Pre Season Friendly
Wed 15th July 2009, 7pm @ St Gallen
Liverpool used 24 players in tonight’s first pre-season friendly of the summer campaign and Glen Johnson was part of the completely changed 2nd half side and had a decent debut.
Liverpool 1st half: Cavalieri, San Jose, Degen, Insua, Carragher, Spearing, Gerrard, El Zhar, Babel, Voronin, Nemeth.
The reds started brightly in the first half. Ryan Babel and Andriy Voronin both looked the liveliest of the bunch and had some very neat touches of the ball. Gerrard had a chance from a free kick before Spearing lashed a shot wide.
However despite the early confident play it was St Gallen, who are already underway in their Swiss league campaign, who had the better of the chances – especially unlucky when one of their shots hit the post. Carragher was also required to deal with a ball that had popped in to the 6 yard box.
Liverpool 2nd half: Martin, Darby, Skrtel, Kelly, Johnson, Kuyt, Lucas, Plessis, Yossi, Ngog, Pacheco. Underway.
A completely different side for the second half, and all eyes were on new Liverpool signing Glen Johnson, who due to injuries to Aurelio – and the absence of Dossena – played at left back. His early touches were impressive and he was very attack minded. Going close to scoring only 4 minutes in to his debut, and whipping in a number of dangerous crosses.
David N’gog should have done better when he headed over from a corner and Pacheco also was wasteful – taking one too many touches when he had made a fantastic break to beat the offside trap.
As the minutes ticked down Yossi Benayoun was weaving around the box and almost snatched a last minute winner only for the keeper to make the save.
On the balance of play Liverpool played reasonably well for the first outing of the season, although St Gallen’s chances were more clear-cut. They even had the ball in the net before it was ruled out, rightly, for offside.
Glen Johnson looks like he is going to fit in well at Anfield.
Team News
Liverpool 1st half: Cavalieri, San Jose, Degen, Insua, Carragher, Spearing, Gerrard, El Zhar, Babel, Voronin, Nemeth.
Liverpool 2nd half: Martin, Darby, Skrtel, Kelly, Johnson, Kuyt, Lucas, Plessis, Yossi, Ngog, Pacheco. Underway.
Both Peter Gulasci and Ayala came on for Martin and Kelly with around 10 minutes left.
Att: 20,000