Liverpool only need one to advance over Augsburg in Europa League
A fifth minute James Milner penalty was enough to keep Liverpool's Europa League campaign alive Thursday at Anfield, the 1-0 aggregate victory sending the Reds into Friday's draw for the Round of 16.
As the scoreless first leg in Germany, the return match was a dour struggle as neither team showed the attacking fluency to lift the game above the average. Liverpool had much more of the ball but could not capitalize on clear chances and wound up having to grind out success in a match they could have salted away with greater precision up front.
Liverpool should certainly have killed the match off four minutes into the second half when Daniel Sturridge had a gift opportunity. As the result of a giveaway back pass, Sturridge had room to step around a defender for a clean look, but then pushed his shot wide of far right post for a bad miss.
That meant advancement wasn't safe until the final whistle since an away Augsburg goal and a score draw would have given the the edge on aggregate.
With top striker Raul Bobadilla still struggling from a thigh injury collected in the first leg and therefore not introduced until 20 minutes remained, Augsburg was never able to exert enough consistent pressure, spending much of the evening trying to piece together things in midfield.
Even with a Wembley date on Sunday against Manchester City in the Capital One Cup final, there was no doubt that Juergen Klopp and the Reds were taking this competition extremely seriously. Klopp fielded his best available side, including Sturridge, still trying to find form after his long injury layoff, and Philippe Coutinho, also coming off an injury-enforced break. He limited Sturridge to an hour of action and took Coutinho off with 11 minutes remaining, perhaps thinking of the Cup final test to come.
French referee Clement Turpin won't find many friends in Augsburg for his fourth minute decision to give Liverpool a penalty, but Dominik Kohr made the mistake of jumping for a cross with his hands in the air and paid full price for the error.
The arbiter saw Kohr's upraised hand struck by a cross as the defender was being challenged by Caiuby, his own teammate. Even though it may have been inadvertent contact, Turpin pointed immediately to the spot, ignoring protests from the visitors, and Milner powered his shot into the low right past the diving Marwin Hitz.
Augsburg raids were infrequent and lacking in bite. One of them, a long-range shot from Kostas Stafylidis, brought a good save from Simon Mignolet and fortune favored the hosts when Caiuby swept up a terrible Lucas back pass but ran out of room to test the Liverpool goal from the left. Overall, Mignolet did not have be more than competent as Augsburg failed to provide a major test.
Hitz, in fact, made the save of the game, getting his hands up in time to turn a Roberto Firmino point-blank deflection over his crossbar in the 29th minute and he was equally good to block a Jordan Henderson 77th minute opportunity.
Hitz had to remain alert as the best late opportunities fell to Liverpool, but as has often the case, possession and chances did not translate into goals from open play for the Reds.
A late, curling free kick from Stafylidis, which bent but not enough to get under bar, was Augsburg's last chance.
