FC Porto 1, Liverpool 1

Sep 19 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL widely acknowledge the Premier League is their priority this season. So there was no need for Rafael Benitez’s men to try and underline that point last night.

The Anfield outfit emerged from some intense scrutiny in the Dragons’ den clutching a point from their opening Champions League group game in Oporto.

Yet this was a distinctly below-par display against the Portuguese champions that wasn’t helped by having to play the final half-hour with 10 men following the sending-off of a silly Jermaine Pennant.

Before then, Lucho Gonzalez’s early penalty had been equalised shortly afterwards by Dirk Kuyt’s third goal in this season’s competition.

By avoiding defeat in what is arguably their toughest game in Group A, Liverpool ended a testing evening in a stronger position to qualify for the knockout stages.

But that cannot hide a disappointing performance that, coupled with the weekend stalemate at Portsmouth, will have checked the optimism of supporters that has rocketed in recent weeks.

Fourteen shots to two in favour of Porto , 10 corners to one. The statistics told their own story.

Benitez had been criticised for resting some of his more established names at Fratton Park on Saturday. Yet the impact of their return to the starting line-up was negligible with Fernando Torres, making his first appearance in the Champions League proper, barely registering before his frustrations earned a late yellow card and even the talismanic Steven Gerrard subdued.

The energy and enthusiasm that has been the foundation of their best start to a season under the Spaniard was lacking for large periods as Porto maintained their proud record of having never lost at home to English opposition.

Credit must go to Porto and their coach Jesualdo Ferreira, whose direct tactics caused Liverpool havoc down the flanks early on where Pennant and the under-whelming Ryan Babel too often left the full-backs behind them exposed.

It was a night to forget for Pennant, dismissed in the 58th minute for two bookable offences by Lubos Michel, the man who famously allowed Luis Garcia’s goal to stand in the Champions League semi-final against Chelsea in 2005.

The red card was symptomatic of an uncharacteristic Liverpool performance in which problems were often of their own making, Benitez’s side barely able to string two passes together during the first half.

Once down to 10 men, the visitors had to rely on the determination and resolve that had seen them lose just four of their previous 22 away games in Europe under the Spaniard.

And such character, allied to a defence that has only still conceded from the penalty spot season, was the one major positive Benitez could take from the 90 minutes and ensured Liverpool return to Merseyside this morning unbeaten this campaign.

The problems for the Spaniard had begun during the previous night’s training session when Xabi Alonso’s foot injury forced a rethink of his tactics, with Gerrard and Javier Mascherano forming the central partnership in the midfield of a team that sported six changes from the one that drew at Portsmouth.

Despite Liverpool selling out their allocation inside the dramatic Estadio do Dragao, the away end was barely half full as supporters, wary of the problems in obtaining a ticket for last season’s final, made creative use of the club’s loyalty scheme by avoiding the expense of actually turning up.

They weren’t the only ones, and the ground was curiously below capacity for the meeting between the 2004 and 2005 winners.

The absentees missed a whirlwind opening from Porto which set the tone for a first half in which an error-strewn Liverpool were mostly on the back foot.

As early as the second minute, Pepe Reina produced a close-range block from Lisandro Lopez after Steve Finnan’s clearance was charged down but it was only a temporary reprieve as the home side went ahead six minutes later.

Sami Hyypia, preferred to Daniel Agger at centre-back, was at fault, his laboured defending allowing Tarik Sektioui in behind the Liverpool defence. Reina dashed from his line to deal with the threat but only succeeded in rudely halting the winger inside the area, leaving Lucho, a former Everton target, to subsequently send the Liverpool goalkeeper the wrong way to score from the spot.

Hyypia made amends for his mistake by playing a major role in the equalising goal 11 minutes later.

It was a move straight off the training ground, a free-kick from the right by Finnan floated to the far post towards the Finnish defender, who headed across goal for Kuyt to nod in from six yards.

While that appeared to calm the jangling nerves of a Liverpool side that were rattled during the opening stages by the pace of Sektioui and Ricardo Quaresma down the flanks, Porto nevertheless remained the more potent force throughout the half, particularly from the set-pieces of the dangerous Lucho.

From one such delivery on 26 minutes, an unmarked Joao Paulo wasted a fine chance by heading towards fellow centre-back Bruno Alves rather than at goal, the latter eventually nodding harmlessly wide.

Liverpool were content to sit back and protect the point following the interval, and were then left with no choice when they were reduced to 10 men in the 58th minute.

Having been booked in the first half and with referee Michel allowing precious little physical contact, Pennant should have thought twice before launching into a challenge on Fucile to prevent the ball from crossing for a goal-kick.

The resultant yellow card was as inevitable as it was preventable.

Hyypia then cleared a Quaresma lob away from an untended goal after Reina’s wayward punch, but despite a succession of corners, Porto were unable to seriously test the Liverpool goalkeeper.

In fact, the visitors – for whom Fabio Aurelio made his long-awaited return as a late substitute – came closest to snatching a winner in the closing stages when Quaresma nicked the ball of Dutch forward Kuyt’s foot before he could convert Gerrard’s pass.

That would have been unjust in the extreme.

At least the saving grace for Liverpool is that they surely cannot play as poorly in Europe again this season.

FC PORTO (4-3-3:) Nuno, Bruno Alves, Paulo Assuncao, Quaresma, Lucho Gonzalez, Lopez, Bosingwa, Fucile, Joao Paulo, Raul Meireles (Farias 64), Sektioui (Mariano Gonzalez 64). Subs: Ventura, Stepanov, Cech, Bolatti, Kazmierczak. BOOKING: Bosingwa.

LIVERPOOL (4-4-2): Reina, Finnan, Hyypia, Arbeloa, Carragher, Pennant, Mascherano, Gerrard, Babel (Aurelio 85), Torres (Voronin 76), Kuyt. Subs: Itandje, Agger, Benayoun, Crouch, Lucas. BOOKINGS: Pennant, Torres, Kuyt, Mascherano. SENDING-OFF: Pennant.

REFEREE: Lubos Michel (Slovakia).

ATT: 41,208.

NEXT MATCH: Liverpool v Birmingham City, Barclays Premier League, Saturday 3pm.