Liverpool v Chelsea CL lst leg - Match Thread and Team News

If you're not going to say any worlds, at least share your opinion with words. Let it out!!

honestly i'm not too worried at this result but i'm just more pissed at that one play. The X factor for this next match is Torres.

Yep...it was indeed disappointing...

I thought that 1-0 was in the bag. An away goal at the bridge was gonna kill Chelski's air supply but we've let them loose.

Well...it's still simple...we need to win at the bridge...or get a superior draw...and that we will definitely do.

Torres was going thru the motions a bit last night but i'm sure he'll come out blazing at the bridge. I'm not TOO disappointed.

YNWA!

I've had a chance to calm down a little, but even after a few hours of sleep and waking up to an all too familiar depressive state after a shock result such as this, I'm thinking they don't call it Red Square in Moscow for nothing!
As for the game on Wednesday, it will be NOTHING like this one.
Where as previous meetings between us and Chelsea have turned into tough cagey affairs with both teams pretty much cancelling each other out, they know and we know it will have to be all out attack from the off. The first 20 minutes or so will be really important. See how a quickly taken free kick can lead to a goal (thank God for Dirk), well that sort of quick incessant, screw turning urgency will be needed once again from our lads.
There will also be the need for Torres to step up on the big night, not to say he didn't have his chances today but lets be fair, he was hardly given the chance to be at his free flowing best and when similar chances come his way he really will need to put them away.
Gerrard has perhaps been showing signs of wear and tear over the past couple of games, and against the blues he again didn't seem on his A-game. But not to matter, Captain Inspirational has been in slightly more sticky situations than this before and we will of course be needing him to put in another massive squad inspiring performance...
I like many here also think all out attack will mean all out Crouch. The man continues to be a favourite of mine, a monster of a player in holding the ball- which believe me we will need to do quite a lot of at their place, and as for scoring goals, he hasn't done too badly of late!!!
Crouch creates a problem for the opposition and good luck to them in trying to solve it. Ain't my problem, thank God he hopefully will be theirs!
Kuyt will hopefully continue to relish these big Champions League nights. I have the feeling most Liver fans would love to see him scoring more goals, but never underestimate the work rate the Dutchman puts in, sometimes like last night it was the difference for us and I for one don't mind the role of almost advanced midfielder which he has slotted into. The man does everything attack, defend, attack...all that's left if for him to iron the kit and put the kettle on at the end of each game and who's to say he doesn't already do that, such is his incredible work rate!
Whats that old saying- you don't know what you've got till its gone, that was clearly evident yesterday when Riise had to come on for Aurelio. I want Aurelio back and FAST, though I get the feeling lightning doesn't strike twice and if there ever was a game Riise's now long forgotten old form would come storming back, then Wednesday would be it! He would want to make amends, but hands up anyone who would really want him to be given that chance.

Alonso has for my money been drifting back into this still unfamiliar, yet strangely more frequent than not role of 'unremarkable play maker'. True that his unremarkable would make someone like Lucas on form look like genius, but we need the Alonso of old, not this 'we can see glimpses of him returning to form' thing he has been about of late.
Pepe was right there yesterday, and after one or two rather more shaky games of late, he was the immense force he has always been between the sticks for us and hopefully that will continue...
Masch knows his job only too well, and again we need our secret (okay maybe not so secret )weapon once more.
A few things have to be aligned to get the desired result come next week but here is the important thing, we outplayed Chelsea at Anfield and for all their rep, they are not all of a sudden going to grow three heads and four hands overnight at their ground. They will still be essentially the same dour side that we outplayed!
So same old story, different day, and a Liverpool side seeing red, how do you contain that...chin up Riise, somehow I wouldn't want to be Avram Grant right now!!!!   

Totally gutted this morning.
Didn't get back from the match till late, and was shattered when I got in.
Feel that I've ben mugged, looking back on last night.

A few things that spring to mind,
We had chances to put the tie to bed - no doubt.
The ref was different - lets put it that way. 4 mins injury time - Roman's roubles for you Sir.
Drogba - Well he's been nominated for 6 Oscars after last nights performance.

We have to remember, the tie is only decided in the second leg. That is where we always win it.
Our crowd last night was awesome again, and I don't think for one minute that it will be an intimitading atmosphere down there. Give them free flags, scarves - whatever, they are plastic glory hunting fans, who have jumped onto a bandwagan.

Let's go out there and play them off the park.

Got to keep this short for this match, as I'm almost late for work now.

Havent read anyone else's post as really i couldnt give a flying F**k about anything right now. Here's my rant:

First 20 odd minutes it was lack lustre by both teams, passes were sprayed everywhere and neither team set the tone of the match. After 20 minutes we started to look more comfortable and set up many  attacks but Chelsea were clear on one thing and that dont concede and dropped every player back into the box. Alvaro and Dirk were outstanding for me in the first half, Dirk set up all the attacks down the right along with Alvaro, they linked up well and created chances for others. Dirk deserved that goal, brilliant. Second half and we started strong, dominated everything and really should have gone 2 up somewhere in that period. Fabio Aurellio,as soon as he went down i thought, 'F**k, give the lad a break. Oh no, Riise will be on' Too right Riise came on and straight away was caught out by Makelele and Ballack. In the first 20 minutes he was on he got caught out 3 times by my count being out of position too high up the field and let Chelsea pressure us - the lad is out of here in the summer. Final minute and 2 men on Malouda or Makelele on the left, forget which one it was, and they let him get the ball away! Alvaro was my man of the match untill that. Absolutely sh*t defending at a critical stage. John Arne Riise, leave now mate your useless. This may seem harsh but if this costs us a CL Final spot then i'll stab him.

Dont think i forgot about the ref! Here's what i remember:

Dirk Kuyt v Ashley Cole round 1: 2 hands in the back in the penalty spot, used them to get to the ball - Penalty.

Dirk Kuyt v Ashley Cole round 2: No where near the ball on the touchline. Should have had a yellow but not even a free kick!

Fernando Torres v John Terry round 1: Elbow in the head, yellow card but not even a free kick.

     "           "     v    "       "   round 2: Kicked him while he was down, let the game play on but yellow card. Clearly intensional.

     "           "     v    "       "   round 3: Pushed off the ball, yellow card but no free kick.

Ashley Cole v Yossi Benayoun: Jumped on him while in the air and put both hands round his head! YELLOW CARD!

There;s F***ing tonnes more but i cant be fu**ed to type it all out right now.

All the unnecessary treatment dished out to Nando was F***ing let go! Rafa - use mind games to the refs to protect him! If Fergie can do it for Ronaldo then why not us for Nando? He cops too much from opposition defences and something must be done.

Clearly the tactics employed by Chelsea towards Nando was kick him out of the game. John Terry is a F***ing thug.

DIDIER DROGBA! The F***ing w**ker plays like a stump - touch him and he'll fall. 7 times from memory and no doubt countless more, he fell over when nothing happened. I was jeering along when the cry of 'CHEAT!' rung around the ground.

Chelsea were F***ing disgraceful. Riise your F***ing disgraceful. Ref whatever his name was along with his touchies were F***ing disgraceful.

Next week, Alvaro at LB Carra at RB and Sami and Martin at CB. If Rafa chooses Riise at LB then he truly has lost it.

Rant over due to exceeding anger levels and mass amounts of rage.

IMO To be fair to riise the cross came in like tat is difficult to due with for anyone. it bad luck.

I couldnt let this slide.

Anyone see Jamie Carragher play? Ever? He boots he sh*t out of the ball EVERY time to safety. THATS what you do, not go head first into a ball and try nod it over the bar from 3 feet away in injury time.

Steve Gerrard, take a bow. I know personally i would give be dirty to Riise but this is what being captain is all about:

A defiant Steven Gerrard has backed Fernando Torres to break Liverpool's goalless record at Stamford Bridge to secure a place in Moscow. 
A last-gasp OG from John Arne Riise gave Chelsea a crucial away goal as the first leg ended 1-1, meaning the Reds are going to have to do something they have never done at the Bridge under Rafa Benitez – score.
 
Asked by Liverpoolfc.tv about that record, Gerrard replied bluntly: "We haven't played there with Fernando Torres, have we?"
 
Torres, who was absent from both of Liverpool's trips to Chelsea this season, missed a golden opportunity to open the scores when he went one-on-one with Petr Cech in the first half.
 
It was Dirk Kuyt who eventually fired home, though a thoroughly deserved victory was denied by an enormous stroke of bad luck for Riise with 30 seconds of injury time remaining.
 
Gerrard admits it's his job to now pick up his teammates ahead of the return leg next Wednesday.
 
He said: "Obviously we're disappointed with the late goal but it's done. We've got to pick ourselves up. We've got to get a result at the weekend then give it everything we can at Stamford Bridge. We know this tie is not over.
 
"It's my job as captain to pick the boys up and make sure we're ready for next week.
 
"Let people say Chelsea are favourites, let them. We've got to block that out and do what we've got to do. We are confident we can beat Chelsea on their patch.
 
"We've created the better chances against them here. I don't think Pepe had anything to do besides pick the ball out late doors. Petr Cech has had to pull off two or three great saves. To be honest, we'd have been disappointed if this game had ended 1-0 when it could have been 2-0."
 
Kuyt has now scored in every round of this season's Champions League – a remarkable stat considering the stick dished out to the Dutchman in some sections of the press earlier in the season.
 
The skipper added: "I haven't heard him get any stick. We don't listen to any of that (the media). Dirk has been fantastic for us, he's worked his socks off for us again tonight and deserved his goal. He is well respected in the dressing room."
 
Gerrard also had comforting words for substitute Riise, putting the last-minute equaliser down to misfortune.
 
He said: "These ties are decided on small details and Chelsea have had a bit of luck here at the end, but maybe we'll get that luck at Stamford Bridge. This team wins, loses and draws together.
 
"It's the second leg of the European Cup semi-final – if you can't motivate yourself for that you shouldn't be playing football." 


http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N159674080422-2301.htm

Got back 4am this morning after a wonderful drive home via roadworks between Junction 18-16 of the M6, waited in the traffic thinking there had been a major accident when to my surprise the whole holdup was due to 3 blokes and a F***ing blowtorch warming up some tarmac, and all having a jolly good laugh about it tossers...

As far as Im concerned that Referree is a joke, a total and utter joke, one of the worst referring performances I have ever seen at anfield. John Arne Risse you are a tit but sh*t happens sometimes and  to be quite honest Im annoyed at you but feel so sorry for you as I know you were totally gutted . First 20 mins of the game we looked nervous and didnt play particularly well, but having said that we took it to chelsea who in fact didnt play well what so ever, they were there for taking and our luck ran out at the end. Sometimes you have to be reflective on things you win some you lose some you draw some, if we nick a goal at crapford bridge then who knows. Im going back to bed C U all later..

HI All
just have to say that the ref was f**king crap,Terry shold of been sent off for the amount of fouls that he commited. I reckon that we can beat them at the bridge or at least get a 1-1 draw. If it goes to penalties Chelsea will bottle it. As for Riise goal i dont really blame him,if he had missed with his right foot anelka would of scored. Anyway roll on next Wednesday and we'll stuff em
       YNWA

Gutted when the eqaliser went in.  We should have won it 2 - 0 but you don't always get what you deserve.  Felt quite subdued walking away from Anfield but wasn't too down as we are still in with a chance.  As I have said many times before we never do things the easy way at Liverpool.  We are now the underdogs in this tie which suits me fine as that is when we usually do well.  We have never scored a goal at Stamford Bridge under Rafa let alone won a game.  Everything is stacked against us.

When we win everyone will say we are so lucky - again!

just have to say that the ref was f**king crap

I haven't taken the time to read back through everyone's posts, so I apologise if I repeat anyone. I agree totally with you koppiteal that the referee was sh*te last night. I couldn't believe the number of fouls he was letting the Chelsea players get away with!  I don't know what the stats were, but they seemed to be fouling us constantly, but never the same player twice, as if it was the teams tactics coming into this match or something! Especially Terry, he had me swearing at the telly the number of times he got away with it!

Also Ashley Cole got away with no yellow as well, he gave one of our lads a right knock, I don't remember which it was but he should have had a yellow for sure. It doesn't sound like much, but had their defence had one or two yellows earlier on, maybe our attackers would have had some more room.

Obviously gutted with the result, it's funny, I was explaining to a mate that we have a great spine to the team, but we lack good cover at left back. Then what happens? Aurelio gets injured and on comes Riise, and I thought "Oh, no!". He just isn't good enough at this level anymore, but I don't really blame him too much for the goal. A difficult cross, though I remember shouting something like "No, hoof it!" at the telly, guess he didn't hear me!

We created some good chances, I was pleased with our overall performance, especially Alonso's passing which I found excellent - his through ball for Kuyt could have paid off early on. I won't make excuses for the players though, we should have had at least 2 goals, even 3, though Cech had a fantastic game and kept Chelsea in it. Promising for the return leg at least, if we score early on then we have a very good chance to qualify, we just need to keep our heads up!

Also Ashley Cole got away with no yellow as well, he gave one of our lads a right knock, I don't remember which it was but he should have had a yellow for sure. It doesn't sound like much, but had their defence had one or two yellows earlier on, maybe our attackers would have had some more room.

It was Dirk Kuyt. Dirk nutmeg'd him and the touchie said Ashley touched the ball. *cough* F***ing BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!                         *cough*

If the OG was scored at around 75 minutes it wouldnt have been so bad, but the fact it was the last kick of the game on the 95th minute is the hard pill to swollow.

I dont blame Riise, it happens, I can see Riise making up for it now with a blinding free kick!


Have faith fellow Reds, we have to make as much noise at the Bridge as possible and cheer our lads through to the last second!


Anyone think Rafa will play Pennant and Crouch?? Might be ideal we need that goal and fast, I believe we can do it, Chelsea were poor last night and I think we are better than them!


Heads Up lads and ladies, we're still on the road to Moscow!

Yea well a bit of a shi**er last night really, but on the plus side:
* Terry will not be playing next week
* We scored away at Arsenal in the Champions League this season so we can do it again
* The players will be even more determined now that we have somewhat of a hill to climb
* We are the come back kings and this latest test will do the team wonders and better prepare us for a United/Barca final
* Gerrard has proved on two occasions who runs the show on the european stage (did u see that volley OMG that was class)

We are Liverpool and will prove victorious!

Hmmm....Chelsea getting what they dont deserve again. Its turning into a habit now....

I think Drogba missed the class in school where they teach him that hurt people dont roll around on the floor. I want action taken because this is getting disgusting now.....

As for our players..

My MOTM goes to Skrtel. He was put up against Drogba and he won.....EVERYTIME....sim ple as that. He was where he needed to be at the right time, at all times.

Special mention to Dirk Kuyt who I thought played his best game of this season. The one he missed was a really hard one to do because even Ronaldinho or Kaka will have a tough time controlling a ball coming over his shoulder. Other than that he put in his usual share of hard work but for some reason his touch was amazing last night, He collected balls that he usually messes up.

I feel for Riise as his mind was set on heading the ball before it dipped and bounced awkwardly for him. I think that he did really well when he came on and its unfair to dwell on the OG as I think half of the blame should go to Arbeloa and Masch because that cross should never had been let in.


I do not want to be Cech at Stamforde bridge next week. We are more than capable of scoring 2 or 3 goals there.

Yea well a bit of a shi**er last night really, but on the plus side:
* Terry will not be playing next week
* We scored away at Arsenal in the Champions League this season so we can do it again
* The players will be even more determined now that we have somewhat of a hill to climb
* We are the come back kings and this latest test will do the team wonders and better prepare us for a United/Barca final
* Gerrard has proved on two occasions who runs the show on the european stage (did u see that volley OMG that was class)

We are Liverpool and will prove victorious!

Why wont Terry be playing?
He's not suspended.

It was Dirk Kuyt. Dirk nutmeg'd him and the touchie said Ashley touched the ball. *cough* F***ing BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!                         *cough*

Cheers Crouchinho, I should have guessed it was Kuyt as he's always on or near the ball, whether we're attacking or defending!

If the OG was scored at around 75 minutes it wouldnt have been so bad, but the fact it was the last kick of the game on the 95th minute is the hard pill to swollow.

That really pissed me off! When I saw there were four minutes of injury time I couldn't believe it! Did anyone else notice the ref have a peek at his watch before they took that last throw in? There was something like 93m 57s on the clock, so I thought "He'll blow straight away when the guy throws it", but unfortunately not!  I wonder if our boys thought the same because Malouda had plenty of space to put in his cross, maybe our players were already thinking of the second leg...

Fantastic performance from so many of our players and their reactions at the end just summed up how they felt. As soon as i saw 4 minutes extra time go up my heart felt like it was sinking.

My main points of happiness from the game:

Torres - OK he didnt score but the positions he got into to get his shots away were excellent and he gave the chelsea defence more problems than they could cope with so they began to foul him. Always said John Terry was a dirty player and now people know why.

Kuyt - What can i say he did it again, had Ashley cole scrambling all over the place and resorting to terry's technique of just fouling when you get frustrated. Took his goal sensationally, looked a bit scrappy but how far from scrappy it was, kept his eye on the ball the whole time waited for it to drop and put it straight through cechs legs.

Xabi Alonso - The exact reason i dont want him to leave. The amount of attacks he started and built up for us was just crazy, chelsea didnt know how to cope with him and he looked alot like his old self, getting the ball quick drag of the ball away from his marker looking up and spraying a pinpoint pass to a teammate. Was so happy to see him playing so well and glad the commentators picked up on it aswell, some of his passing was just perfect and he was at the centre of alot of the midfield play. When i thought chelsea were going to score aswell the ball was just about to go in and who is there to stop it Xabi, even though the whistle went just before he was there ensuring the ball didnt go in. Seemed so creative last night and his little flick back to masch just before the goal was great and it was good to see xabi playing so well.

Babel - Ran at the defence quite a few times and caused them problems, got in behind the defence a few times too and his passes into the box look to have improved. Seems to be learning from his mistakes and chelsea defenders seem to not like him running at them, his tricks seemed to have got him past their players quite a few times.

Skrtel - Fought for every single ball and was solid once again, in defence. Had a great game and drogba couldnt handle REAL pace and power so decided to fling himself to the ground at every opportunity. So glad we got skrtel such an talented defender, reads the game excellently and doesnt let anything pass him.

There are a few more aswell i think everyone played their hearts out and we deserved more than a 1-1 draw, this is far from over though we will fight for this with everything we have. Stamford bridge is not the loudest of grouncs and we can get a result there. They have man u at the weekend so things could go either way, do we want them to win that or lose that leaving only the CL for them to have hope in, i havent thought about it yet, all i know is we have to give 110% at stamford bridge.

Kuyt was awesome once again. The lad's really copped it some stick from all corners but he has come out and been our most consistent player in Europe and turned in some man of the match performances like this morning and weeks passed.

Kuyt was awesome once again. The lad's really copped it some stick from all corners but he has come out and been our most consistent player in Europe and turned in some man of the match performances like this morning and weeks passed.

True took his goal so well and he has shown what he is capable of. Grabbed some crucial goals and never stops putting the opposition under pressure. Should have got a penalty yesterday really.

Anyone notice how stoppage time was 1 minute in the first half, then 4 in the second?

All this you guyz are saying is not my problem let Riise explain why he has to score an own goal if guys can still remember john Riise made us out of the FA after scoring an own goal now is the chaampions league own oal. for me riise should live liverpool for another club instead of ending our dream all the time. But this is for every member in the house you guyz should take heart we are going to make history for the third time on next week wednesday at Bridge.

Yeah, drove me crazy seeing 4 minutes go up. Really think drogba should be sent off for his dives its a disgrace to the game. One thing that was astonishing was Drogba managed to take more time to leave the field after being bumped into by Riise than Aurelio took after getting a serious injury.