Torres says - catch me if you can........ Spanish style!After the emphatic wins over Porto and the Toons, some of us gathered at Yippee Cup, SS2 were predicting another “goal fest” and doing the famous dance – you know who you are! Most of us were sure of a win but with a much smaller goal margin because Bolton is among one of our boogey teams in the Premiership. Besides that, the Trotters did win against our rival up the M62 and drew in their UEFA Cup match against the mighty Germans in the form of Bayern Munich in their last 2 matches prior to this.
The match started on a rather strange note when Bolton – having won the coin toss, asked us to change end to play at the Anfield Road end. Maybe they were trying to disrupt our flow by not allowing us to attack towards the Kop end like we always do in the 2nd half. Well, it didn’t work and even backfired on them!
The 1st half started with a fury of activity with us controlling the match and dictating play with our passing and movement. Crouch had his shot cleared of the line and Jaaskelainen denied Torres’ with an excellent stop. Bolton played the counter-attacking game and nearly went ahead through Meite whose flick was cleared off the line. There were numerous fouls being committed by the Trotters as they were finding it had to cope up with the width, trickery and pace of Benayoun and Kewell. The most serious foul was committed by ex-Red, Diouf who showed his studs and connected with Arbeloa’s right shin. He was dully given a yellow card for an offence serious enough to be given a straight red.
We went ahead in the 16th minute after Gerrard’s free kick from outside the peno box was cleverly flicked into the bottom corner by Hyypia’s header. Numerous chances followed as we were pressing further up. This let to huge gaps appearing at the back and the other ex-Red, Anelka nearly capitalize when Carragher and Reina collided in what should have been a routine clearance by our keeper. He was clean through on goal but somehow missed the gaping goalmouth from 12 yards! Maybe it was bad karma to them for making us switch end.That miss would prove to be costly, a minute from half time. Torres broke free and latched on to a spectacular 35 yards, inch-perfect through ball (ala Gerrard-Owen era) from our captain to chip the ball pass the on charging Jaaskelainen for our second goal. It was his 11th goal in 17 matches, not bad for a rookie! Just minutes earlier our “golden boy” had missed the goal from a similar position – it was a practice run before he scored that beauty!
The 2nd half was pretty much the same affair as we continued to control the play. In the 50th min, Hobbs was brought in to replace Carragher who injured his ribs again through the earlier collision with Reina. 4 minutes later, Gerrard converted form the spot after Crouch was fouled in the box. Reina, who by now was merely a spectator, was called into action moments later when Anelka sent a ferocious shot towards his goal.
Kewell was substituted and replace by Babel in the 65 min while Kuyt came in the 76th min to replace Torres. With 6 minutes to go on the clock, Gerrard released Kuyt, who let fly a stinger that the Trotters no. 1 could only palm towards Babel. Our young Dutchman, dully side footed the ball into the back of the net for our 4th and put the icing on the cake for a masterful team performance from the Mighty Reds.
We’ll be heading back to familiar turf – M Bar, for this weekend’s match against Reading. The kick-off is at 1:15 AM, 9th Dec – Sat/Sun night. See you there and also take note of the big match against Man United on Dec 16th. We will be organizing some events in conjunction with this clash of the titans, so be there or be square!
Match Stats:
Goals: Hyypia (16) 1-0; Torres (44) 2-0; Gerrard pen (54) 3-0; Babel (85) 4-0.
Liverpool (4-1-3-2): Reina; Arbeloa, Carragher (Hobbs, 50), Hyypia, Riise; Lucas; Kewell (Babel, 66), Gerrard, Benayoun; Crouch, Torres (Kuyt, 76). Substitutes not used: Itandje (gk), Mascherano
Bolton (4-5-1): Jaaskelainen; McCann, Méité, Michalik, Samuel; Davies, Campo, Speed, Gardner; Diouf (Stelios, 65); Anelka. Substitutes not used: Al-Habsi (gk), Wilhelmsson, Teymourian, Alonso
Referee: S Bennett (Kent)
Booked: Bolton - Diouf, Campo, Machalik
Man of the match: Torres.
Attendance: 43,270
Goal Highlights:
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