Source: Liverpool_Echo
Liverpool FC 1, Debreceni 0: full time report
Dirk Kuyt celebrates his winner against Debreceni 300[LNB]Dirk Kuyt's 12th goal in 35 Champions League games for Liverpool saw the Anfield men claim an opening Group E victory but there was nothing to suggest a Madrid final in May is on the cards.[LNB]The Dutchman is now Liverpool's third-highest scorer in this competition and they were more than thankful for his eventual winner in the final seconds of the first half.[LNB]The Hungarian champions did their best, while Liverpool were some way short of their peak.[LNB]Rafael Benitez took charge of his 300th Liverpool match as the Reds produced their 100th victory in this competition - their first was 45 years ago - but the Spaniard would have wanted a better display than this to mark a little piece of Liverpool history.[LNB]This was Debrecen's debut in the group stages but if they cannot improve on this showing they may well not win a point.[LNB]Liverpool kept faith with the side that had produced their best performance on Saturday in beating Burnley 4-0, with Fabio Aurelio on the bench for his first involvement of the season following a knee injury.[LNB]But they were sluggish and uninspired and it took them an awfully long time in the first period to get some reward for their total domination.[LNB]In fact there were barely a couple of seconds left in the half to restart the match when Kuyt forced the ball home after Vukasin Poleksic had palmed out a Fernando Torres drive.[LNB]Before that it had been one-way traffic towards the Hungarian champions' goal.[LNB]Such was the general wastefulness, even Steven Gerrard was squandering chances regularly. Three efforts sailed wide, a header dropped over the crossbar and a low drive flashed inches wide.
