Here we go again.  Lille, Benfica and now Atletico have all beaten us 1-0 away in the Europa League, but let’s just hope that the Madrid side go the same way as the others and get swept away in the return game at Anfield.  I saw nothing in this game to suggest that won’t be the case, I didn’t think Atletico were anything special and I was more disappointed in our display than I was impressed with them.

Things would have been a lot different had Benayoun’s 1st half strike not been incorrectly ruled out, but it’s difficult to make a case that we deserved anything from the game as we were poor and largely unambitious.  But for an absolutely incredible save from Reina we’d be facing an even more uphill battle.

We got off to a bad start and conceded a terrible goal early on.  Johnson got dragged out of position, forcing Carragher to go over and cover, and also dragging Kyrgiakos to the near post.  Forlan completely fucked up his header, the Greek fell over and even though Forlan scuffed his shot Carragher couldn’t get back in time to clear off the line.  It was just a shambolic goal to give away, and typical of our season.

We settled down relatively well after that, and they didn’t trouble us much before half time.  We had a couple of openings ourselves, Gerrard shot into the side netting following a nice ball from Lucas and there was that ‘goal’ from Benayoun that was ruled out following a hopelessly mis-hit shot from Kuyt.  The replays showed he was onside, and the goal should have stood.  The linesman got it wrong, but it’s always difficult when one player is moving towards goal and the defender is pushing out the other way.  I thought it was offside on my first viewing, but the replays showed he was half a yard on.  I can’t be too critical of the official though, these are split second decisions and it’s easy to see how he got it wrong.  Shit happens sometimes.

On the subject of the officials, what was with that NBA style ‘all touch hands’ thing they did before kick off, and the kiss one of the assistants gave the ref?  It was a pretty comical scene, although I have to say the referee was very good, probably the best we’ve had in Europe this season.  He let things go when he could, kept his cards in his pocket whenever possible and didn’t fall for a lot of the diving that went on.  I wouldn’t go as far as to say ‘the referee was perfect’, but he was impressive in comparison to most of the buffoons we see nowadays.

Rafa didn’t seem too happy with him, but the ref’s display was better than ours, that’s for sure.  I wasn’t too upset with our 1st half performance, but we gave the ball away too much and Ngog was ineffective and isolated.  He’s much better at home when we get more players up in support of him.  It was no surprise when he was subbed after the break, and no surprise that the change came around the 65 minute mark.  Getting boring now.  We were proper shit in the 2nd half though.

At least in the opening 45 minutes there was some inclination to try and get some men forward when we could.  I didn’t really see that too much after the break.  I wouldn’t say we settled for the 1-0, but I don’t think we pushed particularly hard to get an away goal either.  When you’ve overturned 1-0 deficits in the previous two rounds, perhaps a certain nonchalance creeps in?  “1-0 isn’t bad, we’ll turn them over at Anfield.”   I’m guilty of that too, it was my immediate reaction when the game finished, the channel 5 commentators made the point and even Rafa casually mentioned how the Anfield crowd gives us a big advantage next week so 1-0 isn’t too bad.

But there is always the danger that we’ll go to the well one too many times, the law of averages says we can’t constantly keep losing away legs and turning it around at Anfield.  We’ll come unstuck eventually, maybe not next week as I wasn’t impressed with Atletico and I can see them collapsing next week if we play anywhere near half decent.  Their keeper is just a kid, it will be a big test for him, and defensively we’ll see how they cope with being put under pressure.

They had it all their own way last night, as any top flight defender should be able to handle Ngog on his own and I don’t actually know what the fuck Ryan Babel was doing when he came on.  Seriously, what was that?  I’d call him a headless chicken, except that’s unfair on headless chickens.

And the other sub to come on?  Ah yes, Nabil El Zhar.  We were 3-0 up against West Ham the other night when Benayoun was brought off.  I said at the time, surely it makes sense to give someone like El Zhar some playing time in a pressure free environment where he can go out and express himself, and boost his confidence in case he’s needed in the run in.  Instead, a shite right back is sent on to play on the wing, and then three days later when Benayoun is again brought off, El Zhar is thrown in at the deep end at 1-0 down in a European semi final in front of 50,000 people in a hostile away fixture.  It’s beyond ridiculous (and that’s without even bring Aquilani into the discussion).

Next week will hopefully be a different story, they’ll have to defend, and we’ll see how they deal with it.  The danger for us is the threat of the away goal.  If we concede we’re in trouble, and they’ll have Aguero back which will obviously help them try and nick something.  Simao has previous against us, and would have proved to be a thorn in our side again but for Reina’s brilliance.  Overall he was very quiet, and it was Reyes on the other side who was more of a danger.  He played well, but he’s a bit of a fanny and spent most of the game on the floor complaining to the ref.  He looks to be carrying a bit more timber than his Arsenal days, a little too much paella maybe?  Still managed about four nutmegs on various Liverpool players though.

I’d say Benfica are a better side than Atletico, and we overcame them despite conceding an away goal so there is certainly cause for optimism. However, when we faced them we had Torres in our ranks.  We won’t have him next week, so this one is very much in the balance.  The home advantage will probably just swing things in our favour, but it could still go either way.