By William Tan
Liverpool were very very lucky at Anfield yesterday night against Inter Milan to have won 2-0 which flattered to deceive especially when Inter had been playing with 10 men for most of the match.The first stroke of luck was when Materrazi was first shown the yellow card for tackling Torres from the side and taking him out when the latter was ‘running the channels’ – that was in the 12th minute. Materazzi committed the offence right under the nose of the linesman who flagged immediately even though Torres continued to control the ball and Belgian referee had no choice but to issue a yellow. Mancini claimed that the yellow card was harsh (as some pundits also commented) but I guess some referees wanted to stamp out these tackles from the side as per FIFA’s rules. Harshness was also dished out countless times when Crouch was deemed to have fouled the Inter players whenever he jumped for the ball after Crouch came on as a substitute in the 64th minute. Life has been hard on Crouch in Europe too in the past and even yesterday night at Anfield.
The 2nd stroke of luck came when Materazzi fouled Torres by pulling his shirt after the latter had pull away from Materazzi and fell over. Torres was vilified by the Inter players and fans as they claimed that Torres made a meal of Materazzi’s challenges. The Belgian referee was having none of it and duly banished Materazzi his 2nd yellow and Inter was on the back foot as they go down to 10 men in the first 30 minutes of the game! But this was an Italian team and they seldom concede goals even when down to 10 men. Liverpool would need more strokes of luck as the match wore on especially since Inter were going to play for a draw.
What have Rafa and his clueless men done to deserve such luck? Many a pundits wondered on the night too but several concluded that Torres had done a ‘Materazzi’ on Materazzi!! This conclusion was somewhat disrespectful of the fact that Torres did his best to continue playing even after he was fouled by Materazzi and Torres choose to play on but the Belgian referee felt that the fouls committed was worthy of a yellow in each instance as the advantage was taken away from Torres. I reckon that what Torres did was not wrong and it was questionable that some pundits claim that Torres made a meal of both tackles. Don’t they remember some of the Italian hard men in the past were known to have ended the careers of good strikers and one such name springs to mind – Marco van Basten. FIFA had introduced rules to protect quality strikers? FIFA had grown up ages ago … time for the players to do so too!
Liverpool really enjoyed a lot of luck in the whole match as by the end of the match, Inter Milan had 2 of their regular centre halves out and injured respectivly. If Liverpool could not win at Anfield on the night, then they probably don’t deserve the chance to win the tie at the San Siro in 3 weeks time.
After the Materazzi sending off, Liverpool was controlling the game, there was hardly any penetration as Inter defended for their lives ….. and were happy for a draw. Jamie Reeves thought the Inter defence was excellent in throwing their bodies on the line to stop everything that Liverpool threw at them. The match was literary played in the Inter half afterwards and the initiative was totally with Rafa’s men.
Luck, however, was not on Liverpool’s side as they were not awarded penalty when Viera, the former Arsenal captain handled the ball just as Gerrard lifted the ball over his head. In fairness, the Belgian referee was unsighted and in this situation, the linesman was suppose to have flagged but he was behind the play and Inter got away without conceding a penalty.
The game changed a little more open when Crouch and Pennant came on as a substitute for Lucas and Babel and the 6’7” goliath created all sorts of problems for the Inter defence who had earlier held its own for more than an hour. Crouch had some high balls crossed to him but he managed several half chances on his own and caused countless problems for Cordoba and Chivu in defence. Pennant was riding the lines and was make several dangerous crosses for the Liverpool frontline but all was easily dealt with by the Inter defence marshaled by the excellent Ivan Cordoba.
Then disaster struck on 75st minute, unluckily, Cordoba landed awkwardly when he tried to defend a dangerous cross from Pennant and the team doctor immediately signaled for substitution. Inter had to make a substitution to cater for the injury and Chivu moved to the centre whilst Burdisso moved to the left back. Lucky Lucky Liverpool, Inter lost their 2 centre halves in 1 match and that complexion of the game changed completely on this injury as Liverpool continued to inch closer to the Inter goal although in the few minutes immediately Inter defenders managed to get in the way of Liverpool’s attacks.
Then just as Capello made his exit from Anfield on the 81st minute, the unexpected happened when Pennant on the right made a curling cross from the right and evaded Torres, Crouch and at least 3 Inter defenders! It ball landed nicely for Kuyt on the far post and as he steadied himself to shoot, Maicon came to cover to narrow the angle. Unfortunately for Inter, Kuyt’s fierce shot cannoned into Maicon’s outstretched leg and caused an awkward bounce that deceived Julio Cesar in the Inter goal and The Kop erupted like a volcano bursting for joy. It must have been a really lucky Kuyt for on any other day or any other time, the ball would have richocheted out for a corner – like so many times yesterday night at Anfield.
As Anfield celebrate Kuyt’s goal at the Kop, Rafa was urging his players forward and it had looked unlikely for a second as the Inter defence continued to hold firm. A 0-1 away result from Anfield is very much still salvageable and manageable proposition at the San Siro for Mancini. That train of thought held true until the Liverpool captain, Gerrard made a shot into the left hand post beating at least 3 Inter defenders, bounced 3 times on the way to beating Julio Cesar at the Inter goal and hitting the far post before bouncing in nicely into the net. What are the chances of that happening in a crucial Champions League match and at such crucial stage? Both Liverpool goals involved the ball rolling past at least 3 Inter defenders each time and one of the goals even took a wicked deflection off Maicon and beating Julio Cesar. It was a rip-off as Lady Luck smiled on Liverpool and Rafa Benitez yesterday at Anfield.
The Kop and Reds supporters all over the world celebrated another famous ‘lucky’ victory at Anfield and the Champions League Gods must be smiling over Anfield yesterday night …….
Liverpool (4-1-4-1): Reina; Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Aurelio; Mascherano; Kuyt, Leiva (Crouch, 64), Gerrard, Babel (Pennant, 72); Torres.
Substitutes not used: Itandje (gk), Riise, Benayoun, Alonso, Arbeloa.
Internazionale (4-4-2): Cesar; Maicon, Cordoba (Burdisso, 75), Materazzi, Maxwell; Zanetti, Stankovic, Cambiasso, Chivu; Ibrahimovic, Cruz (Vieira, 55).
Substitutes not used: Toldo (gk), Figo, Crespo, Maniche, Suazo.
Referee: F De Bleeckere (Belgium).
Goal Highlights:
Kuyt Goal Cl 5th Round 1st Leg Liverpool v Inter Milan
Gerrard Goal Cl 5th Round 1st Leg Liverpool v Inter Milan
Don't forget this SAT, FEB 23 @ 10:55PM @ the M Bar, Liverpool VS Middlesbrough! See y'all there!
3 comments:
A convincing display albeit playing against 10 men as 'Mad' Marco was twice beaten by the pace of 'El Nino'. To be honest I thought both cautions were a little harsh and I doubt any English referee would have given one yellow let alone two. We may however argue that justice was done as we were not awarded a penalty after Viera had clearly handled in the area as Stevie G tried to lob the ball above him.
I missed the first 30 mins of the game and when I turned on the TV, replays of Materazzi's second caution were being shown. From then on, we were rampant. Many have argued with good reason that statistics do not tell the whole story but in the case of this morning's game, they surely did. These are the standout statistics from the game:
Possession : Liverpool 70% - Inter Milan 30%
Shots (on goal) : Liverpool 25(6) - Inter Milan 4(0)
What do they tell you? Pepe didn't have a single save to make the entire game.
We had an awesome share of the ball but critics will argue it's because Inter Milan were playing with 10 men. The same critics must never have seen Arsenal play. In some instances, teams playing with a man down are even harder to play as they become more compact and often play with all 10 men in their own half, as did Inter Milan this morning. Fortunately for us though, they did not have the pace to threaten us on the counter, unlike a team such as Arsenal. We took comfort in this, pushing both Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher further up the park, into the opposition half. How many times have we seen Sami wander up the park to unleash a shot? Exactly. We played with a lot of width this morning and were spraying passes across the park, creating openings for Stevie to burst through the middle of a stretched defence. I'm scratching my head now wondering just how we can't do the same against mid table Premiership sides. I mean this was Inter Milan! This was a team that until this morning not lost in 30 games!
There were a couple of standout performers for me this morning
Fernando Torres : What more is there to be said about him? Materazzi may not have cut it in the Premiership but you can't be just any mug to be first choice for Italy, a nation that boasts arguably the best defenders in the world. You can't be a chump for being in the first team of a championship winning club side that had gone unbeaten in 30 games. While his sending off may have been harsh. Materazzi was clearly undone by Torres who was far quicker and had too many tricks up his sleeve. His sending off may even have been a blessing for 'Mad' Marco. No telling what amount of psychological damage our Torres may have inflicted upon him had he been on for the full 90 minutes. Each time the ball was played to him, he was instantly surrounded by at least two defenders but still managed to gain control of the ball. Before the introduction of Crouchie, he was our focal point up front which opened up a lot of room for the likes of Gerrard, who were making runs into the box.
Dirk Kuyt : He has come under a great deal of criticism, from me included but last nights performance reminded my of when he first arrived at the club. This was of course perhaps because he actually played as a striker and not as a midfielder. I used to go on about how we has good movement off the ball and makes defence splitting diagonal runs into the box. One could say that he never stopped doing this but by doing it in midfield, you come across looking like a hard worker, nothing else. Moving him further up front however, means that his hard work and movement, cause a more immediate threat in the area of the field it matters most, the final third. It's anyone's guess if Rafa will play him further up the park this weekend, of play him at all. I'd hate to think we'll only see this again when our opponents go a man down.
Last but not least Mr. De Bleeckere who if you ask me had a really poor game. Every bit of contact was called for a foul and when it mattered most, he made poor decisions i.e Materazzi's sending off & Viera's handball.
Just read easypeasy's positive outlook on Mascherano. He didn't have too much to do this time round if you ask me. Inter were pegged back and rarely ventured forward. Mascherano is at his best when teams attack us and you see him harrying & harassing opposition players. He was forced to play further up this morning as the team pushed forward and in my opinion looked a little uncomfortable. His passing was poor as he tried time and time again to play the ball in behind the Inter defence. To be fair, the defence was playing rather deep and he didn't have much space to play the ball in to but I do think he had a distinctively average game.
One bit of criticism though, so as to not disappoint my legion of pessimists; why the heck did we not start Crouch? He is clearly effective for England and in Europe. Cordoba may have springs in his boots but Crouchie is head, shoulders and even knees taller than him. Chivu doesn't occupy the same airspace either. If Crouch were to play at the La Paz, he'd pass out. No wonder England have yet to play a friendly there.
Mark, nice observations.
However Will, I don't know if I look at the outcome of the match as being lucky as you opined. Some slice of luck it was that the ball ricocheted off a defender and avoided the reach of Cesar into the net.
It's probably semantics but I think we had some luck but I wouldn't go so far as to say we were lucky. I think the 2 words mean different things. I don't know how to explain it but it's like......when you say we were lucky, it's almost saying we didn't do enough to deserve the victory.
Well, call me pedantic or whatever, but it's how I feel.
Walk on...
Aww ..... JonW - I was just poking around being sarcastic - you should know by now, as always I am focused on supporting my manager and team!
Nice post regarding the players believing themselves when playing in Europe. Same observation appliesd when we had to win 3 matches during the qualifying rounds. Believe was there in Europe but was missing when playing in the EPL. Let's hope this win at Anfield will truly make players and fans (those who have doubts) alike to really believe!
Anyway, its only half time and although we have to play well in San Siro, it is still a mountain to climb. Nothing less than our best will do in Italy. Any mistake will be punished - severely. And that's a guarantee! Inter is a wounded tiger and best treated with utmost respect i.e. assume that the tie is still 0-0 and we need to score to win. Any goal would do.
If we are not careful, we could certainly end up like the Mancs last year at the San Siro against Milan!
YWNA
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