Steaua Bucharest 1-1 Liverpool
Liverpool recorded an impressive draw in Romania last night, in the first leg of their UEFA Cup 2nd round match against Steaua Bucharest.
The Reds were once again short of a number of first team players, with Owen, Smicer, Hamann and Henchoz left out of the team, and with the game being played in apalling conditions, it was always going to prove to be a tough test for Gerard Houllier's men.
But Liverpool got off to a good start, and despite the waterlogegd pitch they atempted to play their usual game, with a reward of a goal arriving on 23 minutes through Djimi Traore.
One of the most unlikely men to grab the first goal, Traore picked up the ball on the left side of the penalty area, and despite an initial slip, he recovered quickly enough to curl a superb right footed shot into the bottom corner of the goal, to the delight of the 900 rain soaked Liverpool fans who had made the trip.
There were few good footballing moves put together though, due to the conditions, and it was simply hard work which earned Liverpool the result they would have been happy with beforehand.
Harry Kewell saw a shot brilliantly cleared off the line in the latter stages of the first half after rounding the keeper, and Jerzy Dudek had to be at his best on a number of occasions to keep the home side out, but even he was unable to do anything to prevent Claudiu Raducanu from netting an equaliser midway through the second half.
The most pleasing thing for the Liverpool boss would no doubt have been that no injuries were picked up by playing on the heavy pitch, ahead of Sunday's clash with Man United at Anfield, and Liverpool can now look forward to the return leg, for which they now stand as firm favourites to make it into round 3 of the competition.
LFC-1 Star Man: Steven Gerrard.
