Liverpool vs. FC Augsburg: Winners and Losers from Europa League
James Milner's early penalty kick fired Liverpool into the last 16 of the UEFA Europa League on Thursday night, with the Reds recording a narrow 1-0 win over Augsburg.
The hosts dominated the match and created several good opportunities but could only beat Marwin Hitz once. That one goal was all they needed however, with Liverpool completing a 1-0 aggregate victory over two legs.
Per Opta, this is the first time since 2011 that Liverpool have advanced to the last 16 of a UEFA competition. Up next for the Reds is the Capital One Cup final at Wembley on Sunday.
Here, Bleacher Report selects winners and losers from the match.
Winner: James Milner
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Jurgen Klopp couldn't have planned for his side to take a fifth-minute lead from the penalty spot, but that's how the match played out. And when the opportunity arose, James Milner responded with an excellently taken spot-kick.
Augsburg goalkeeper Marwin Hitz, who was very good on the night, guessed correctly and dived to his left in an attempt to stop Milner's shot. But the Liverpool man's placement was perfect and the ball zipped past Hitz's fingertips and into the bottom corner of the net.
For lack of a better word, it was a perfect penalty. And it gave Liverpool a perfect start.
Loser: Dominik Kohr
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This is a bit of a hard-luck selection as the penalty incident was more a comedy of errors than anything. However, someone has to take the blame for conceding the penalty and Dominik Kohr was the guilty party.
In the fifth minute, as a Liverpool cross fluttered into the box, both Kohr and Caiuby challenged for the ball. The two teammates impeded each other and the result of the play was Kohr handling the ball.
The decision itself was correct. Kohr's hand was up by his head and there was no doubt that he made contact with the ball. But the entire incident would have been avoidable if Kohr and Caiuby had communicated better.
Winner: Marwin Hitz
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Liverpool dominated this second leg, pinning Augsburg in their own half for long stretches of the match. The hosts created several good chances and really could have won by a larger margin—if not for a combination of poor finishing and Marwin Hitz's excellence in Augsburg's goal.
Hitz commanded his box authoritatively and denied Liverpool on several occasions with top saves. Perhaps the best was in the 72nd minute, when he reacted instinctively to bat away a deflected cross that was destined for the back of his net. He was back to his feet in a nanosecond, ready for Philippe Coutinho's follow-up, which never came because it was blocked.
"If Marwin Hitz wasn't playing tonight, this game would be over by now," Jack Lusby tweeted in the first half. "Aside from the goalkeeper, Augsburg are completely overwhelmed."
If Liverpool are looking for a new goalkeeper in the summer (and they really should be), they could do a lot worse than the 28-year-old Hitz.
"It is frustrating. We should be scoring two or three and killing the game off and it makes it tough second half as you know if they score they go through," Liverpool midfielder Henderson told BT Sport (h/t Mandeep Sanghera at BBC Sport). "We have to give credit to Augsburg as well. They are a quality team and put us under pressure."
Loser: Tobias Werner
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With Liverpool dominant in possession, Augsburg had precious few chances to score. That made set pieces especially important for the visitors, who ought to have viewed them as a high-reward opportunity with a reasonable amount of risk attached.
Who knows? Maybe the Bundesliga side actually did prioritize free kicks and corners. If they did, however, Tobias Werner's deliveries laid waste to that strategy. Werner's set pieces consistently failed to clear the first man and were far too easily for Liverpool to defend.
The German made way for a substitute in the 72nd minute without making a positive impact in dead-ball situations.
Winner: Lucas Leiva
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With Sunday's Capital One Cup final looming, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp opted to rest central defender Kolo Toure against Augsburg and draft Lucas Leiva into the back line. The choice told us two things.
First, Toure is highly likely to start against Manchester City at Wembley. Second, Klopp trusts Lucas quite a bit.
That's no surprise, really. Lucas did well at center-back last time he played there, impressing in the defeat to West Ham United (though he did concede the foul that led to West Ham's late winner). On Thursday, he picked up where he left off, turning in another solid performance to help Liverpool into the last 16.
The Brazilian's positioning, distribution and reading of the game are very good, and we saw all of that in one illustrative sequence in the 14th minute. After stepping up to intercept a pass, Lucas quickly turned defense into attack with a quick, high pass down the field.
"[Lucas] with his best Beckenbauer impression, stepping forward to intercept and then releasing [Daniel Sturridge] with crossfield pass," tweeted Carl Markham.
Lucas was guilty of a poor back pass that led to an Augsburg chance late in the first half, but he's a winner here because the manager clearly has faith in him. Expect to see him in the back four a few more times by the end of the season.
