The one thing that struck me, as I watched this game from the luxury of my armchair at home, was that this was as comfortable a 1-0 win as you're ever likely to see. It was a classical European display from the reds, silencing the crowd early on, before grabbing that vital away goal and then making sure we closed the game out. We probably should have scored more, and on another night we would have, but as everyone keeps telling us ¿there's no easy games in Europe these daysî, so I'll take a 1-0 away win every time. I don't particularly enjoy channel 5"s coverage if I'm honest, but at least they seem to be interested in the reds, unlike some other channels we could mention. Channel 5 also showed some of our pre-season games, so they deserve 10 out of 10 for effort, even if Ray Clemence is a terrible commentator (Roberto Song?) and Jonathan Pearce is a loudmouth who can often spoil the game with his over the top rantings. Still, they're minor complaints and I'm just glad that someone is covering our away ties in Europe, as my Ðmatch going budget" doesn't stretch far enough to allow for trips into the backwaters of Eastern Europe I'm afraid.
In the days leading up to the game, the Echo had been concentrating on the fact that this was Nicky Barmby's first ever European tie (one headline proclaiming ¿This is why I joined the redsî was surely designed to wind up the bluenoses), and Barmby made sure that any headlines on the day after the game would also be about him, with the only goal and a superb all round performance. With more luck he could have had a hat-trick, and his link up play with Owen was particularly encouraging.
Barmby had been steady but unspectacular so far this season, but this was the game when he really showed what he can bring to the side. I'd expect that, barring injuries, Barmby will get double figures for us this season, simply because he's always in the box when we attack. It sounds simple, but there's not many midfield players in the Premiership who can do it. He's the only one at Anfield that's for sure. The likes of Berger and Smicer are good attacking midfielders, but most of Paddy's goals come from thirty yards and Vladi is more of a provider. Barmby gets into the box and always looks like he can get on the end of things. If we can get the right blend in midfield, he could be an important player for us.
The unfortunate early departure of Heskey was a big disappointment, as with all the Romanians attention on Owen, Emile could have ran them ragged. Unfortunately he was kicked out of the game before he could do any damage, and despite the presence of Robbie and Mad Erik on the bench, I think everyone knew GH would go for Murphy. Had it been a home game, I'd like to think Gerard would have gone with a second striker, but in a game such as this Murphy was a better option. The idea of course being that Danny would play just behind Owen supplying him with passes to run onto. It didn't exactly turn out that way, but I thought Danny did okay.
Diomede and Ziege both made their first starts, and I thought Bernie had a fine game on the left. He works his bollocks off, and having seen him in the reserves the other week I can tell you that he's got a lot more in his locker going forward than we saw tonight. He sacrificed some of his attacking play to help out the team, which is an encouraging sign. As for Ziege, he was rusty, very rusty. I've said before that I'm not convinced about him defensively in a back four, and I'm hoping to be proved wrong on that one, but going forward he'll give us a hell of a lot of quality. Just a small point though, why wasn't he taking our corners?
Overall, the defence looked a lot more solid, with Songy having another steady game and Henchoz in fine form once again. Hamann is in good form at the moment too. I had a go at Didi at the end of last season, as I get the impression that he plays when it suits him (i.e. in the big games) but this season he's been slightly better. Let's hope it continues.
TEAM: Sander Westerveld; Rigobert Song, Markus Babbel, Stephane Henchoz, Christian Ziege (Djimi Traore); Nick Barmby, Dietmar Hamann, Jamie Carragher, Bernard Diomede; Emile Heskey (Danny Murphy), Michael Owen (Robbie Fowler):
