Top > Sport > 2006 > August > 2006-08-24

Liverpool Draws with Haifa, Takes Round

This was not the glorified victory that Liverpool fans were expecting of their team, but a 1-1 draw over the Israeli club, Maccabi Haifa, was enough to secure a place on Friday`s Champions League group stages. Although Nir Davidovitch gave an excellent performance protecting Haifa`s goal, Liverpool managed to protect their name and did not lose.

Liverpool did not lost the match against Haifa, but they did not win it either. The English team played nothing like the five-time European Cup winners that they are. Peter Crouch scored the first goal of the match and gave Liverpool the lead, but Roberto Colautti scored for Haifa and sent Liverpool defending their goal for the rest of the match.

This was supposed to be Haifa`s home game, but due to UEFA ruling, the game was moved to Ukraine. Liverpool was lucky that the game was not played in Israel, as an encouraged Haifa playing in front of its home audience might be able to title the tie into their favor and send Liverpool back to England sore. UEFA decided that all international and club games will not be played in Israel in light of `the security situation in the Middle East`. Israeli soccer officials are negotiating with UEFA these days to over turn their decision.