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The best images from Bucharest, where Liverpool secured their passage to the next phase of the Europa League

Liverpool qualified as group winners despite themselves. From Roy Hodgson gambling with team selections when under the fiercest pressure to Jose Reina gifting Steaua Bucharest a point here tonight, the Europa League has witnessed Liverpool at their most casual and yet their most comfortable this season. How Hodgson must wish he could take a similar approach to the Premier League.

A draw in Romania, coupled with Napoli’s recovery to take a point from Utrecht, was sufficient for Liverpool to win Group K with a game to spare and to over-compensate for the disappointment felt by Reina when he spilled Eder Bonfim’s second half header over the line. Given the relative inexperience and rustiness of those he selected, Hodgson’s satisfaction was well-founded.

“I was a little bit concerned with my selection,” the Liverpool manager admitted; “But I think the players I picked served the club well and if Joe Cole had taken his chance in the first half, maybe we’d have had it easier. I asked a lot of them, with so many who haven’t played for a long time, to come here and get a result against a team of Steaua’s quality. It was a big ask to deal with the pressure here and to handle the quality of football that Steaua played, but they stood up to the challenge.”

Liverpool took the lead with their first attack and courtesy of two forwards on trial for Hodgson in Bucharest, Milan Jovanovic and Ryan Babel, although the manager may have already reached a verdict on the pair. The Serbia international, a bit-part figure since his free transfer from Standard Liege in the summer, instigated the attack with a sharp turn in midfield before releasing Babel down the right. Cole made an inviting run to the near post but the Dutchman cut back inside and floated an inch-perfect cross into the centre where Jovanovic glanced a header into the bottom corner.

It should have been two moments later when Babel broke down the left and squared for Cole, unmarked and with only the goalkeeper to beat. A player Hodgson had admitted was desperately low on confidence trod on the ball, however, and the opportunity was carelessly lost.

Steaua’s greatest threat came through the air but it took a calamity for Marius Lacatus’s side to equalise. There appeared little danger when substitute Stanislav Angelov crossed from the right and, even when Bonfim headed goalwards, the weakness of the effort should have posed no threat. Reina, however, was distracted by Romeo Surdu who, to his eye, was stood in an offside position and then ducked out of the way as the ball sailed over and through the keeper’s grasp. Surdu was, in fact, played onside by Danny Wilson and the Spain international, targeted by a green laser throughout the game, belatedly held up his hands. “It was a real pain,” said Reina. “It had nothing to do with the goal but the laser was even stronger than it was in Trabszon.”

Europa LeagueSteaua BucharestLiverpoolAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk

• Vice-captain out for three months with dislocated shoulder
• Eighteen-year-old to start against Steaua Bucharest

Roy Hodgson will ask the 18-year-old Danny Wilson to deputise for Jamie Carragher against Steaua Bucharest tomorrow after it was confirmed the Liverpool defender faces as long as three months out with a dislocated shoulder.

Carragher suffered the injury towards the end of Liverpool’s defeat at Tottenham on Sunday and had hoped to recover through a six-week rest period. However, following a MRI scan on Merseyside today and consultations between Liverpool’s medical department and specialists, it was decided the 32-year-old needs an operation that could sideline him until March.

The Liverpool vice-captain said: “I’ll be having surgery at the end of the week. The average is about 12 weeks. I’d like to come back before that but I’ve got to make sure it’s right. It will probably be late February or early March when I’m looking to come