Gale winds looked to be blowing furiously all over the Stade Vincente Calderon yesterday. And over 50,000 fans looked to all be blowing furiously to topple the Liverpool ship in this fantastic arena. The Liverpool ship though had a crew that with its extensive experience made light work out of such circumstances and rather than defending the presence of its own ship in such conditions, it had time to raise up its own flag high and proud as Steven Gerrard passed a superb ball to Keane, only for the latter to oblige and deftly put into the net for some very much needed galvanized confidence.

The gales looked to be blowing into Liverpool sails for most of the first forty-five minutes but as Liverpool switched sides so have the gales. In a rather strange peculiar position for this season, as Liverpool had to administer the match rather than chase, the initiative was being slowly handed over to Atletico Madrid. The crew looked rather on the tired side too and with one very delicate voyage in a couple of days time, the captain decided it was time for the likes of Gerrard, Alonso and Keane to get back into their cabins and preserve themselves.

And then the usually strict and flawless Carragher misjudged the bounce of a ball and paved the way to Forlan to pass over to Simao and place the ball past Reina. The flag waving high and proud had to be lowered.

Still the ship continued sailing and is well on course and ahead of schedule to get into the last sixteen of Europe’s crème de le crème. As is the Liverpool way though, the course will not be as easy and a mere question of formality as it has looked after the first forty-five minutes. Only just though it seems.