Liverpool 2- 1 Maccabi Haifa
Yesterday Liverpool snatched a slim advantage over Maccabi Haifa late in the first leg, on a night where two of our players reached European milestones.
Jamie Carragher rose to joint fourth highest European appearances in a Liverpool shirt, on the occasion of his 79th European game. If we reach the semi-finals of the competition, he could become the Liverpool player with most European appearances of all time.
Sami Hyypia is not far behind Jamie with 77 appearances, and last night became only the second Red ever to play 50 or more games in the European Cup itself.
Apart from those milestones, Steven Gerrard has notched up 67 European appearances, including 42 in the European Cup, and John Arne Riise has played 56 European games in a red shirt, including 47 European Cup games.
Considering our European experience within this squad is at such a high level, it's not such a big surprise as many claim that we were able to win it two seasons ago, and it shouldn't be a big surprise if we have a bloody good go again this season.
Beginning the qualifying leg last night, it was clear that the players are still not at 100% although it was a great improvement from the football on show in the friendly campaign and showed some positive signs for when we're fit and on form, which must happen in the next few matches.
The defence was a bit rusty: with Sami as short of pace as he always is at this stage of the season, we needed to be tight, and Riise's positional errors left us exposed at times. Haifa broke our offside trap with ease for their opening goal, using the space in between Riise and Sami to set off Bocolli, who dummied Reina to slide it into the net.
Liverpool looked out of shape in the midfield also, with Zenden struggling on the left, Alonso out of sorts and Gerrard pushed too far forward. Sissoko gave a man of the match performance however, bossing the middle of the pitch, and Pennant showed what he's about on the right, having a varied and skillful debut with some flashes of what's hopefully to come, particularly around the hour mark.
The equaliser came from Craig Bellamy, who held Steven Gerrard off to pounce on the rebound from Sissoko's saved shot and slot it into the roof of the net from an angle. Liverpool were finding it difficult to release Bellamy however, with little creativity on the left or through the centre, and Bellamy not being ideally suited for getting on the end of Pennant's crossing.
The second half saw Garcia come on to play off Crouch up front, with Zenden and Bellamy being sacrificed and Gerrard moving out to the left. This gave us a more direct, wide style, and we started to threaten their goal more, drawing a couple of saves and missing several opportunities to go ahead. Garcia also had a reasonable penalty shout turned down.
Although Liverpool saw 66% of possession in this game however, and had seven shots on target, we looked short of ideas to break the opposition down with our link man and wide men failing to get into the box enough to support the lone striker.
On 84 minutes, Benitez threw the dice and brought Gonzales on for Gerrard on the left. Two minutes later they came up sixes, as Gonzales initially stumbled over a ball which found him on the left of the box in space, from Alonso, but then recovered to scoop it right-footed over the keeper from close range.
A reasonable job done for the first half then, but not game over. They still have to beat us in the away leg however, and I fancy Liverpool to get at least one away goal when we're up to full fitness.
Jamie Carragher rose to joint fourth highest European appearances in a Liverpool shirt, on the occasion of his 79th European game. If we reach the semi-finals of the competition, he could become the Liverpool player with most European appearances of all time.
Sami Hyypia is not far behind Jamie with 77 appearances, and last night became only the second Red ever to play 50 or more games in the European Cup itself.
Apart from those milestones, Steven Gerrard has notched up 67 European appearances, including 42 in the European Cup, and John Arne Riise has played 56 European games in a red shirt, including 47 European Cup games.
Considering our European experience within this squad is at such a high level, it's not such a big surprise as many claim that we were able to win it two seasons ago, and it shouldn't be a big surprise if we have a bloody good go again this season.
Beginning the qualifying leg last night, it was clear that the players are still not at 100% although it was a great improvement from the football on show in the friendly campaign and showed some positive signs for when we're fit and on form, which must happen in the next few matches.
The defence was a bit rusty: with Sami as short of pace as he always is at this stage of the season, we needed to be tight, and Riise's positional errors left us exposed at times. Haifa broke our offside trap with ease for their opening goal, using the space in between Riise and Sami to set off Bocolli, who dummied Reina to slide it into the net.
Liverpool looked out of shape in the midfield also, with Zenden struggling on the left, Alonso out of sorts and Gerrard pushed too far forward. Sissoko gave a man of the match performance however, bossing the middle of the pitch, and Pennant showed what he's about on the right, having a varied and skillful debut with some flashes of what's hopefully to come, particularly around the hour mark.
The equaliser came from Craig Bellamy, who held Steven Gerrard off to pounce on the rebound from Sissoko's saved shot and slot it into the roof of the net from an angle. Liverpool were finding it difficult to release Bellamy however, with little creativity on the left or through the centre, and Bellamy not being ideally suited for getting on the end of Pennant's crossing.
The second half saw Garcia come on to play off Crouch up front, with Zenden and Bellamy being sacrificed and Gerrard moving out to the left. This gave us a more direct, wide style, and we started to threaten their goal more, drawing a couple of saves and missing several opportunities to go ahead. Garcia also had a reasonable penalty shout turned down.
Although Liverpool saw 66% of possession in this game however, and had seven shots on target, we looked short of ideas to break the opposition down with our link man and wide men failing to get into the box enough to support the lone striker.
On 84 minutes, Benitez threw the dice and brought Gonzales on for Gerrard on the left. Two minutes later they came up sixes, as Gonzales initially stumbled over a ball which found him on the left of the box in space, from Alonso, but then recovered to scoop it right-footed over the keeper from close range.
A reasonable job done for the first half then, but not game over. They still have to beat us in the away leg however, and I fancy Liverpool to get at least one away goal when we're up to full fitness.
posted by zigackly at 11:11 am
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