Hi everybody. I am still frustrated with the 1-2 loss at White Hart Lane, but I am also looking forward to the next game: Stoke City at Anfield, tomorrow at 20.00 GMT.
Stoke was a hard nut to crack last season, and we won neither game against them. We did not even score (two 0-0 games!)… I remember especially the latter game of the two, where Steven Gerrard had tons of chances but just could not score! Tony Pulis’ men made themselves respected by their moral, defensive displays, and determination and Pulis managed to avoid relegation by far!
Fernando Torres, who was weak the other day, says: “We know them, we know last season we played against them and it was really difficult.” But at the same time, Torres is prepared to put the Tottenham defeat behind him and his team by saying: “The best thing when you lose is having a game three days later because we have the chance to forget about Tottenham.”
Lucas Leiva is as confident and determined: “We have to try and beat Stoke and afterwards we can think about the next game with Aston Villa. We want to take six points.”
Acting as last season’s surprise, Stoke will not travel to Anfield prepared to lose…
Sincerely yours,
Hi! Extra update, for the occasion!
This must be marked by the Hillsborough Disaster, the annual day is tomorrow, 15th April. An extra motivation for us!
Torres – last time contemplating the loss – today, eyeing victory?
A disaster reported though – Steven Gerrard is not even on the bench for us!!! He is still out with that groin injury! AARGH!
Torres is our front man, and slightly behind him we usually find Gerrard – but our captain is injured tonight…
Now, what can we expect?
Most people would say that Guus Hiddink will choose a defensive tactic – but I honestly think that he might choose to attack us fiercely! Attack is the best defence. Can we hold them? Maybe. With this starting XI, I am not as sure as before: Reina; Arbeloa, Aurelio, Carragher, Skrtel; Alonso, Mascherano; Kuyt, Benayoun, Lucas; Torres. We will see whether or not the absence of our captain Steven Gerrard will affect us too much to cope with – hopefully not, but… Well, I suppose you have the same feelings… The bench: Cavalieri, Dossena, Hyypiä, Agger, Riera, Babel, Ngog.
Branislav Ivanovich – two goals last time and is present in today’s Chelsea line-up as well.
Other worries? Martin Skrtel back in the squad – was not the best player last time and Daniel Agger was really good against Blackburn. Albert Riera on the bench, instead having Dirk Kuyt to the right and Yossi Benayoun to the left, with Lucas Leiva in the centre. NO, i do not like… I want Lucas out, and Riera in to the left, with Benayoun going right and Kuyt either as second striker or striking partner with Fernando Torres up front.
But, we know Rafael Benítez has his small tricks and things…
We want another miracle in thie Mission Impossible, Mr. Hu… Benítez!
We have Gerrard out, and Chelsea also has a great player out of the squad: John Terry. So, both captains are out. Do we like? Well, I honestly think Gerrard does more for us than do Terry for Chelsea – so the loss of Gerrard will really affect!
Here is a live-stream for you, the code being 7452 :
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[the link: http://www.justin.tv/psnn2#shareform]
Update, 21.36
Half-time report! 2-0 to Liverpool! Fabio Aurelio scored a fabulous free-kick where Petr Cech went out into the box too early and Aurelio nicely hit the net from 30 metres! Also, on another Aurelio free-kick Xabi Alonso was pulled by Branislav Ivanovich, and dragged to the ground – PENALTY! Which Alonso himself took and bombarded Cech’s right corner with a lace-shot, and boom: 2-0!
45 minutes left, half-time pause right now! So, please! Please Liverpool – MAKE THIS HAPPEN! EARN THE NAME: THE COMEBACK KINGS!
Sincerely yours,
YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE,
RedWalk
Ta ta ta tata taaatataaa!
Chelsea-Liverpool (3-1 aggregate)
Stamford Bridge, 19.45 GMT
I want to start with recalling some fantastic memories of ours…:
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Scenario: Liverpool-Chelsea 1-3 on Anfield; Chelsea-Liverpool (3-1) on Stamford Bridge – tonight.
I can smell Rome!
Well, we really messed up at Anfield. Blame it on zonal marking? Blame it on individual mistakes? Blame it on Branislav Ivanovich? Blame it on Rafael Benítez? Blame it on Guus Hiddink? No, blame ourselves, the team. If there is one competition Liverpool, or well the Liverpool I am used to see, always are strong in it is the Champions League. Always 110% ready to go – on fire! On fire for six minutes…
Key quotes I have found:
Albert Riera: “Morale has recuperated after the match at Anfield and in 90 minutes it is possible to win. After the result at Anfield the tie is poised 70 per cent to Chelsea and 30 per cent to Liverpool. We must exploit that 30 per cent. It is necessary to rediscover the historical spirit of Liverpool in Europe where nothing is impossible.”
Rafael Benítez: “We have already won at Stamford Bridge this season. We ended their long unbeaten home record and that is a massive boost to our confidence. We can do it if we work together and we score in the first half. If we do not do that it becomes increasingly more difficult, mentally. If we score a second goal then they will be under real pressure. But we know we must be almost perfect. And we know that with Steven and Fernando together on the pitch we do have a good chance. People have written us off. Maybe we have nothing to lose, which means we can be positive, relax and hopefully then not make mistakes.”
How about Gerrard’s injury, and Fernando Torres’ crazy goal-producing?
Yossi Benayoun: “We need him [Fernando Torres] and Stevie [Gerrard] both to be at their best for this game and if they are then we might just do it. We know that we are capable of scoring a lot of goals in a single game because we have showed this in quite a few matches already this season.”
One last quotation from our lovely Mr. Benítez: “We believe that we can do it and the way to do it is by working together as a team and by taking our chances. We are Liverpool so we will fight and we will try to do it. It’s important to know that although we are now in a very bad position, we have nothing to lose.”
We will take them on the Bridge. What I think? 3-0 in Liverpool’s favour. Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, and Yossi Benayoun our heroes.
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Watch the blog for the rest of the evening if you want to see the game live! If I can, I will live-stream it!
Sincerely yours,
YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE,
RedWalk
Liverpool-Blackburn Rovers 4-0
Anfield, 12.45 GMT
LFC: Torres ‘5, ‘33; Agger ‘83; N’Gog ‘89.
Blackburn: -
Steven Gerrard injured, the worst game ever in the back (1-3 against Chelsea) and a Blackburn fighting to avoid relegation – all set and done for a crash and bang? Oh, yes…
Pre-match more talk about the Hillsborough Disaster circulated than match talk… And it was shown that The Ninetysix are not forgotten. Even I back home stood up and saluted The 96.
A minute’s silence for The 96.
But, the game had to be played, obviously. The starting XI was a bit different to the previous ones: Reina; Arbeloa, Insua, Carragher, Agger; Mascherano, Alonso; Benayoun, Riera, Kuyt; Torres. Gerrard injured, as previously known, so Dirk Kuyt replaced his offensive, free role behind Fernando Torres (which I personally criticised Rafael Benítez for…).
Gerrard injured, but on the bench in case…
Why not play 4-4-2 with Xabi Alonso as offensive playmaker and Javier Mascherano slightly behind him for support and Fernando Torres beside a striker Kuyt or N’Gog? No, to replace Gerrard with Kuyt seemed wierd.
But I was wrong.
Kuyt did a decent game behind Torres, and Torres was just outstanding!
The whole game with highlights I show here on the blog, a good video!
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/BiXAUKZnLdw" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Blackburn had a hard time throughout the whole game. Sam Allardyce made a strange decision when putting Cristopher Samba as target man up front instead of Benni McCarthy (the South African striker), but I can just say thank you, Allardyce!
Illegal strike, Torres!
My man-of-the-match is of course Fernando Torres! A world-class goal, which I could not believe sitting at home! Took me a second to really understand that the shot had gone into the net! Great goal, great player.
Runner-up is Yossi Benayoun! Made a very good game on our right-flank, and is a much more creative player than is Kuyt. Had the energy to stir things up in the Blackburn defence and could have scored.
A flexing of muscles!
Third-place: Daniel Agger, Javier Mascherano, and Albert Riera. Agger took his chance and proved his worth! If he is not signed to a new four (no, FIVE!)-year deal, I will put up a protest list… Mascherano did a very good game, both attacking and defending. He had a few good shots and was rock-solid on Liverpool’s half of the pitch. Albert Riera was really good in the first half, and had a good time dribbling the Blackburn defence to pieces… Technical skill and great crosses in this game takes him up on the shared third place for man-of-the-match!
MoM points:
Reina: 6
Arbeloa: 6
Insua: 8
Carragher: 7
Agger: 8
Mascherano:8
Alonso: 7
Benayoun: 8
Riera: 8
Kuyt: 6
Torres: 9
***
Sincerely yours,
You’ll Never Walk Alone,
RedWalk
We were lucky this time! I did not see the game myself, had my own football camp, but I have seen some highlights and even though it seems like Liverpool hade most of the chances, we could not score! However,we did! This does show our strength.
Luck? Skill? Well, I would say a combination. I say that you earn luck. That is one of my mottos. If now Liverpool had the game in a box, it is just making sense that Yossi Benayoun scores – when does not matter, really. 1-0 in after 91 minutes and 33 seconds. Some call it luck. Would it have been luck if we would have scored in the, let us say, 20th or 60th minute?
Benayoun, then. He has been really good this season, if seen to the very little amount of time he actually spends on the pitch. Mostly, we have seen Albert Riera and Dirk Kuyt master our wings, or at least populated them… Kuyt was the player who Benayoun came on for. In my opinion, Kuyt should not be a winger, but striker. I say, move him up to his original position (from where he scored 71 goals in 101 games for Feyenoord) – we bought him to play striker.No, do that, and then let us fans dream about Ashley Young…
But, back to the game. As I said I have not seen the game – but due to the highlights it seems like Liverpool dominated.
Steven Gerrard: “It was a massive performance from the lads and on the day the result was the least we deserved. If I’m being honest, there were times when I thought it wasn’t going to be for us today, but we kept going and Yossi popped up with a great goal. Yossi is a special player. He gets important goals for us and even though he doesn’t play every game, I think he’s close to double figures now so that shows how important he is to us and how important it is to have a good squad.”
I am glad we avoided a Manchester United-game (2-0 to Fulham). This made us advance to first place, but we have two games less played than Manchester United.
Sincerely yours,
YNWA,
RedWalk
Liverpool-Aston Villa 5-0
Liverpool: Dirk Kuyt ‘8; Albert Riera ‘33; Gerrard ‘39, ‘50, ‘65.
Aston Villa: -
To all you who doubted.
No resume needed, I guess. 5-0 – a showdown.
Alvaro Arbeloa made his best game so far this season, active both in offensive and defensive (should maybe have taken a shot, after Brad Friedel’s mistake?). Fabio Aurelio as good as Arbeloa! Jamie Carragher and Martin Skrtel immaculate together with José Reina in goal who made a couple of nice reflex saves.
Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso were fantastic, controlling the midfield as usual. Albert Riera surprised and was really, really alert! On the right Dirk Kuyt was trustworthy, and in the defensive midfield Javier Mascherano did few mistakes.
Fernando Torres had a hard time up front, alone against Aston Villa’s defensive line (clearly told by Martin O’Neill to take Torres down).
So, with 5-0 in this game and 4-0 and 1-4 wins, we have a total of 13-1 against some of the best teams in the world.
Hallelujah and YNWA
Sincerely yours,
RedWalk
drevinho