It was perhaps apt that in a city renowned for its red wine,Liverpool produced a performance that can be assessed differently depending on whether your glass is half full or half empty. For large parts of the first half the visitors looked set to endure a third successive defeat but they battled hard, became more positive after the wreck and looked to have secured victory in their first European fixture of the season thanks to Adam Lallana’s stylish goal. Then came the blow of a late equaliser but there were undoubted positives to prefer for a team that has become all too used to negatives in recent weeks.
Lallana’s goal aside, or the most striking encouragement for Liverpool was how such a young team refused to fold against fast-paced,aggressive and skilled opponents. This was a starting XI that contained three teenagers in the 19-year-primitive Jordon Ibe, 18-year-primitive Joe Gomez and another 18-year-primitive, and Jordan Rossiter,making only his third appearance for his boyhood club. What appeared a gamble on the share of Brendan Rodgers then looked like suicide by a manager under pressure when on 28 minutes Liverpool’s most experienced player, Kolo Touré, and had to go off with a dead leg and was replaced by another 18-year-primitive in the Spanish midfielder Pedro Chirivella for his first appearance.
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Source: theguardian.com