Tuesday 22 April 2008

Liverpool 1 Chelsea 1



So, does Grant have that slice of luck that Jose Mourinho didn't? Could he take them to the final?

There was plenty of shit on show tonight, and not much stick. Liverpool started badly, and Liverpool's 12 man wasn't seen until the half hour mark, quietened by a Chelsea playing with purpose but Liverpool's excellent defending, and Chelsea's poor passing, meant chances were at a premium.
Liverpool controlled the remainder of the game, and Torres should have done better on a number of occasions, while Cech also saved well from an excellent Gerrard volley, but neither side managed any sort of fluidity of passing given the ferocity of the midfield battle.

The much maligned (by me, that is) Kalou came on a made a great impact with his passing and direct running and Chelsea finished the stronger, despite an unbelievable amount of loose passes by Lampard & Ballack. Kalou, fittingly, did well in the corner in the 95th minute, sending over a dangerous cross for Anelka. Ludicrously, Riise tried to head a ball that was 6 inches off the ground. A professional footballer who is scared to use his weaker foot to clear the ball could cost Liverpool dearly.

Meanwhile, John Terry praises the dodgy Petr Cech, and the Chelsea bottlers Joe Cole, Ballack & Lampard skip off back to London with a huge advantage to take into the second leg.
And Grant, who picked a positive team, who took a risk on the lively Malouda, who made the Kalou substitution, who saw an excellent performance from Ferreira at right back, will know they can do it at the Bridge.

Mark,
ODF

10 comments:

Unknown said...

At least the 2nd leg will be decent!

Unknown said...

I hate him too at the very least... http://www.skysports.com/video/0,20285,12606_3462053,00.html

Mal said...

Is it time for John Terry to get another go in the hate section? I hate him. He displayed his Lionheart qualities last night when he kicked Torres in the back as he lay on the ground. Leader of men.

Unknown said...

Spot on mal, should have had a yellow before he jumped into xabi as well. Terry had a week off from cunting duties, today he is back as head honcho cunt number one. The cunt.

Unknown said...

Terry played terribly last night, some of the ratings in the papers made me laugh. He was lucky to stay on the pitch with all the fouling, sly digs and stray elbows.

ref was very lenient with the yellow cards for both sides, there could have been a couple more, for Masch, Ferreira, etc.

Mal said...

I know that I'm biased but I thought the ref was fucking shite.

Unknown said...

well, he blew for fouls on everything, every jump by 2 players for the ball was a foul, but then he was unbelievably lenient for persistent offenders. Strange showing, but he got the big decisions right, I suppose.

Re injury time - a lot of subs plus injuries made up the 4 mins, that was fair enough. Also, the goal as scored at 94m 10secs, not much to complain about there

Unknown said...

I wouldn't go on too much about the timing of the goal, it happens and the saying is 'at least four minutes injury time' so no real merits for complaint. Thought Johnny Giles made a good point about alonso being out of the game too much and that was as much to blame as anything.

All in all, I think the ref was shocking for both sides - the drogba 'push' on reina for one thing should not have been punished and could easily have led to a goal - but the abiding image of the officials at this game will be when ashley cole clattered kuyt three yards from the linesman and he waved play on. Fuckin austrians, shite country too. Shove your mozart balls (http://www.mozartkugelnchocolateballs.com/) up your arse.

Anonymous said...

Sorry what's the skysports vid about tried it but get an error message not found etc

Unknown said...

it's just about Phil Thompson's reaction to the Riise own goal