Liverpool will go into next week’s Europa Cup tie at Anfield with Braga 1 – 0 down after losing the first leg in Portugal. The only goal of the game came from the penalty spot after Sotirios Kyrgiakos fouled Mossoro in the 18 yard box and Alan duly dispatched the resulting penalty. This may have been a Europa Cup match but it was like facing Brazil as the Braga side featured no less than seven Brazilians. Liverpool were lucky to not have a larger deficit as their performance in the first 2/3rds of the game was woeful at best. Andy Carroll was introduced after 57 minutes and suddenly Liverpool had a better shape and played more attacking football and looked like a threat but couldn’t make the breakthrough. An away goal would have done wonders for Liverpool as effectively an away goal counts double. So a good debut for Liverpool’s £35m man, shame it ended in a loss; Liverpool’s other new signing Luis Suarez was ineligible for this game. It’s disappointing to see Liverpool lose to Braga after beating arguably better side Manchester United just a few days ago. Hopefully Steven Gerrard and Andy Carroll will both be fit and available for the return leg at Anfield. I believe Liverpool can still win the tie overall but will have to be tight and not allow Braga to attack while counter-attacking. Kenny Dalglish was less than complementary about his team’s performance tonight saying “…until next Thursday I won’t be able to assess whether we have been fortunate or contributed to our own downfall by selection of passes, no movement – we were just a bit sloppy, really.” – I didn’t see the match but if the manager says that about his own team; it must have been a poor performance!