1. Few distractions - With our title challenge over, not to mention our Carling and FA Cup campaigns, the only thing Rafa has to keep his eye on other than the Champions League is ensuring we qualify for the competition again.
2. The Anfield crowd - We've heard it before and we'll hear it again. The noise that rolls around Anfield on European nights is immense.
3. Colossal centre backs - When it comes to keeping out Europe's best attackers few have the experience - or the success rate - of Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia. Carragher's performance in Istanbul was a textbook defensive display and a key factor in Liverpool's triumph.
4. Defensively strong midfielders - Recent history suggests that teams with solid defensive midfielders do well in Europe. Look at Milan with Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo, us with Didi Hamann and Xabi Alonso, and Real Madrid when they had Claude Makelele. With Javier Mascherano, Lucas and Alonso to choose from solidity isn't an issue.
5. Steven Gerrard's knack of bagging match-winning goals - The examples are endless. Olympiakos was magic. West Ham was euphoric. Moscow?
6. Pepe Reina - Penalty shootouts? No problem.
7. Fernando Torres' pace - Just ask Marco Materazzi. Defenders outside the Premier League do not like pace.
8. Rafael Benitez - Whatever your feelings towards the Spaniard you cannot deny his tactical acumen when it comes to the European stage. He won the UEFA Cup with Valencia, followed it up with a Champions League medal in Istanbul and then led us to Athens. Three European finals in four seasons. Not bad, is it?
9. Experience - The majority of this squad have made it to and played in a final before. Many have done it twice. Past experience is a valuable tool in European football and we've got it in abundance.
10. Past heartache - Having sampled both the euphoria of Istanbul and the anguish of Athens Liverpool's players understand the cause for which they're fighting. No prizes for guessing which felt better.
See you on SAT FEB 23 @ 10:55PM at the M BAR! LFC vs Middlesbrough
2 comments:
Good one, as much as our season has been a stinker, I wouldn't bet against Liverpool winning the cup again, just based on their European pedigree alone, especially in the past few years.
There ya go, the longest sentence I've ever written.
No. 6, no. 6!!!
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