Mohamed Amoura and Cameron Puertas shine for Union St Gilloise in Europa League win over young Liverpool side | OneFootball

Union St Gilloise finished their Europa League group stage campaign with a narrow 2-1 win over a young Liverpool side. The side from Merseyside made a number of changes, resting regular starters ahead of the weekend’s game against their arch rivals Manchester United. Union, on the other hand, put out their strongest side as they hoped to grab second spot in the group.

However, with Toulouse beating LASK in Austria, the best Union could hope for was second. 23-year-old Algerian striker Mohamed Amoura, who was lively all game, grabbed the first goal after 32 minutes. He narrowly avoided the offside trap after a fine pass from strike partner Gustaf Nilsson and found himself bearing down on goal. While trying to round goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher the keeper got a hand to the ball, but it bounced back into the path of Amoura to make it 1-0.

Liverpool were level almost immediately, with Jarell Quansah scoring what proved to be the 2000th goal for Jürgen Klopp as a professional manager. The Belgian’s retook the lead before half-time, catching Liverpool cold with a break that eventually saw star midfielder Cameron Puertas smash home. Puertas looked to have made it 3-1 in the second half, but the goal was ruled out after Lazare Amani handled in the build up.

Liverpool, who struggled to trouble the Union defence, did push late on for an equaliser, forcing some last ditch defending and a decent save from Anthony Moris. With a 2-1 win, Union will now be in the Europa Conference League knock-out’s in 2024.

GBeNeFN | Ben Jackson