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The midfielder, a product of the Reds youth academy, replaced Lucas in the latter stages of the game, which finished 0-0 despite both sides having a number of good chances.

Balotelli blamed his poor Liverpool form on manager Brendan Rodgers’ tactics, but Rodgers refused to be drawn on the comments and wished him well for the season.

It also bailed out a defence that Wenger admitted in his post-match press conference was “insecure” after the late withdrawal of first-choice centre-backs Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny due to injury.

Southampton manager Ronald Koeman is expecting a “difficult” challenge against FC Midtjylland in Thursday night’s Europa League play-off tie.

Coutinho, whose previous effort moments earlier had flown well over the bar, then took charge with a run and strike that helped bury memories of Liverpool’s nightmare 6-1 thrashing on the same ground in May.

And Rodgers said at his pre-match press conference: “When the fixture came out, I felt we couldn’t have had a better one to be honest”.

Liverpool endured a miserable 2014-15 campaign and missed out on Champions League qualification, having only narrowly lost out on the title as runners-up to Manchester City the previous season.

A 16 man squad has flown to Finland for a friendly against Helsinki on Saturday, before a number of younger players- as well as those returning from injury lay-offs- take on Swindon Town at the County Ground, on Sunday.