STOKE CITY were boosted by the presence of Turkish star Tuncay for their Barclays Premier League match against Liverpool at the Britannia Stadium.
The £5 million striker passed a late fitness test on his hamstring injury and took his place in the starting line-up alongside Mamady Sidibe.
Consequently, manager Tony Pulis made only two changes to the side that beat Fulham in their last Barclays Premier League outing eleven days ago with former Liverpool player Salif Diao coming into the starting line-up to replace Liam Lawrence and Thomas Sorensen returning to the team at the expense of Steve Simonsen.
One setback was that Striker James Beattie was unable to take his place on the substitute's bench after failing a late fitness test on a knee injury.
As expected, there was a long list of notable absentees for Liverpool - namely Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Glenn Johnson and Yossi Benayoun.
Central defender Daniel Agger joined that list of casualties, but Rafael Benitez was at least boosted by the return of midfielder Javier Mascherano.
Recent signing Maxo Rodriguez was among the Liverpool substitutes.
CITY (4-4-2): Sorensen; Huth, Shawcross, Faye, Higginbotham; Delap, Diao, Whitehead, Etherington; Tuncay, Sidibe. Subs: Simonsen, Whelan, Lawrence, Pugh, Collins, Fuller, Wilkinson.
LIVERPOOL(4-5-1): Reina, Carragher, Kyrgiakos, Skrtel, Insua; Kuyt, Degen, Lucas, Mascherano, Aurelio; N'Gog. Subs: Cavalieri, Aquilani, Riera, Rodriguez, Spearing, Darby, Pacheco.
REFEREE: Lee Mason.
