boys began brightly, threatening only 10 seconds after kick-off. Thankfully, though, their break forward culminated in Zarate's overhead kick flying into the Kop, rather than into the net. Reina was then forced to block a shot, as the hosts struggled to get going during the opening exchanges. They came back into the contest midway through the first period, thanks in large part to the work of the promising Jonjo Shelvey.

First, he sent a decent pass through to Cole, who dragged wide from an angle. Then, after Henderson's free kick had been dealt with by goalkeeper Wolfli, Shelvey delightfully flicked the ball through to Henderson in a manner reminiscent of Luis Suarez. Unfortunately Henderson was nowhere near as clinical as the Uruguyuan, as his shot lacked conviction and was saved by the keeper.

Nonetheless, the opener came soon after the half hour mark, as Cole and Suso played a neat one-two before the former crossed for Shelvey to simply head home from close range.

Shelvey stoops to open the scoring

It was an impressive move from the Reds and Shelvey's fourth goal in the competition this season, giving him an enviable average of a goal every 70 minutes in the Europa League.Suso and Cole almost doubled our lead soon after, the former firing wide from distance and the latter seeing his shot ricochet off Skrtel before it was cleared off the line. 

The influential Shelvey and Cole combined to set up Suso moments before the break, but unfortunately he unwisely elected to shoot early and thus disappointingly missed the target when he should have been more clinical in front of goal. 

As usual this season, Liverpool were made to pay for their profligacy as, after Farnerud and Zverotic sent a warning strikes narrowly over the crossbar, Bobadilla excellently smashed a half volley past Reina from an acute angle. Perhaps most frustratingly, literally seconds earlier Cole had wasted a good chance at the other end to make it 2-0. 

It was Cole, though, who responded for the Reds and put the home side back in front twenty minutes before the final whistle. The heavily criticised Londoner intelligently found space in the penalty area and was found by Gerrard after the skipper had swapped passes with Suarez. Cole confidently converted from six yards out.

Back on form? Cole certainly performed better against Young Boys

His goal, assist and overall performance were certainly encouraging last night, although it'll take several more of these performances to convince Kopites that he has the ability to return to the Reds' first team on a regular basis. The former Chelsea man may just have earned himself a place on the bench versus Swansea on Sunday though.

At this point, Liverpool were proceeding through to the knockout stages. However, there was always that nagging feeling that the pattern of the season would repeat itself and the Reds would yet again throw away a victory they arguably deserved. Lo and behold, Young Boys equalised two minutes from time. After Reina claimed a rising strike from range by Zverotic, he failed to replicate the feat soon after as the 26-year old Montenegrin blasted a powerful effort through the Spanish stopper's hands and into the back of the Anfield Road end net.

Gutted- Zverotic's strike stunned the majority of Anfield into silence

It was a body blow for the deflated Reds. They had hoped to qualify with a game to spare in order to rest the big guns at the start of December ahead of a gruelling holiday schedule. Now, Rodgers will have to pick a virtually full strength starting line-up in the final group game versus Udinese if Liverpool are to progress and remain in Europe.

More importantly, Liverpool must prevent this pattern of performing well but failing to claim victory from perpetuating itself. That's arguably the toughest task facing boss Brendan Rodgers.

YNWA