Liverpool 3 Galatasaray 2 - CL Group Match (Sep 27 2006)

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL 3 Galatasaray 2

Report by Peter Schulz at Anfield

Scorer(s) - Peter Crouch (2) Luis Garcia Half Time - 2-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Wed 27 Sep 2006 Star Man - Peter Crouch

 

 

 

 

When loud chants of ”Istanbul, Istanbul” went up from the away end, many fans inside Anfield must have felt rudely awakened. Instead of letting us joke amongst ourselves about possible 5-0 or 6-0 scorelines, the Turkish fans and players reminded us, as we had them earlier during the game, that something quite extraordinary happened some sixteen months ago in the historic city of Istanbul.

On the 25th anniversary of the death of the first manager who took us into Europe, it very nearly happened again, and how the media would have loved it and wallowed in it, had it done so. We were cruising at 3-0 inside the hour and despite the relative ease with which the Galatasaray wide players exploited space on the flanks, we had built a solid lead, which surely was to be built upon.

To the credit of the Turkish players and fans, they never stopped believing and an inspired double substitution at half time turned the game almost completely on its head.

Rafael Benitez had again made changes, and brought back Jamie Carragher to partner Daniel Agger and Fabio Aurelio at left full back. In midfield the media finally got their wish with Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso in between Jermaine Pennant and Luis Garcia. Peter Crouch was back to partner Dirk Kuyt after a couple of games rest. It looked a very attacking team on paper, and it seemed Rafa was expecting to dominate possession high up the pitch, hence the dropping of Momo Sissoko to the bench.

We won the game so in that respect it must have been a success. Only to a degree I’d say. Firstly, while offering much going forward, our left side was very weak defensively, and Galatasaray were quick to exploit the space left behind Luis Garcia, and with link player Ilic being able to drag Aurelio out of position in towards the middle, they created quite a few openings and got to the byline too many times for my liking. Fortunately for the reds, the crosses didn’t seem to find Hakan Sükür, playing up front on his own in the first half.

Instead Liverpool carved out openings at the other end. Aurelio’s wonderful cross found Crouch who had stolen ahead of the defender on 8 minutes, and later Jermaine Pennant crossed from deep to find Garcia unmarked at the far post for a header into an empty net. It was the little Spaniard’s 9th European goal in 28 matches, a pretty decent scoring record.

The warning signs were there all along and I was fully expecting Rafa to shore things up quickly like he normally does. He didn’t and instead left it to Galatasaray to change the game. They did and brought on Hassan Sas and Ümit Karan at right wing and up front respectively. Even though it was Liverpool who got the third, through a fantastic goal by Peter Crouch, the visitors never gave in and the opening came just as Anfield was going into party mode. A cross from the left found Karan unmarked and his powerful header made things just a little bit edgy.

“Istanbul, Istanbul” chanted the Turkish fans and the players responded well, putting pressure on our full backs and finding space – through Ilic - behind our midfield pairing of Alonso and Gerrard. The game screamed out for Rafa to respond by bringing on Sissoko and Riise, but he didn’t and I can’t understand why. It was obvious that Sas was wreaking havoc on their right and neither Alonso nor Gerrard had the energy to stop the Turkish attacks going through the middle.

It was therefore no surprise when the Turks pushed the home support to defcon 5 “Panic” by adding a second quickly afterwards. This time a cross from the right found Karan in between Agger and Carragher, and again he made no mistake.

Liverpool were groggy and the parallels to Istanbul 2005 were there for all to see, except this time we were playing the part of the overconfident waiting to punish the underdogs even further only for them to strike back when least expected. How embarrassing it would have been to surrender a seemingly unassailable three-goal lead at home against the fourth seeded team in the group. Thank God we managed to survive and hold on or Andy Gray and his mates would have spontaneously ejaculated.

Momo Sissoko was brought on as was Gonzalez but the latter hardly made an impact defensively on the left, failing to hold the ball up and allow breathing space for the back four. I felt Riise could have done that job, and I don’t quite see how Rafa thought the Gonzalez switch would help at the time. We were on the ropes and the introduction of Sissoko came far too late if you ask me. I know you don’t, but let’s just pretend ok?

The ship was steadied somewhat towards the end even though a couple of strange refereeing decisions helped the Turks maintain pressure on Reina and the defence. However, we should never have allowed ourselves to get in that position in the first place, and Rafa must take some of the criticism for allowing Galatasaray to get back into the game.

He kept an attacking team on the pitch even though the team was set up mostly to defend in the latter stages of the second half. The midfield partnership of Gerrard and Alonso does not seem to be working against teams that actually attack us, because they leave so much space in behind. Alonso, because he simply does not possess the mobility of Sissoko, and Gerrard, because he is often stranded further forward.

We travel to Bolton for another early kick off this weekend and surely players like Hyppiä, Warnock and Riise will be back in the side for a game in which our battling skills will be tested to the limit. Bill Shankly would not have approved of the second half performance, but he would have been happy to see Liverpool back on track after a week with three wins.

It is, however, imperative that the boys keep it up. We can’t afford to lose more ground in the league and there is still work to be done in the Champions League group following PSV Eindhoven’s win in Bordeaux.

Team: Reina; Finnan, Carragher, Agger, Aurelio; Pennant (Sissoko), Gerrard, Alonso, Garcia; Kuyt (Gonzalez), Crouch (Bellamy):