Toulouse FC 0 : 1 Liverpool
I was going to begin my match report with 'Phew - that was close', but in reality it wasn't close at all. Toulouse looked like a side lacking in confidence and without European experience.
For all the worries regarding the heat and the playing conditions, it was Liverpool who seemed better conditioned and more ready to face such a test. That test manifested itself more on the game than Toulouse ever did in a match that was notable for it lack of significant action.
The one breakthrough Liverpool did make was through the right boot of Andriy Voronin and how. Controlling a ball on his chest 50 yards from goal there seemed little on for the doorman. But as he turned the French defenders backed away and the ball sat up nicely 30-yards out allowing him a shot on goal. It was a case of 'once it left his boot...'
As the commentators on FiveLive said 'four keepers wouldn't have stopped that', never a truer word hath been spake.
There really is little else to speak of in terms of the match. Towards the end bookings became the plat du jour as players on both sides became tired and grumpy about playing in the heat (remember when we used to play for 5 hours in the heat, and then come home and play again? Ahem), but the game never felt like it was boiling over.
Credit to the referee who coped well with a game which could have been played in Venus, and we've decided to give the man of the match award to Javier Mascherano, who was basically faultless and showed the other players that you were allowed to run in the sun.
The only worry was the slightly abject performance of Peter the Great. He seemed to toil in the temperatures and was shown up by both Voronin and Torres. If he wants to play more matches, he's really got to put the money and the mouth together.
[pic: getty/ jamie mcdonald]
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