Reactions to Liverpool's Opening Champions League Game Against Debrecen
"This victory will not reside long in the annals beyond its statistical value, with Liverpool again making a gruelling night's work of a game they should have won with greater comfort than Dirk Kuyt's scrappy first-half goal. To the pragmatic Benítez, however, the mission is not a romantic journey home to Spain but getting the job done. His players, though scared by two chances for Adamo Coulibaly late on, fulfilled their obligations on that score."
"It took a goal by Dirk Kuyt in first-half stoppage time to ensure that a flat performance did not end in embarrassment for Liverpool, but, while their display merited little by way of justification, it says much about a strange evening on Merseyside that it was the losers who were applauded off by the home crowd, as well as by their 1,700 travelling supporters, and it was Andras Herczeg, the defeated manager, who was happier than Rafael Benítez."
"The Spaniard will have to if his side are to have any hope of maintaining their record of five consecutive appearances in the last 16. Far tougher tests, in the shape of a trip to Florence and a double-header with Lyon, await, and if Liverpool are as careless in possession and as toothless in front of goal as they were here, they will struggle to escape a group which suddenly looks daunting."
"The 100th win in the European Cup for the club last night, decided by Dirk Kuyt's scrappy toe-poke before half-time, was no thing of beauty. These are early days yet and, like the three other English Champions League clubs, Liverpool are still finding their feet. But even so there was something woefully one-paced about them last night that had Anfield gloomy right up until the edgy finish."