Liverpool fails to inspire at Utrecht

PARIS: Liverpool's stuttering season yielded another forgettable performance on Thursday when the English giant was held to a 0-0 draw at Dutch side FC Utrecht in the Europa League.

Roy Hodgson's side came close to conceding on numerous occasions, with Jan Wuytens seeing a first-half effort chalked off for a foul and Dries Mertens drawing a sharp save from Reds goalkeeper Pepe Reina in the 39th minute.

Liverpool was lucky to escape early in the second period when Raul Meireles had to head off the line from skipper Michael Silberbauer after Reina came for the ball at a corner and missed.

Fernando Torres produced another subdued performance and was denied by home keeper Michel Vorm after being teed up by Utrecht old boy Dirk Kuyt.

Jacob Mulenga spurned a late sight of goal for the host, poking across goal and fractionally wide after exploiting hesitancy from Reds left-back Martin Kelly.

In the group's other game, Napoli hit back from conceding three goals in the first 16 minutes at Steaua Bucharest to snatch a 3-3 draw, with Uruguayan Edinson Cavani notching up the equaliser in the eighth minute of added time.

City holds Juventus

In group ‘A', Manchester City kept Juventus at arm's length after a 1-1 draw.

City fell behind in the 11th minute when a long-range effort from Vincenzo Iaquinta took a deflection off Kolo Toure and fizzed past Joe Hart, but the host drew level eight minutes before the interval with a goal of real quality.

Yaya Toure picked up possession in the centre of the pitch and slid a beautifully weighted pass through to Adam Johnson, whose first touch caught Alex Manninger flat-footed and allowed him to toe the ball into an unguarded goal.

Alessandro del Piero almost snatched victory for the Italians in the 85th minute but his dipping free-kick hit the crossbar and bounced on the goal-line before rebounding to safety.

“It was hard. They're an Italian side, so we knew they'd come here and defend well,” said Johnson.

“I think we were the better team, especially in the second half.”

Sevilla posts win

Sevilla gained its first points in the Europa League with a 1-0 victory over 10-man Borussia Dortmund. Luca Cigarini's goal on the stroke of halftime proved enough for the Spanish side, which now has three points from two matches, the same as Dortmund. Paris St. Germain tops Group J with six points, while Karpaty Lviv is last with zero points. Dortmund started the game having won nine of its 10 matches in all competitions this season and Juergen Klopp's team dominated the first half. But the home side was caught out when Sevilla grabbed the lead two minutes into first half stoppage time. Dortmund defender Neven Subotic cleared Martin Caceres's header on the line but the ball fell to the feet of Cigarini, who struck low into the left corner from about 10 meters (yards).

Important results:

Manchester City 1 (Johnson 37) drew with Juventus 1 (Iaquinta 11); Atletico Madrid 1 (Simao 51-pen) drew with Bayer Leverkusen 1 (Derdiyok 39); Sporting Lisbon 5 (Carrico 31, Maniche 43, Salomao 53, Helder Postiga 61, Fernandez 79) bt Levski Sofia 0; Villarreal 2 (Rossi 41, Gonzalo 56) bt Club Brugge 1 (Donk 45+1); CSKA Moscow 3 (Doumbia 72, 86, Gonzalez 84-pen) bt Sparta Prague 0; Palermo 1 (Migliaccio 79) bt Lausanne Sports 0; Utrecht 0 drew with Liverpool 0; CSKA Sofia 0 lost to FC Porto1 (Radamel Falcao 16).