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Your support makes all the difference.Liverpool 0 Rapid Bucharest 0 Liverpool win 1-0 on agg.
Liverpool 0 Rapid Bucharest 0 Liverpool win 1-0 on agg.
29 September 2000
They were dreadfully patchy and at times not terribly convincing but, unlike Chelsea and Leicester, Liverpool are still in the Uefa Cup.
Ultimately, Nick Barmby's goal in Bucharest was enough to carry Liverpool through to the second round, which they deserved on the strength of last night's second-half performance, inspired by Christian Ziege, that lifted them just above the mediocre.
Although they lacked a cutting edge, Rapid were organised enough to give life to the old cliché that there are no easy games in Europe.
"It was supposed to be easy for us but I'm sure they said the same to Chelsea," said Robbie Fowler, who started and finished a game for Liverpool for the first time since September 1999 and was greeted by a banner that proclaimed "God is back".
He may be divine on Merseyside but, understandably, Fowler proved mortal last night: "A few good touches and a few bad ones. You expect that after what I've been through," was how he summed up his evening.
It took him 22 minutes to make a significant contribution with a neat, close-range header forcing Razvan Lucescu to palm the ball past the post.
Curiously, the nearest Fowler came to setting up a goal came towards the end as he left a long punt upfield to fall into Michael Owen's path who, having skipped past Lucescu, saw Florin Constantinovici clear off the line.
However, it was Owen who fashioned the clearest chance of the evening. He hesitated slightly, perhaps thinking he was offside after being put clean through by Patrik Berger but, in any case, he was foiled by a fine one-handed save.
The Liverpool manager, Gérard Houllier, confessed that he was apprehensive going into this game, even though the one-goal advantage in the Giulesti Stadium should have been sufficient. "I had a third of my side coming back from injury... and the Patrik Berger you saw tonight was not the Patrik you saw in the middle of last season. Sometimes in the first half we were too predictable.
"But things can always go wrong in these games. The reputation of this club was made by success in Europe. We have an inexperienced side now but these games will give our players the background they will need."
He did not want to play the experienced Ziege or Barmby, but the situation left him no alternative but to put on the pair shortly after half-time. The German gave Liverpool more purpose if not necessarily more goals, although Steven Gerrard and Dietmar Hamann twice sent shots clattering into the advertising hoardings in front of the Kop. Ziege himself came close, teeing up a volley that, sadly for Liverpool, was aimed straight at the keeper.
Rapid's coach, Anghel Iordanescu, who had managed Romania with some success through the last two World Cups, showed a grim realism by playing Daniel Pancu as the lone striker. At first Pancu suffered in isolation but, gradually, he began to receive decent support and might have scored as, after skipping through two challenges, he forced Sander Westerveld to spread himself dramatically to block. Had Constantin Schumacher timed his run just fractionally earlier to meet Constantin Maldarasanu's cross, the aggregate score would surely have been levelled.
This competition may be regarded as the Worthington Cup of Europe, but there was a real atmosphere at Anfield, which has not always been true of recent nights of European football when the most resonant stage the English game has to offer has sometimes been half empty.
Rapid rose to the occasion and their club motto: "Rapid is the night and day, Rapid is a state of mind, Rapid is a mode of life" would have drawn an appreciative nod from Bill Shankly, whose first and only European trophy was the Uefa Cup.
Liverpool (4-4-2): Westerveld; Heggem, Babbel, Hyypia, Traoré (Ziege 50); Gerrard, Hamann, Berger, Diomede (Barmby 59); Fowler, Owen. Substitutes not used: Henchoz, Carragher, Murphy, Meijer, Arphexhad (gk).
Rapid Bucharest (4-5-1): Lucescu; Chirita, Stanciu, Constantinovici, Iencsi; Maldarasanu, Schumacher (Radu 65), Iftodi (Bundea 55), Isaila, Frasineanu; Pancu (Constantin 75). Substitutes not used: Buta, Balan, Mutica, Radulescu.
Referee: M Liba (Czech Republic).
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