Not only the tyres felt flat, their rims were all shattered, resembling more of a square rather than a circle. And the wind-screen was all scratched and dirty, both from inside and outside. The view off it was as unclear as a foggy day. And some with loud voices were claiming the driver doesn’t even have the foggiest of what he’s doing.

But this track was different from last Saturday’s. It’s more exotic and time and again in the recent past, Liverpool have adjusted themselves much better and hit the ground running. The bigger the opposition, the bigger the threat, the bigger the occasion, the bigger the decibels, the bigger the performance, the bigger the pride at the end of the night. And now, being just Wednesday, last weekend feel so far away. Close to each other but giving completely opposite vibes. As opposite as a cooker and a fridge, even though sitting next to each other in the same kitchen.

Liverpool kept possession. Liverpool attacked. Liverpool got frustrated. Liverpool kept it in check. The manager changed. Liverpool upped the tempo. Liverpool then scored two in the final five minutes. In the meantime, they got back to the basics of keeping a clean sheet, which till six minutes from the ninetieth minute looked to be the biggest positive to take from this night at Anfield. But goals by Dirk Kuyt and Steven Gerrard brought a certain euphoria that clouded a bit the fact. The high points of any building are always looked at and admired, while the bedrock is usually camouflaged.

Dirk Kuyt was in his usual workaholic mood yesterday. At times going too deep and like most of the times this season so far, admired rather than inspiring. Winning throw-ins rather than cutting through. For a striker he more provides craft, rather than creates art. But he keeps his head down, persisting against the odds and today he got awarded and his work rate got vindicated. As he never slacked on the pitch though, he avoided the slack from his own fans. And today a ball just kindly bounced diagonally in front of him which he bounced towards the goal and through the net to break the deadlock. And five minutes later the captain who at times was withdrawn, taking care of everything rather than rampaging like a teenager on ale, received the ball from the fresh Pennant and just directed to the most far flung point of goal.

And Inter were defeated like that. They only had ten men since the thirtieth minute, which seemed to enhance their justification of packing their penalty area and give their highly-rated and apparently free scoring Zlatan Ibrahimovic not even a sight on Liverpool’s goal.

The tie is far from over, but Liverpool got out of it so far more than they would have settled for before the game. Even had the circumstances were much better than they actually were. A two-nil score line against the Serie A Champions, most probably champions elect, and an undefeated side since September is a perfect and priceless one. Now, back in San Siro in three weeks times it is up to Liverpool once again to look after such a priceless gem.