Off the bench,on the mark

Gerrard equalised in the 76th from a sliding challenge onto a short back pass,made it 2-1 with an 88th-minute penalty,and lifted the ball over the goalkeeper to complete the scoring with a minute left.

The win gives Liverpool control of Group K and was the English club’s third in a row for the first time in almost 14 months. “We showed an awful lot of character and determination in the second half,” Hodgson said. “It took some Steven Gerrard magic,and courage and determination,which I thought epitomised our second-half performance.”

Watched by new owner John W. Henry,Liverpool fell behind when Edinson Cavani picked up a loose pass on the left and slipped a pass through to Lavezzi,who steered the ball under goalkeeper Pepe Reina. Gerrard added impetus to his side and curled a free kick just wide from the edge of the penalty area before racing onto a weak back pass by former Liverpool defender Andrea Dossena.

Gerrard’s sliding challenge got there just ahead of goalkeeper Morgan de Sanctis and prodded the ball into the net. Gerrard’s next goal came after Salvatore Aronica tripped Glen Johnson for a penalty,and he completed his first hat trick in almost three years from a pass by Lucas Leiva.

Money for nothing

Lech Poznan paid back the world’s richest club Manchester City 3-1 on Thursday only two weeks after losing by the same score in the England encounter. Man City seemed to have earned a draw after Emmanuel Adebayor equalised Dimitrije Injac’s 30th-minute opener but City defender Dedryck Boyata’s headed clearance bounced off Arboleda to make it 2-1 in the 86th minute. Mozdzen then scored with a fierce shot from the edge of the area in injury time to hand City’s expensively assembled squad a third straight loss in all competitions.

“At the moment everything is against us,” City manager Roberto Mancini said. “We have 20 good players but sometimes you can lose a game you don’t deserve to lose.”

Juve held

Poznan shares the Group A lead with City on seven points. Juventus were three points back and can still advance but were held to a fourth consecutive draw in the Europa League,0-0 against Salzburg.

Meanwhile,Zenit St. Petersburg and CSKA Moscow were among four teams to clinch their places in the knockout stages,continuing Russia’s strong recent showings in Europe’s second-tier club competition. Zenit,who won the tournament in 2008,survived a late fightback to win 3-2 at Hajduk Split,while 2005 winner CSKA scored three times in eight second-half minutes to beat Italy’s Palermo 3-1.

Belarusian champions BATE Borisov beat Sheriff of Moldova 3-1 to advance for the first time,while Stuttgart went through after a 3-0 win at Getafe. Tiago’s spectacular late goal gave defending champion Atletico Madrid a 2-1 win at Rosenborg.