Having gone twelve days without a Liverpool match, I was well looking forward for the duel with Aston Villa. With the last match being at Anfield against the European Champions Barcelona, Aston Villa at Villa Park will always have an anti-climax feeling, but I thought the twelve days of no action will make up for that. At the end, I almost felt that the match got in the way of a good weekend. Even ten minutes of highlights off the offical site felt stretching the word highlights too much. It really was that dire.


The irony of it all though is that after David Johnson's last minute winner at Goodison Park against Arsenal, Liverpool have reduced the gap with Arsenal to solely one point, albeit with one game in hand.

Robbie Fowler almost scored in the dying minutes after a perfect cross by Jermaine Pennant which was met by the former's head impeccably. That was probably the only one save of note that Thomas Sorensen had to make. The only other chance was in the first minutes of the match when a good cross by John Arne Riise found Dirk Kuyt in ample space but the latter's header lacked composure and direction, and in a way was the best indication of what had to follow.

After thirty matches, Liverpool have now gained fifty-four points. That is nowhere near last season's total of eighty-two points. The achievement of mixing up with the last eight of the European cream, make up for this downfall, but hopefully the prospect of Arsenal at Anfield in the Premiership spurs on the lads and justify the next fortnight of lack of action.

In the meantime hopefully the meeting between Rafael Benitez and the new custodians is set as soon as possible and gives the peace of mind needed by the boss.

Eidur Gudjohnsen danced past Pepe Reina and gave Barcelona a one-nil victory over Liverpool at Anfield. At the end of the night it was the Kopites who were though dancing with joy as Gudjohnsen's goal was only a bruise through a journey that started back in December in Geneva and ended with Liverpool reaching the last eight of this year's Champions League. The perfect performance and result at the Nou Camp was too valuable and precious to be tarnished by a solitary goal and the men in red helped by a buoyant Anfield crowd made sure of that by an incredible performance.

The European tactical genius of Rafael Benitez decided that the best form of defending the 2-1 lead is attack and I was sincerely surprised by the way Liverpool got out of their blocks immediately and simply pegged Barcelona into their own half and subsequently their penalty area. It is a mixture of mystery, bad luck and missed golden chances that prevented Liverpool from increasing their aggregate lead and kill off the tie. John Arne Riise on his own went agonsinigly wide in the first five minutes, hit the crossbar with another rasping shot that simply beaten their keeper, and had a header cleared off the line. The first forty-five minutes could only be described as a barrage of Liverpool attacks. At one point Liverpool had nine shots at goal without even one reply from the reigning European champions. On second thoughts, it was a pity the captain Steven Gerrard didn't choose attacking the Kop in the first half like last Saturday as I am sure that at some time the Kop would have sucked the ball into the net, the combination of eleven men on the pitch and the twelfth one in the Kop in top form would have rendered the task trivial.

The second forty-five minutes saw a change of pattern in play and it was only understandable considering the pedigree of the opponents and the whole array of individual match winners. Once again though, Liverpool's fate felt in safe hands under the mean defence led by Jamie Carragher. Carra's single mindedness to the cause, will, reading of the game, coolness and tackling ability give the phrase peace of mind further credibility. Jamie's name has started to be sung for a good three years now after a difficult start and today it seems songs of his praise has finally infiltrated the national press pages. On his right, another unsung hero came to the fore yesterday, as while I attribute peace of mind with Jamie, reliability is attributed to Steve Finnan.

The final few minutes were as tense as ever but that is only the Liverpool way of doing things and it only exaceberated the incredible feeling at the final whistle. The defeat gave no bitter sweet taste whatsoever, only an unfathomable feeling of how the net was not found while the European Champions were being stripped naked. Bad luck or lack of striking quality? Whatever the answer it is I am not willing to think about it. It is only time to celebrate two of the best ever Liverpool European nights and guess who will we drawing come next Friday.

It felt like an election campaign, everything was going reasonably smoothly, everyone was warming up to your approach, some punters were in a way preparing to wax lyrically on you, but then one moment of madness on election's day eve, one punch below the belt and it is all lost. Added to that you have to endure the opposition's goading in your own pad.

Yesterday felt bad. Awful, horrible, profligately wrong and unstomachable. From the heights of the third tier at the Nou Camp to the very end of the gutter.

Liverpool started the match well, had their own chances in the first half, mostly thanks to Riise's left foot and Bellamy's supremacy of Vidic. Then they started the second half with all guns blazing, came off their blocks really quickly, had their precious chances but they still didn't get anything to show for it. During the middle of the second half, they still were on top, but with a slower tempo. The dying minutes saw the very best chance of the game go to the fresh Peter Crouch, who afforded to chest the ball and volley it on target. Whilst chesting the ball, the opposing keeper composed himself and answered with a top class save. It seemed like a scoreless draw was carved on a stone and it had to be accepted. It was probably through carved in sand, as in the very dying minutes of the match, Liverpool conceded a free-kick, the ball bobbled in the six yard box and the rest is history.

In a match that Liverpool dominated the centre-back Jamie Carragher still looked head and shoulders above his team mates. It defies logic and for the umpteenth time he showed his pure commitment to the cause and more than that his class. He is not your average bulldog spirit who is all shouts and air punches. His two perfect tackles in space of seconds in the first half were marvellous and a joy to behold. A leader on and off the pitch. I showered Momo's name with praise in my last piece, and it was only deserving but yesterday was a different story altogether. He had a timely block in the first minutes of the match, but yesterday unlike in the Nou Camp he ended up with the task of composing attacks rather than destroying them which is his true forte. As much as I hate to say it, he failed miserably as most of the times he looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights and squandered possession over and over again. Having said that, it shows Liverpool's dominance that the main destroyer ended up with the ball in his foot rather than trying to win it back for his team-mates. Considering that Steven Gerrard was sacrificed to the right to accomodate him, maybe a substitution to enable the captain shifting to the middle of the park should have been on the cards.

Time and time again, we have seen good runs being ruined after a defeat to them. This time with Barcelona round the corner, it just cannot be even contemplated. I would even dare saying that prior the match, most fans had their minds mostly on Tuesday rather than on them. The talk was mostly of what a wonderful European night it should be. The great result and the memories at the Nou Camp cannot be tarnished next Tuesday.

It is the perfect occassion to bury yesterday's diabolical taste.