Soccer/UEFA Cup Steaua Bucharest 1; Liverpool 1: Somewhere amid the mud and mayhem last night, Liverpool let an opportunity slip. Stalemate against opponents as daunting as Steaua Bucharest should prove sufficient to ensure progress but Gerard Houllier's men departed scowling where their efforts deserved so much more.
This was still an admirable result eked out in ridiculous conditions, the players slipping and sliding across a quagmire of a pitch which became more treacherous by the minute in torrential rain. The surface cost Liverpool an equaliser as much as the Romanians' fitful pressure, yet parity should not detract from the visitors' performance. There were doubts about the game going ahead right up to kick-off. The referee Stefano Farina agreed to see how the surface withstood the incessant rain, much to Houllier's consternation, before considering a postponement.
Jerzy Dudek slipped comically the first time he was forced to kick and it was only once the turf had cut up to render any vain attempt at finesse fruitless that the game spluttered into life. Over-hit passes became perfectly weighted, defenders just as likely to lose their balance as strikers. Given the farce that created, it was perversely appropriate Liverpool's goal came from arguably its least likely source.
Djimi Traore had spent most of the early exchanges resembling Bambi on ice. He collected Steven Gerrard's short corner midway through the first half, cut across goal and curled a shot which squelched across the surface and into the corner beyond Vasili Hamutovski's dive. The French defender erupted in madcap celebration befitting a first Liverpool goal after 91 appearances.
There might have been further reward before Steaua stirred late on. The irrepressible Gerrard sent Harry Kewell through. The Australian drifted wide of the goalkeeper only to see his shot scrambled off the line by Mirel Radoi. Before the interval Gerrard's wondrous pass to the right wing was collected by El Hadji Diouf, whose centre bypassed Emile Heskey, arguably fouled in the six-yard box by Radoi, and was nodded wide of an open goal by the diving John-Arne Riise.
The miss set the tone for the Norwegian's night, free headers missed early in the second half before, with Liverpool still leading, he sprinted through on goal only to scuff his shot. Had Danny Murphy not seen his own close-range attempt from Diouf's pull-back suffocated on the goal-line by a Radoi and Falemi Ngassam Nana, Steaua's chances might have drowned in the mud.
Steaua stirred. Claudiu Raducanu might have scored after back-pass settled in a puddle on the edge of the area. Raducanu waded in with Dudek stationary, only to belt a first-time shot straight at him.
Liverpool's luck did not hold. At some stage the conditions were always likely to trip up their bean-pole defenders; the substitute Adrian Pitu's pass only became defence-splitting when Igor Biscan and Sami Hyypia slipped. By the time they had picked themselves up, Raducanu had steered the equaliser beyond Dudek.
Grit now stifled a reinvigorated Steaua , who saw Dorel Mutica's vicious volley tipped wonderfully on to the bar by Dudek.
STEAUA BUCURESTI: Hamutovski, Dumitru, Rachita, Radoi, Stoica, Aliuta (Neaga 73), Bostina (Pitu 62), Raducanu, Falemi, Oprita (Nesu 86), Mutica. Subs Not Used: Curt, Ogararu, Nanu, Tudor. Booked: Falemi, Pitu. Goals: Raducanu 69.
LIVERPOOL: Dudek, Finnan, Hyypia, Biscan, Traore, Diouf (Le Tallec 58), Murphy, Gerrard, Riise, Kewell, Heskey. Subs Not Used: Kirkland, Henchoz, Smicer, Hamann, Diao, Sinama Pongolle. Booked: Diouf, Murphy. Goals: Traore 23.
Referee: Stefano Farina (Italy).
