'The worst day' - Liverpool's Europa League rivals go winless again after 96th-minute defeat

Liverpool's next Europa League opponents Toulouse suffered a 96th-minute defeat at the hands of Le Havre over the weekend.

Jurgen Klopp's side comprehensibly beat the French side 5-1 at Anfield in their last European outing to take full control of their group, and they should enter this one with plenty of confidence as Martinez Novell's side have won just one of their last nine. This weekend saw them take the lead through Thijs Dallinga in the 49th minute, but two goals from Mohamed Bayo in the 83rd and 96th minute condemned them to three defeats in five games and they haven't won since beating LASK 1-0 at home on matchday two of the European competition.

The 39-year-old manager claimed the loss was his “worst day” since taking charge of the club in June: “The team is now very, very sad, angry.” Martinez Novell fumed. “This is the worst day since I've been here. We all talked together. The feeling is complicated because there is a lot of rage.

“Some players prefer to talk, others don't but, in any case, we spoke honestly and tried to be positive. We spoke about this situation with the president. Today was special because the match changed in five minutes. It was very complicated.

“If you look at the first 80 minutes, the match was good. We almost gave them the first goal. There was fatigue at the end of the match but, at that moment, we were not suffering. We lacked aggression in spaces, anything could happen.

“After the equaliser, we didn't know what we wanted to do. We wanted to win, so when you are very close to winning the match, one point is not enough. From now on, we will prepare for the match against Liverpool. The stadium will help us and I am sure the team will be competitive.”

Liverpool found it tough away at Luton Town over the weekend, going behind late on before scrambling a late equaliser from Luis Diaz.

Given Liverpool need one more win to qualify, it is likely Klopp will take the chance to rest certain key players and give his squad a proper run-out.

The group stages so far have allowed them to give non-starters valuable minutes, as well as young prospects and we will likely see another rotated line-up that simultaneously rests key figures while also giving squad players a chance to improve and impress.