Liverpool 1 Chelsea 1 - CL SF 1st Leg (Apr 22 2008)

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL 1 Chelsea 1

Report by Dave Usher at Anfield

Scorer(s) – Dirk Kuyt Half Time - 1-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Tue 22 April 2008 Star Man – Martin Skrtel

 

 

 

 

 

It simply wouldn’t be Liverpool if we did it the easy way. Forget the disappointment of what happened at the end, forget the finger pointing towards Riise, and most of all, forget all this negativity and defeatism that seems to have consumed a lot of reds. So we have to go to Stamford Bridge and score, big fucking deal. We’ve overcome a lot bigger obstacles than this, so get your fucking heads up as we’ll still do this.

Some people seem to have given up, but there’s no reason whatsoever why we can’t go there and win next week. “Oh but we haven’t scored there in eight games, and they never lose at home, and they’ve got the away goal and blah blah blah…” People need to knock that shit off and get a grip. We’re Liverpool, this is our competition and we can go there and win. Chelsea think they’re through already, I beg to differ.

We haven’t scored in eight games at the Bridge? Well I guess we’re fucking due then aren’t we. They haven’t lost at home for years? So what. If they’d lost this season to Bolton or Birmingham or someone, would that mean we have more chance of winning next week? No, it wouldn’t have any bearing on our game, so it’s irrelevant. Fuck their home record, it means nothing. I just hope it’s still intact by the time we play them, as I want us to put a stop to it.

I’d forgotten how much I actually hate these horrible bastards. Maybe because I’ve been hoping they could stop the mancs winning the title I’ve taken my eye off the ball a bit as far as noticing their despicableness, but last night it all came flooding back. Actually, in fairness there’s only two of them who managed to get me riled up. As much as I can’t stand the likes of Ballack, the Coles, Makalele et al, it pales into insignificance compared to the sheer foaming at the mouth hatred I have for Drogba and Mongo.

Never mind Ronaldo and Rooney, these two are on a completely different level when it comes to twattishness. If one day someone was to run onto the pitch with a baseball bat and do Drogba’s kneecaps, would anyone other than Chelsea fans have any sympathy whatsoever? It’d be deserved, because this piece of filth has taken cheating to a whole new level. Diving, looking for free-kicks and feigning injury goes on in every game, but nobody anywhere takes it to the extremes this cunt does.

It winds me up the way it’s seen as a joke. Commentators and pundits laugh and poke fun at him when he does it. It isn’t funny though, he should be banned from football as he’s an absolute embarrassment to the game and I honestly don’t know how no opponent has ever snapped and just fucking planted him.

Mind you, the same goes for ‘Big JT’. He’s a fucking sly, snidey thug, with a forehead the size of a small eastern European country. He got away with fucking murder last night, as he tends to do against us. At least three yellow card offences were ignored before he finally went into the book, as he and Carvalho bullied Torres with the blessing of the official. They obviously saw how Ferdinand and Vidic kicked Torres off the park recently, and followed suit. A strong referee wouldn’t have allowed it, but we had a fucking idiot in charge who made bizarre decisions all night. More on him later.

We didn’t deserve what happened to us at the end, but there’s no point moping about it. Fact is, we were much better than them and on another night we’d have won by two or three goals. Cech got them out of the shit, but next week we just have to make sure we put our chances away.

We were the better side, but we can still play a lot better than we did. We didn’t start well, but eventually we built up a head of steam and began to create some good openings. Torres should have scored from a lovely pass from Gerrard, but it seemed to me like he took one touch too many, and then Cech saved his shot.

Babel wasn’t getting much joy on the left, but on the other flank Kuyt was proving to be a major pain in the arse to Ashley Cole, and not in the vibrating mobile phone kind of way he likes (allegedly of course). Dirk was fucking immense once again. His work rate is always the thing that impresses people most, but in this game I’d go as far as to say his actual touch and all round game even eclipsed his monumental work rate.

His touch was as good as it’s ever been. Everything stuck to him, regardless of how difficult the ball was to control, and he was always finding space and looking to receive the ball. Actually, there was one occasion when it didn’t quite stick, as his fine run through the middle was matched by an imperious through ball from Alonso (back to his best), but as Dirk tried to take it on the chest it got away from him and Cech got there first.

Aside from that (which was a difficult take for anybody in fairness), he managed to kill every ball that came his way and he was our best attacking player by some distance. His goal was a little fortunate in how the ball fell to him, but he’d earned that fortune by closing down Lampard and winning the ball back by getting a foot in and finding Alonso.

Xabi backheeled it to Mascherano who skied his shot, but Dirk had set off to follow the shot in and did well to get in front of Makelele to keep him from the ball, before firing a low shot past Cech to send Anfield wild. It was a nice time to get a goal as well, shortly before half time. Kuyt has been the man so far in the knockout stages, and let’s hope he can do it again next week.

We started the second half brilliantly, passing them off the park and looking very threatening. Babel suddenly found his game, and had a couple of excellent runs that showed he had the beating of Ferreira. The problem he had as far as I could see, was that we didn’t always get the ball to him early enough. If he gets the full back isolated, he can go inside or outside. If they managed to double up on him, they show him inside and he runs into trouble.

I’d have him on the bench next week as he could be really useful late on if we need him. Either Yossi or Pennant should start, although I’d also be tempted to maybe go with Crouch in the middle and use Torres a little wider, as it may be easier for him receiving the ball facing goal rather than being buffeted from behind by Mongo and Lord Percy. Can’t see that happening like, it’s just a thought I had. If we have a strong ref then Torres would be ok anyway.

Chelsea had not really offered much in attack, although my heart was in my mouth in the first half when Carragher slid in to challenge Drogba on the edge of the box. From where I was sat there was no way I could see if he got any of the ball, so immediately I looked to the ref and was hugely relieved he waved play on. I quickly texted a mate to ask if it was a foul, and he replied that it was close but Carra just got a touch on the ball. One of the few things the ref got right then.

Whenever Carragher is up against Drogba, he always looks to be at full stretch. It’s difficult for him, as Drogba is faster, taller and stronger than him, so it needs a monumental effort from Carragher to deal with with him. He generally does it, but it always looks like very hard work, which I’m sure it is. Skrtel on the other hand, made it look easy. But then he is just as quick, and just as strong as Drogba so it’s an easier match up for him.

He absolutely dominated Drogba in this game, which resulted in the cheating cunt hurling himself to the turf whenever Skrtel got close to him. There was a ten or fifteen minute spell in which Drogba got so frustrated at how Skrtel was bossing him, that he couldn’t put a foot right, much to the amusement of the crowd. We need another performance like this from big Martin next week if we are to go through.

Around the hour mark Chelsea seemed to find an extra gear and they had a good spell where they put us under pressure. They looked really dangerous in this period, and I could see a goal coming. The best chance fell to Malouda, who did everything right until the finish which went wide. A corner was awarded, and I saw Reina pat Mascherano on the back so presumably he deflected the shot wide.

Drogba’s persistence then created a chance for Lampard, but his touch was heavy (insert own fat joke here) and he ran the ball out of play. Still, the danger signs were there now, and we needed to get a grip. Gradually we did, and we came again. The introduction of Yossi for Babel was a predictable one, and a sensible one in fairness. I’d have maybe gone with Pennant instead, as he’s had a few good performances against Chelsea, but I couldn’t argue too much about Yossi getting the nod.

Riise also came from the unfortunate Aurelio, injured yet again. That injury could prove costly in more ways than one. The Brazilian has been in excellent form and gives our play another dimension with his ability to keep the ball and find team-mates with passes in tight situations. We’ll miss him if he’s out for a while, but this is a recurring theme now.

1-0 would have been a decent result, but really we had to go looking for another as it was there for us if we could take it. In the last ten minutes we were well on top, and could so easily have scored on a couple of occasions but for Cech. Gerrard was denied a spectacular goal by the keeper following some nice link up play with Kuyt, and Torres was denied again in stoppage time. When that didn’t go in, I expected the final whistle to go, but play continued a while longer and then the unthinkable happened.

In the space of a few seconds, we went from being disappointed about not making it 2-0, to being devastated at being pegged back to 1-1. The goal was terrible, but not just on Riise’s part. We gave the ball away when we had a chance to clear it upfield (Dirk I think), and we had two players in position to stop Kalou crossing the ball (Arbeloa and Mascherano?). I’m also unsure as to whether Reina could have come and gathered the cross. There’s no doubt though the biggest error was Riise’s.

At the time, I didn’t think he could have done anything about it. It was a difficult ball in, and Anelka was behind him waiting for a tap in so he had to deal with it. Being so close to his goal it was difficult to direct it anywhere other than in the net, but he had to try as leaving it would have surely meant a goal for Anelka. Having seen it again, my initial impression was way off. He should never have been trying to head that ball, a simple swing of the right boot would have dealt with it.

Riise is so one footed it’s ridiculous, and I can only assume that was why he opted to try and head it. However, he had a split second to make decision, and clearly he made the wrong one, but shit happens and it’s unfair to hang him for it. A lot of people don’t like him anyway, so this will only add to that, but he needs to be strong and put this behind him, as with Aurelio injured we need him next week.

He'll be feeling awful today, but he needs to forget about it and look to next week. Riise can be the hero now, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he leathered one in from 30 yards at the Bridge. Football is like that sometimes. Let's not forget the great goals Riise has scored for us in big games, two of them against Chelsea in cup competitions. Head up John, it ain't over yet lad.

Chelsea celebrated as though they were already in Moscow. Let them think that, it plays into our hands. There’s a long way to go yet, and an early goal for us next week put us in the driving seat again. Let’s look at the positives. We came back from three down at half time in Istanbul, and that team was nowhere near as good as this one.

We’ve got Torres now, and he’ll be itching to get his own back next week after the kicking he took. We’ll have a different referee next week too, which has to be a good thing given how utterly fucking clueless this prick was. Some of his decisions were staggeringly bad, not least the one when he failed to give a free-kick after Kuyt had skinned Cole on the line and been hacked down.

The bit that really sticks in my throat is that the only reason we had four minutes stoppage time was because of that cheating cunt Drogba constantly feigning injury and wanting the physio on. They scored in time added on because of that fucking cheating shithouse, and that’s hard to take.

He’ll get his next week though. I don’t want to hear any of this negative ‘we can’t do it’ shit. We’re Liverpool, this is the European Cup, we can do fucking anything. Let’s make Mongo cry again, on his own turf this time. Let's win it for Liam Harker, god bless him. COME ON REDMEN, LET”S FUCKING DO THESE CUNTS!!!

Team: Reina; Arbeloa, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio (Riise); Mascherano, Alonso; Kuyt, Gerrard, Babel (Benayoun); Torres: