Unirea Urziceni 1 Liverpool 3; agg 1-4: match report

By Rory Smith in Bucharest Published: 6:30AM GMT twenty-six February 2010

Jubliation: Javier Mascherano"s idea puts Liverpool in to the last sixteen of the Europa League Photo: ACTION IMAGES

A jot down broken, a strain ended, an anniversary commemorated and a reputation, partially, restored. February 25, 2010 might be a footnote in Anfields story compared to the same date last year, when Rafael Benítezs side cowed the Bernabeu, but for a man who feels the weight of the clubs past some-more than most, it will live prolonged in the memory.

Steven Gerrards felicitous goal, that followed excellent strikes from Javier Mascherano and Ryan Babel, was the Liverpool captains 33rd in Europe, creation him the majority inclusive British player in continental competition.

Europa League tables Europa League fixtures Babel upbeat about Anfield destiny Former Liverpool footballer "too dipsomaniac to carry out car" Benítez in Torres defence Sport on radio

That Gerrard upheld such a miracle in Bucharest rather than Barcelona shows that Liverpools one after another place between the games giants stays open for debate, but that he upheld it at all equates to there can be no subject that Gerrard, at least, can hold his head high in even the majority prominent company.

"It is regularly good to mangle records," the Liverpool captain said. "I have been operative unequivocally tough to get behind between the goals, but the majority critical thing was to get by to the subsequent round."

Benítez echoed Gerrards sentiments. "It is unequivocally certain for him and for the club," he said. "This is a ancestral bar with a lot of annals and carrying an particular one similar to that is large for him and for everybody at Liverpool. It additionally equates to we fool around a lot in Europe."

The clubs superfluous in the last sixteen are approaching to magnify Liverpool and their captain rather some-more than Unirea Urziceni, their intrepid hosts, managed, for all their motion and vigour. In the subsequent spin they face French bar Lille.

When Liverpool were drawn opposite the Romanian champions, the tie was insincere to be a bye, so lazily are eastern European teams dismissed. But Unirea set about their shining guest with the air of a group dynamic to mishandle stereotypes.

As should be approaching in a nation that constructed Gheorghe Hagi, Roni Levis side were technically accomplished, hexed of a lurch of panache and, in Razvan Paduretu, boasted a player who in conditions of his set-piece delivery, at slightest could compare the Maradona of the Carpathians.

It was from one of Paduretus ominous corners that the hosts took the lead, an unmarked Bruno Fernandes thumping a header past Pepe Reina to clean out Liverpools slim first-leg advantage. Cue bedlam, evidence dread.

Three some-more corners in discerning period caused a magnitude of be scared in the Liverpool rearguard, but by that theatre Mascherano had scored usually the third idea of his Liverpool career, blustering a 25-yard shot past the stuck Giedrius Arlauskis.

Babel afterwards put Liverpool in the lead with a intelligent spin and shot prior to the mangle and the tie was all but over.

Gerrards goal, pouncing on a lax round after a standard jinking run from Yossi Benayoun, his shot ricocheting off Arlauskiss legs, combined a somewhat unpleasant shimmer to the scoreline, but noted Liverpools initial three-goal transport given September.

Last-16 draw

Juventus v FulhamAtltico Madrid v Sporting LisbonValencia v W BremenHamburg v AnderlechtBenfica v MarseilleLille v LiverpoolPanathinaikos v Standard LiegeRubin Kazan v Wolfsburg

Two-leg ties to be played Mar eleven & 18