Liverpool vs Bordeaux match report: Daniel Sturridge injury blow mars Reds' Europa League progress

Liverpool 2 Bordeaux 1: Merseysiders progress, but lose injury-plagued striker yet again

Christian Benteke turns and drives in the winner for Liverpool (PA)

It was perhaps right that against French opposition an old philosopher’s saying from the same land proved relevant.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr claimed; and in more ways than just one for Liverpool here, that was the case.

Their change under Jürgen Klopp has been radical and though this meeting with a team currently 13th in Ligue 1 was not without its inconveniences, by qualifying from the Europa League’s group stages with a game to spare, it suggests Liverpool are becoming streetwise against continental opposition once more.

And yet, the evening was marred by the news delivered one hour before kick-off that Daniel Sturridge is injured again: his damaged foot, different to the swollen knee that has ruled him out of action since the change of management at Anfield last month, acting as a reminder that expecting his presence is akin to trusting a sandcastle to resist the next tide.

Klopp used his programme notes to reiterate his determination that Liverpool, “should play their best football at home”. Yet this was not another Manchester City, where the opponent was pulped in the first half an hour to a point where it seemed to concede defeat.

Liverpool are not the only club which turns to the 1980s as a benchmark decade, when success defined standards. It was also the period when Bordeaux dominated French football with Jean Tigana and Alain Giresse providing enough panache and power in midfield to secure three championships.

Those memories are now sepia tinted and Bordeaux are currently further away from where they would like to be than even Liverpool, winning just one away match this season, at Larnaca in August.

Maybe Liverpool were over-confident and subsequently, not quite focused enough. The criticism could certainly be laid at goalkeeper Simon Mignolet whose hesitation on the edge of his box would have led to the game’s opening goal had it not been for Kolo Touré defending a shot using his back.

Mignolet was not paying enough attention when he held the ball for 22 seconds, causing the referee Alon Yefet to blow for an indirect free-kick in the penalty area that Henri Saivet scored from, directing an outstanding arcing shot over the Liverpool wall.

Liverpool had not been awarded a penalty for 22 games and their first in the post-Steven Gerrard era arrived when Bordeaux captain Ludovic Sané reacted to Christian Benteke’s run by terminating it with an arm across the throat. James Milner was able to convert confidently, low to Cédric Carasso’s left, having sent the goalkeeper the wrong way. They were ahead by the break, Benteke turning and firing past Carasso before the goalkeeper could prepare.

With Milner and Jordon Ibe switching wings regularly, the ruse was too much for Bordeaux’s defence and Liverpool’s lead should have been added to; Benteke having one ruled out for a foul on his marker, Sané.

Man of the match Milner.

Match rating 6/10.

Referee A Yefet (Israel).

Attendance 42,525.