© EuroFootball.com
Lithuanian champion FBK "Kaunas" suffered a defeat in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round second leg match with a two-goal margin and ended their participation in European competitions.
In other Tuesday's Champions League matches, Glazgo's "Celtic" failed to create a miracle - the Scots crushed Bratislava's "Artmedia" team 4-0 at home, but based on the overall result of the two matches had to withdraw from the tournament, as they had shockingly lost 0-5 in the first leg in Slovakia.
2 - 0 (First leg 3-1, aggregate score 5-1) 78' [1 - 0] Steven Gerrard 86' [2 - 0] Djibril Cisse "Liverpool": Carson; Finnan, Hyypia, Whitbread, Warnock; Garcia, Sissoko, Hamann (74' Gerrard), Zenden; Morientes (46' Cisse), Crouch (55' Potter) "Kaunas": Kilijonas; Zelmikas, Kancelskis, Baguzis, Kunevicius, Manchkava; Kvaratskhelia, Petrenko (46' Klimek), Poderis (86' Maciulis), Pehlic (65' Barevicius); Rimkevicius With a convincing advantage from the first leg match, in the second leg match, Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez allowed his key players to rest and fielded young players like S.Warnock, Z.Whitbread, M.Sissoko, and S.Carson. The match started calmly and the first dangerous chances were expected to occur only in the 14th minute, when F.Morientes headed the ball from the ground in the penalty area, but Kaunas goalkeeper S.Kilijonas was in the right place and caught the ball. Shortly after, Kaunas responded with a penalty kick from N.Manchkava, but this attempt was not very dangerous and S.Carson easily caught the ball. The Kaunas team played commendably in defense for the rest of the first half and defended against the attacks of the visitors, mainly from long-range shots, so the score remained at 0-0. In the second half, the substitution of Morientes with D.Cisse brought more energy to Liverpool's attacks, but his shot from the edge of the box in the 52nd minute missed the goal completely. Just a minute later, Manchkava had another chance - his shot was blocked by S.Hyypia, who played inaccurately, and the Georgian forward from Kaunas took another shot, but unfortunately missed slightly above the goal. In the 70th minute, Hyypia tried to redeem his mistake in front of Kaunas' goal, but his header from a corner hit the crossbar and went out of play. Just four minutes later, S.Gerrard entered the field after a substitution, and Liverpool's play in attack immediately intensified. Initially receiving the ball from Gerrard, Cisse's shot from about 14 meters was parried by Kilijonas, the away team's goalkeeper, but later, when Gerrard passed the ball towards the goal, the young goalkeeper made a mistake and the ball rolled through his legs into the net - Liverpool managed to break ahead thanks to their captain. With four minutes remaining until the end of the match, the hosts at Anfield increased their lead with an unstoppable goal from Cisse, who one-touch technically sent the ball into the goal after L.Garcia's pass. Despite fighting hard, Kaunas had to acknowledge the superiority of their illustrious opponents.
