Liverpool FC Forum

by **66-1112520797** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:04 am

Good performance, great win :buttrock

by **bunglemark2** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:12 am

Bamaga man wrote:Good performance, great win

Well said, that about sums it up. My sentiments are still influenced by the season overall, and how in God's name we could put it up to the Serie A table toppers in that manner, yet three days earlier, we were muck.
On its own, it was a good result.
Can't help but thinking we need an absolute clinical finisher to complement Torres though...

by **mattylfc** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:23 am

Owzat wrote:No doubt Crouch will get lots of credit for doing next to nothing (what else isn't new), his first touch in front of what was an open goal took so long to control the ball that he then had to sidestep and get in a shot from a worse angle. His flicks and controlled headers were laughable, however I'd rather see him on the pitch than play against ten men until two thirds of the way into the game with both Lucas and Mascherano on the pitch. Inter posed little threat so why did Mascherano stay on? His passing was worryingly Sissoko-like, one reason I don't want us spending £17m on him, and he was one player could easily have gone off (EDIT : I see he was voted MOTM on the BBC , I'd like to know what for bearing in mind Inter did FA). But I suspect Rafa feared the worst case scenario, losing would have been worse than not winning.

I have to say, i completely disagree with you here mate. Crouch made a big difference when he came on. He gave us that different option going forward and it encouraged us to get the ball into the box. Inters defense (who were great by the way) didnt know how to handle him and he caused them more problems in that short space of time than we did for the majority of the game.

As for Mascherano, He was was absolutley superb last night. He completely bossed the midfield. He broke up play just like he always does and his distrubiton was excellent. He was definitely my MOM.

by **account deleted by request** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:28 am

I thought we could and should have got more goals last night , but maybe thats beeing greedy. Masch was by far our best player last night and saved us on numerous occasions from dangerous break away attacks. His pass to Finnan inside the defender was perfectly weighted and it was only through some great defending that we didn' break the deadlock from Finnan's cross.

Gerrard for the most part was well marshalled by Cambiasso, but as usual came up with the goods in the end.

I was fuming at Rafa for his subs, but you can't argue with success and Kuyt scored so I was wrong. Just glad I kept my thoughts to myself and didn't share them last night.

Our crossing all night was very poor, most of the time hitting the first man, with Kuyt probably making the best crosses of the night.

I hate the 4-5-1 formation and as usual with Liverpool Torres became more isolated as the game went on and our attacks became disjointed as we comfortably kept possession but failed to create many openings. Once Crouch came on and we went 4-4-2 we started to create more chances and started to penetrate their defence with greater purpose.

Kuyts goal was a strange one. Unmarked for once in the box he controlled the ball well, but his shot though well struck was straight at the keeper, who would probably have saved it if he had stayed on his feet ,maybe the slight deflection fooled him?

Gerrards goal couldn't have been better placed but I don't think Gerrard caught it quite as well as he would have liked but well enough to beat the outstretched legs and then the goalkeeper.

Defensively we didn't have much to do, but lack of communication between Sami and Reina had my heart in my mouth on a couple of occasions. Other than that I thought they coped well with the little they had to do.

Torres could have scored when he broke through, but a great save denied him, and he had a snap shot go just past the post in a game of few real chances.

I still think we have a long way to go in this tie yet, and in no way do I think its over, but we have put ourselves in a great position to advance to the next round.

On Rafa, apart from he could perhaps have made the change to 4-4-2 at half time rather than waiting till late in the game I thought he got most of the big decisions right.

by **JC_81** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:33 am

Owzat wrote:No doubt Crouch will get lots of credit for doing next to nothing (what else isn't new), his first touch in front of what was an open goal took so long to control the ball that he then had to sidestep and get in a shot from a worse angle. His flicks and controlled headers were laughable, however I'd rather see him on the pitch than play against ten men until two thirds of the way into the game with both Lucas and Mascherano on the pitch. Inter posed little threat so why did Mascherano stay on? His passing was worryingly Sissoko-like, one reason I don't want us spending £17m on him, and he was one player could easily have gone off (EDIT : I see he was voted MOTM on the BBC , I'd like to know what for bearing in mind Inter did FA). But I suspect Rafa feared the worst case scenario, losing would have been worse than not winning.

Have to completely disagree with this part of your post mate.

Mascherano and the introduction of Crouch were two of the reasons why we won last night, no question.

Mascherano set the tempo the whole night, snapped into tackles and kept the ball moving quickly without doing anything fancy. It was important to keep the tempo high against 10 men as it eventually tired them out and we got our reward with 2 late goals - Mascherano played a massive part in this.

It became clear after about an hour that we were struggling to break them down, we needed to give them something different to think about and that was Crouch. He held the ball up very well and gave us a different focal point of attack. He was unlucky not to score but he did his job in unsettling them.

I also have to say that a huge factor in us winning rather than drawing was when Cordoba went off injured. He was having a fantastic game, very good defender. Once he went off I always fancied us to score.

by **Big Niall** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:40 am

A good win. We deserved to win but if we didn't have that bit of luck for Kuyt's goal it would be nil all.

We should make it to quarters now and there's a few weak teams left (If Roma hold on, winner Porto - Schalke) in it so semis is very possible.

I still don't think Kuyt should be out on the right side - its not his fault as its not his position. We definately looked A LOT better when Crouch came on.

The sending off wasn't warranted and got Milan tired for those last five minutes, regardless though - we were the better team when they had eleven players so defo deserved a win - clean sheet is great too, score once in Milan and we're through!

Not back to the biggest games - league.

by **Yosa** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:51 am

A great win just when we needed it, so, nice one.

I don't know if anybody else picked up on it, or if I'm just reading too much into it, but I was a bit concerned with Stevie's post match interview.

The interviewer specifically asked if he thought that this was "a good rersult for the Manager, with all the pressure he's under?" I would have expected an answer something like,"The pressure has been unfair, Rafa has the full support of the lads, and I'm glad that he's had a chance tp prove everybody wrong". Instead he said that "It would be wrong to single anybody out", and that "it was a good win for everybody connected with the club".

A less than full hearted statement in support of the Boss, I thought.

by **account deleted by request** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:00 am

Yosa wrote:A great win just when we needed it, so, nice one.

I don't know if anybody else picked up on it, or if I'm just reading too much into it, but I was a bit concerned with Stevie's post match interview.

The interviewer specifically asked if he thought that this was "a good rersult for the Manager, with all the pressure he's under?" I would have expected an answer something like,"The pressure has been unfair, Rafa has the full support of the lads, and I'm glad that he's had a chance tp prove everybody wrong". Instead he said that "It would be wrong to single anybody out", and that "it was a good win for everybody connected with the club".

A less than full hearted statement in support of the Boss, I thought.

Its already been commented on mate , I think the smile took any maliciousness out of what Gerrard said. I think it was more a friendly joke myself, for all the times Rafa has said that about Gerrard.

by **JoeTerp** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:24 am

bigmick wrote:
JoeTerp wrote:if people are going to knee jerk into a state of doom and gloom after a loss, you have to let the happy clappers have their day today, Great start going into the 2nd leg, hopefully we can transfer the confidence

Love this one Joe. We go on the biggest extended blip since Alf Robert's life support machine was switched off, and people are knee jerking into a state of doom and gloom. We win one game three days after getting beat at Home by Barnsley in the fifth round of the FA Cup, and the happy clappers are not knee jerking at all, it's a fully rational respose

Fair play to you mate I like you and all that, and undoubtedly you know your football, but I love that one

I'm still enjoying the "it's all down to Rafa" euphoria, when after we'd lost on Saturday it was all down to the players/theowners/injuries/refs. The truth is of course both the defeats and the fantastic victories are down to both the players and the manager.

It won't be long before we're saying it's all dwon to rotation. Mind you, we did look quite fresh come to think of it

You know I was just avin a laugh, but the point was there should be some kind of forum rule where after a win (unless it was a REAALLLLLLY sloppy win over a team we should have crushed, but maybe no exceptions) there should be a 12 hour rule of no doom and gloom comments. Certainly any critical comments on the game are welcome, but no big picture, connecting this game with other outside forces type of stuff.

But NO you do NOT get it the other way around. Why? Happy Clappers are better, don't know if this is a saying across the english language but, "Blondes have more fun" well happy clappers, have more fun. For 12 hours after a win, everybody should be one, and let people make all kinds of ridiculous statements about the Benitez Deity.

You don't need to tell me bigmick, I know you enjoy a win here and there

Heck you might even enjoy wining more than the happy clap gang, but nobody likes the buzz kill at the party. Doom and Gloomers after a win are like people who pass out liver cancer leaflets outside of bars. Yes, it is probably important for me to know about the risks of liver cancer, but not right now dude, I'm trying to get drunk.

by **JoeTerp** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:36 am

and if anybody is trying to say that the cards weren't deserved, I think he certainly would have at least gotten 1 for accumulation by the time he was sent off, and who is to say a player with his anger management skills wouldn't have gotten sent off anyway.

Also, I think Veira CLEARLY handled in the box, and there were a couple other instances that were shaky

Inter are a great defensive team, they came for a draw by the looks of it and we were dominating the possesion when the teams were equal

Kuyts goal was lucky?

SO WHAT!?! are we supposed to give it back or something? LOTS of goals depend a lot on luck.

Knowing what I know now about the way Inter played and given that materratzzi still got sent off, I would have liked to see Pennant Gerrard Mascha Yossi, with Crouch and Torres (sounds harsh on kuyt) but Pennant over a longer period of time would have kept pounding the crosses and yossi on the left would have (hopefully) worked some smoother 1-2s to break them down with some flair and short passing

by **stmichael** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:40 am

excellent result and full credit to the players for their commitment. their attitudes were spot on and we fully deserved the win on the balance of play, despite the fact that i didn't think we played particularly well overall.

i have to be honest, the referee was absolutely abysmal. he failed to give us a blatant penalty and kept giving free kicks everytime somebody was touched. i mean cruz and ibrahimovic are big guys but they were just falling down whenever anybody went near them. also, if players are getting sent off now for two challenges like materazzi made then the game of football will be done away with. the first one was completely accidental from what i could see and the second one was hardly anything malicious either. considering they had ten men i actually thought they defended really well. cordoba was outstanding and when he went off injured we really started to get some ascendancy.

as previously stated, once again the game changed when crouch came on. just his mere presence caused uncertainty in their defence. we also used the whole width of the pitch better in the second half with finnan virtually playing as a right winger at times. mascherano was immense again, even though he does do some clumsy things at times.

the tie aint over. it's a tricky one in terms of how we approach it out there. we can't just sit back and absorb the pressure. we need to be looking to score because then they have to score 4 and they aren't going to do that.

onwards and upwards. :buttrock

by **tubby** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 12:17 pm

Great result, we put them under preassure and got the reward in the end. I was starting to think that we would be made to rue not taking advatage of their sending off come the 2nd leg but 2 goals is good. Not trying to take anything away from the result but if we wanted to we could have bagged a few more and effectivley finished of the tie there and then. Anyhow im confident we will progress into the quater final. We should also be able to nick a goal in Milan. I just hope we dont suffer any injuries.

Just out of curiosity, who do we play in the QF assuming we get there?

by **tubby** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 12:24 pm

Also here are the goals in high quality if anyone wants.

High Quality TV ripped Goals

http://rapidshare.com/files...._0_.avi

[url=http://rapidshare.com/files/93258680/Champions_League_Fifth_Round-_Liverpool_v_Inter_Milan_-_19.02.08_-1st_LegSteven_Gerrard_2_

-_0_]http://rapidshare.com/files...._2_-_0_[/url]

by **NiftyNeil** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 12:28 pm

bavlondon wrote:if we wanted to we could have bagged a few more and effectivley finished of the tie there and then.

Have you been watching us this season? That's been the problem, we can't deliver killer blows when we are dominating games. I think it was more of a case of wanting to, but not being able to.

Great result though, those two late goals were well deserved, it's about time that we get a scoreline that reflects our dominance.

BTW, there is another draw for the quarter finals which also determines who the winners will meet in the semis.

by **Edmond D.** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 12:31 pm

Complimentig with you for the perfect match your team did yesterday nigh, i'd like inform you that the return match in Milan willn't be so easy as Liverpool FC played yesterday.
I guess in return match, black and blue players will go in the playground with a lot of blood in their eyes.....we don't use to loose matches...this one is the second lost match in the season...
I don't trust right now Inter will pass to next champion's league match, but I've been looking a great team in Milan for 2 years.....I don't realize how Inter lost yesterday night playing so bad.....
The return match will be another story.....
See you in Milan

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