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August 25, 2012

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Liverpool scrapes win, Newcastle held in Greece

LIVERPOOL scraped a 1-0 win over Hearts while a Newcastle side shorn of several familiar faces survived sweltering heat to hold Greek side Atromitos to a 1-1 draw in their Europa League playoff round first-legs on Thursday.

Liverpool needed an own goal from Andy Webster with 12 minutes remaining at Tynecastle to see off Hearts in the absence of several first team players.

Coach Brendan Rodgers fielded Fabio Borini and Raheem Sterling in attack.

The Reds also left out Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez, Martin Skrtel and Glen Johnson with Manchester City to visit in the league on Sunday.

Arvydas Novikovas might have given the Edinburgh side a shock lead but Pepe Reina saved well in the Liverpool goal before Borini hit the post at the other end. Liverpool made the breakthrough when Martin Kelly sent in a challenging cross from the right which Borini did not connect but forced Webster to deflect into his own net.

Newcastle was playing in Europe for the first time in five years but coach Alan Pardew made nine changes from the side which beat Tottenham in its Premier League match at the weekend to give fringe players some game time.

Former first choice keeper Steve Harper, who at 37, was handed a rare start. He was unable to keep a clean sheet as German striker Denis Epstein gave the hosts the lead on 24 minutes before Ryan Taylor fired home a freekick in first half stoppage time to give Newcastle a good chance of reaching the group stage with the home leg to come.

In other games, Marseille won 2-1 at Moldova's Sheriff Tiraspol with Andre-Pierre Gignac bagging the winner. Inter Milan was 2-0 winners at Vaslui with Esteban Cambiasso and Rodrigo Palacio on target while Lazio won by the same margin at Slovania's Murta.


 

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