Cole suffers penalty misery for Liverpool

Ryan Babel handed Liverpool a slender advantage in first-half injury time before promptly being substituted.

Liverpool should have won more convincingly but Cole's miserable week – after being sent off against Arsenal on Sunday – continued as he had a second-half penalty saved.

Asked when he last took a penalty, Cole said: "When I was about 13, and I scored that one.

"It was a bad penalty (tonight). It was pre-determined that I'd take it but you can't dwell on those things.

"It was a bad penalty but we won 1-0 so we'll take the positives from that."

On his new playmaking role for Liverpool, Cole said: "It's nice. I'm finding my feet in there.

"It's my job to do that, to make goals, and it was nice to do that for Ryan tonight. He's a terrific player. I'm enjoying my time here, I've had a decent start."

Mario Balotelli marked his debut for Manchester City with the winner in their 1-0 win over Timisoara in Romania.

The former Inter Milan striker's registration was only received by UEFA on deadline day.

Balotelli responded by stepping off the bench to sweep the ball home after 72 minutes to put City in the driving seat with the second leg to come at Eastlands next Thursday.

Villa head into next Thursday's home return leg of their play-off with Rapid Vienna on the back of a 1-1 draw at the Gerhard Hanappi Stadium.

Twenty-year-old Barry Bannan scored the precious away goal before Atdhe Nuhiu flicked home an equaliser.