Our long march towards Rome 2009 started in Liege, Belgium yesterday. Perhaps Standard Liege was considered an ideal opposition before the match but it was anything but that once the whistle blew for the kick-off.
Standard Liege was the Belgian champions last season and they had only lost once in the league then, which indicated the dangerous nature of our opposition. From the moment the ball was kicked, the Belgians seemed to have the extra spring on their heels and seemed to have an extra speed and an air going about their task of upsetting the Mighty Reds from Merseyside. The Belgians were truly up for the game and raised their game throughout. The Belgians’ coach, Laszlo Boloni had his wish granted for the Belgians to play above themselves and for Liverpool to play poorly on the night. It was so evident the Liverpool players were always second best during the match and their passing was haphazard at best. Even experienced players like Alonso, Kuyt and Agger kept giving the ball away.
As early as the seventh minute, the Belgians warned the Liverpudlians of their intent by having Fellaini’s header crashed against the inside of the post before Pepe managed to claw the rebound away from crossing the line into the back of the net. The Belgians claimed that the ball had gone in but the referee and his assistant stood by their decision not to award a goal.
Still, our players failed to heed the warning and in the 12th minute, Dossena was penalised for a raised hand to stop a cross and a penalty was duly given despite the protests from Arbeloa and Dossena that it was outside the box and that it was ball to hand. This time, the referee sided with the Belgians. Pepe, Liverpool’s penalty king was handed the arduous task of stopping Dante’ penalty. Luckily for Pepe and us, Dante’s penalty was somewhat more of a mishit and tame and for a keeper like Pepe’s caliber, managed to save another penalty and we survived a potential tie killer. Liege would have parked the bus from then on and hit us on the break.
Still, our back 4 of Arbeloa, Carragher, Agger and Dossena had trouble coping with the zippy play of the Belgians who were quick and decisive in their play and had belief and played with passion and their hearts to take the game to Liverpool. Significantly, these were all the attributes that were missing from the Liverpool team throughout the match. In the 66th minute, even the ever reliable Pepe Reina had almost missed a cross from Dante and it cannoned off his arms and the ball headed towards goal until Benayoun cleared the goal bound ball in the six yard box. And Pepe was by far the busier keeper of the two and had made countless saves. In one of their dangerous attacks, the young Brazilian leftback, Dante made a 30-40 yard glorious cross towards the penalty box taking our Carragher with it and De Carmago headed narrowly wide with Pepe scrambling to his sides and the ‘oohhs’ from the home crowd was deafening …….
Our play was tentative and hesitant and we hardly troubled the Belgian keeper. In the middle of the park, Plessis and Alonso took to the pitch whilst Gerrard was rested and Carragher was made captain for the night. Benayoun and Kuyt were on the flanks with Robbie Keane and Fernando Torres upfront. With no shots to show for their effort, our front line looked like a flop. The Belgians had our GBP48m frontline in their pockets with intelligent double team every time our front two had the ball and they were not able to muster any trouble for the Belgian keeper. And Torres’s frustration showed when he had a shot from 30 yards that flew wide – so did Xabi Alonso who had a mis-kick from a similar range that was closer to the corner flag than the Belgian goal. That pretty much sums up our attacking game ….. and the night
Even when Gerrard was called into action replacing our new GBP20million dollar man, Robbie Keane, Gerrard did not manage to galvanize his teammates. He could do no more than flash 2 free kicks goal bound - one zipped narrowly over the bar whilst the other was an easy catch for the Belgian keeper in the last few minutes of extra time.
The game bore a lot of similarity with last season’s away game against Besiktas and it was a nightmare to relive it over again. Only this time, we were lucky to have come out from the game with a scoreless draw when it could have easily been a loss. Well done to Standard Liege for they proved to be worthy opposition for our team and were better than us on the night. If Liege had had one striker on form or a high profile striker like Keane or Torres in their side, it could well have been a different story.
The sleeping RED giant from Mersey had better be awake in a fortnight if our ambition for a chance to lift No.6 in Rome 2009 still burns, for we will need a gigantic improvement from last night’s performance. After all, if we lose in Anfield in a fortnight, we will be out of Europe for the season and many would not be able to fathom such financial and reputation devastation.
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