The Bravehearts from Anfield…

A last gasp strike at the Stade De Gerland left a lot of Kop hearts broken all over the world. Liverpool now have to win their remaining 2 matches convincingly and hope that Lyon beat the Viola to enable them to qualify through the group stages of the UEFA Champions League.

All Liverpool fans will however take heart from a battling performance in Lyon. True, that it was not the most fluent performances from a side which has struggled in recent times, but the Reds showed a lot of character and were willing to fight it out. They completely dominated the first half and had it not been a series of amazing saves from the Lyon keeper, Hugo Lloris, Liverpool would have been 3 ahead at the break; the attempts coming from Insua, Kuyt, Voronin and Torres.

This was, however, not the case and both teams went in at halftime at par. The Lyon coach has surprisingly put up a squad quite different from the one he fielded at Anfield. Two injuries caused a couple of substitutions within the first half for Lyon. Liverpool were already without a lot of players from the starting lineup out injured. The squad though, included a half fit Fernando Torres and captain Jamie Carragher as right back. As usual, the Reds captain did complete justice to the position he was put into.

Neither team could get a foothold into the game until the 83rd minute. It took a wonder strike from the boy who showed a lot of promise, but never fulfilled it – Ryan Babel – to break the deadlock. It should have been that way till the end, but a late strike from Lisandro broke Liverpool hearts leaving everything to chance for the Merseysiders to qualify through the group stages.

With only meagre resources with which to architect a win, I feel Rafa did a fabulous job of getting the result that we got in Lyon. Any other manager would have given up all hopes of a win. Rafa had said before the game that, when we walk through a storm and emerge on the other side, we should hold our heads high. We are walking through a catastrophic storm right now, and yes, we are emerging with our heads held high. Go for it Liverpool.

YNWA!!!

Liverpool 2 – 0 Manchester United

:O :O

That is the best expression I could come up with, after seeing a match which Liverpool dominated for the best part of 90 minutes, creating chances aplenty and running out deserved winners in the end. It is astonishing how the Reds can conjure up such a performance when they have their backs to the wall. Rafa Benitez is know to be the master of come backs. I am sure every Red remembers the grandiose comeback in Istanbul that night of 2005.

Anyway, coming back to this encounter. The stage was set for another exhilarating encounter and the atmosphere at Anfield was electric. There was a march by the ‘Spirit of Shankly’ supporters against the American owners prior to the match. There were beach balls thrown out onto the field from the Man Utd section of the crowd (mocking the Sunderland fiasco) and the stewards had to clean the ground before the match could begin. The first 20 minutes were dominated by the home team and they created a couple of good opportunities, but could not score. From there on, United started getting back into the game, but they never really looked threatening. The best chance of the half came to Dirk Kuyt courtesy a good through ball from Lucas, but Kuyt took one touch too many and could only slice the ball across the face of the goal. Another chance fell to Fabio Aurelio from a corner, but he headed the ball straight into the palms of the United keeper, Edwin Van Der Sar.

Both teams went into half time not highly pleased with themselves, but hoping to score in the upcoming 45 minutes. The second half again was full of chances for both teams.  It seemed that Kuyt had lost confidence in himself after the earlier miss, when, he received the ball in the same  spot as earlier, but he decided to pass back to Benayoun instead of firing the shot himself at an open goal with only Van Der Sar to beat. The first goal however, came again from an individual mistake. The last time these two teams met, Nemanja Vidic was at fault; this time it was Rio Ferdinand. Yossi Benayoun passed brilliantly to Torres and El Nino made sure he kept Ferdinand at bay while slotting past Edwin Van Der Sar. This seemed to awaken Manchested United out of their slumber and they created the best chance of the evening for themselves with Antonio Valencia hitting the post within the next 10 minutes.

No one can predict what outcome the match would have had, if that ball from Valencia had gone in. Liverpool, however, will survive to fight out another season. The last 10 minutes saw the sending off of Vidic and Mascherano,  reducing both teams to 10 men. Vidic was sent off for the third straight time against the Reds in 3 matches; both matches last season and this, the first game of this season between the clubs. Ngog was brought in for a not yet fit Torres in the 80th minute.

United kept mounting attack after attack which allowed Liverpool to break in the 95th minute. With Lucas, Kuyt and Ngog ahead and Lucas holding the ball a wee bit more than normal, he passed to Ngog who finished the game, putting the ball past Van Der Sar into the United net. The significance of the win can only be described by the scene when Pepe Reina ran all the way from the Liverpool goal to celebrate with Ngog.

It does surprise me to see a team which performed miserably against Chelsea,  Sunderland and Lyon come up with the goods against Man Utd. I will personally remember this match for one thing; Lucas giving the best performance of his short stint in the Premier League. I have never seen such a versatile Lucas in all the matches that he has played. Cricket aficionados  will cite the example of Marvan Atapattu from Sri Lanka who came good after scoring seven consecutive 0’s (ducks) in his first seven innings. It seems Rafa Benitez is showing the same patience with Lucas. To be truthful, he has at long last looked like a player who had been chosen as the Brazilian footballer of the year.

He combined very well with Benayoun and threaded some really good passes to Torres and Kuyt. Kuyt though, was a shadow of his former self. The midfield in this game functioned like a well oiled machine. I have been the biggest critic of Rafa this season and I would like to commend him on getting the team together once again.

However, it is too early in the season to become optimistic about title chances. I will for now refrain from speaking about our title chances. It looks as though Liverpool have taken one small step to bringing their season back on track. The next few games will tell where they will land at the end of this season.