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.
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.
posted by jean paul at 9:26 pm
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