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French club Toulouse stunned English giant Liverpool FC in the UEFA Europa League. In Group E, Toulouse FC welcomed Liverpool last night at Stadium de Toulouse, where they outplayed Liverpool FC in every possible way. However, Liverpool responded well in the second half but failed to avoid defeat. In the end, Toulouse FC won the match by a 3-2 margin and have gone one step closer to the second round.
Match Report
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp did some experiments last night against Toulouse. Since Toulouse is comparatively a weaker side, Jurgen Klopp benched some of his key players, such as Mohammad Salah, Nunez, Arnold, Jota, and Szoboszlai in this match. He set up the formation with 4-3-3, where Cody Gakpo led the attack with Luis Diaz and Doak. On the flip, Toulouse’s boss played his team in a 4-4-2 formation.
However, Liverpool controlled the match from the start. They had more possession than the home side at Stadio de Toulouse. But the Klopp boys couldn’t score despite having more possession.
The home side stunned the visitors just before half-time when Toulouse’s midfielder Aron Donnum found the net in the 36th minute. Relying on his goal, Toulouse went to the break with a one-goal lead.
Jurgen Klopp made several substitutions in the second half. He deployed Mo Salah, Alexandre Arnold, and Dominic Szoboszlai in the second half. Liverpool became more aggressive after they came off the pitch, yet conceded another goal!
In the 58th minute, Toulouse’s striker Thijs Dallinga doubled the lead over Liverpool. However, Liverpool had a lifeline when they got a goal in the 74th minute. It was an own-goal as Toulouse’s midfielder Cristian Casseres put the ball into his own net. It seemed Liverpool could make a U-turn, but Frank Magri destroyed the English side as he scored the third goal for Toulouse within two minutes.
Anyway, Diogo Jota scored a very late goal in the 89th minute. But it was not enough to avoid the defeat. In the end, Toulouse won the match by a 3-2 margin at Stadio de Toulouse.
Liverpool Deserve the Defeat
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp agrees that Liverpool deserve the defeat against Toulouse. He said, “It was well deserved to lose because they won pretty much all the decisive challenges, battles. We have too many situations where we should have won the ball, but we didn’t. On top of that, we gave the ball away easily at least twice – one was a goal, the other I am not sure if it was an allowed goal or a disallowed goal. Counter-attack, third goal, last line too deep. Defending-wise it was just not good enough.”
