CL Semi 1st Leg: Chelsea v Liverpool

[4tothefloor]

1-1 draw would be nice, Luis Garcia or Riise to score.

Come on the 'Pool!

[joeSoap]

€20 on Chelski to win 1-0, with Gudjohnsen to score @25/1.....worth a punt...

[strangeirish]

That was the worst game of football I've seen in years. Liverpool accomplished their goal by suffocating the midfield. Chelski sorely missed Duff tonight, albeit a slightly biased opinion. What a miss by Lampard. Couldn't hit a bulls arse with a banjo that lad.

[4tothefloor]

It was always going to be a tense game, I don't know what else people expected. I had to laugh at the RTE 'experts' Houghton, Dunphy and Giles and their analysis of the game. They haven't a clue between the three of them. What did they expect, Liverpool to come down to London and go gung-ho? They did what they had to do and it's a very good result. They lauded Liverpool for reducing Juve to long balls in Turin, yet tonight they refused to acknowledge their defensive performance, criticising Chelsea's lack of inventiveness instead. Idiots. They also criticised the likes of Garcia\Traore etc, players who we know blow hot and cold. They never criticised Gerrard once, even though he was absolute rubbish, he was among the worst players on the pitch. No heart, no interest, the sooner he pi$$es off to Chelsea the better.....

I'm going to the 2nd leg at Anfield, can't wait

[Thunderblaster]

Pool to win 1-0 in Anfield in a memorable and legendary night of passion and skill.

[thecorner]

It was always going to be a tense game, I don't know what else people expected. I had to laugh at the RTE 'experts' Houghton, Dunphy and Giles and their analysis of the game. They haven't a clue between the three of them. What did they expect, Liverpool to come down to London and go gung-ho? They did what they had to do and it's a very good result. They lauded Liverpool for reducing Juve to long balls in Turin, yet tonight they refused to acknowledge their defensive performance, criticising Chelsea's lack of inventiveness instead. Idiots. They also criticised the likes of Garcia\Traore etc, players who we know blow hot and cold. They never criticised Gerrard once, even though he was absolute rubbish, he was among the worst players on the pitch. No heart, no interest, the sooner he pi$$es off to Chelsea the better.....

I'm going to the 2nd leg at Anfield, can't wait :D

didnt even have to read the part in bold, by the time i got half way down you could tell it was a bias liverpool fan

[stickyjoe]

stephen gerrard.....is he starting to believe all his own hype? he looks like anything but a 30m player lately

he was awful again last night

[Mourinho]

who got man of the match lastnight? it was surely alonso, carragher or carvalho was it? what about cechs save!!!!

[razor]

didnt even have to read the part in bold, by the time i got half way down you could tell it was a bias liverpool fan

corner what are you on about ?
He gives a decent account of the game while rightly castigating the morons on RTE. I don't see any bias there what so ever.
Gerrard was the worst player on the pitch, When he ballooned that shot towards the corner flag near the end and all the Chelsea fans started laughing, a mate of mine says "what are they laughing at, they are the ones paying 30m for him", the sooner he goes the better.
Carragher was immense, should have gotten a penalty.
Thought the ref was inconsistant with cards, if Xabi went in for what he did then Biscan and Lampard should also have been booked for very similar fouls.
4tothefloor, See you over there.

[gspain]

Thought it was an OK 0-0 game but too many missed passes. Chelsea look tired. It is not just duffer that needs a break.

Although it was a far better result for Liverpool than chelsea (despite Jose's bluffing afterwards) Chelsea would not normally be happy with a 1-1 draw at Anfield and of course that will do on Tuesday.

Alonso will also be a huge loss as he is probably the best passer of a ball in the premiership (some would argue that is not saying a lot. )

[eirebhoy]

Although it was a far better result for Liverpool than chelsea (despite Jose's bluffing afterwards) Chelsea would not normally be happy with a 1-1 draw at Anfield and of course that will do on Tuesday.

I don't think Mourinho was bluffing. He mentioned how effective Duff and Robben are together a few times before the match. Chelsea with Duff and Robben in the team are going to score. That means Liverpool have to score at least 2 in Anfield. Won't be easy. Mourinho's main priority today was a clean sheet.

[razor]

For a team that had scored 11 in their previous 4 CL games. Chelsea looked poor enough in front of goal last night, Lampards miss was awful.
With 1 shot on target in the whole match, (I thought they didn't have any but Sky Sports don't lie). Dudek had nothing to do all night apart from one punch whereas Cech had 2 excellent saves to make.
Still all up for grabs really, could go either way.

[jockser]

Gerrard was the worst player on the pitch

Gerrard once was absolute rubbish, he was among the worst players on the pitch. No heart, no interest, the sooner he pi$$es off to Chelsea the better.....

Give it a rest you too for F*ck sake. Gerrard was not the worst on the field he was much better than Garcia and also Alonso who had a night mare. Every pass Alonso made went to a blue although his tackling was good. Garcia was rubbish too. The fact that gerrard had an operation before the game on an absyss and played ok (not amazing but not sh*te either). His 2 passes in the first half across field to risse were fantastic, so was his cross to baros for our best chance as so was his passes with biscan to set upp Cisse's chance. Basically he set up all our chance last night.
Now im not saying he was amazng last night far from it and he could have done better but he was not sh*te.
I hope you two moaners will be the only two at anfield next week

[noby]

While Gerrard didn't have a great game, to give him some credit, playing behind the striker isn't his favourite position, especially up against Makalele. He better produce a big game next tuseday, back in the centre.


I heard Rafa went to the ref afterwards to make sure he watched a replay of Alonso's booking before filing his match report.

[razor]

I hope you two moaners will be the only two at anfield next week

Maybe its because we know what he is capable of that we expect a bit more, if you looked at his distribution overall he passed to blue more than red, I know he is a better player than that.
Everyone 100% behnid the team next week, it needs to be as intimidating as possible.

[jockser]

Everyone 100% behnid the team next week, it needs to be as intimidating as possible.

Thats more like it !!!

[aidz1]

notice that a few of ye are heading over next week for the game.
any of ye a spare as our contact in pool has let 1 of the lads down?
....on the off chance like...!!!

[Dublin12]

Were you standing beside me last night in Sinnotts by any chance?

All I could hear was some country lad going "go on Bican ye boy ye"

[KK77]

Going over myself should be a cracking atmosphere come on you redmen!!!!

[4tothefloor]

Give it a rest you too for F*ck sake

Listen, I call it as I see it and Gerrard to me was useless. He was hiding for a lot of the game, and there was more than one occasion when he didn't even bother to attempt a tackle, instead letting the Chelsea players straight through. If I want to criticise him i'll criticise him, I'm not one of the brigade that thinks his sh1t is ice cream. Himself and Garcia were ineffective. The greatest players play rubbish at times, and Gerrard had a stinker last night. I've watched him closely in every game this season, and he has been distinctly average for the most part. The only game where he looked like a £30m player to me was Villa away. Now it's either his head is elsewhere because he intends to leave in the summer, maybe his head is done in because he doesn't know what he wants to do. Or else he is having personal problems. Something isn't right because he is playing way below his level all season, his body language is terrible as well. I'd say he hasn't smiled since 2003.

Don't think for one second either that I won't be behing the team and Gerrard 110% on Tuesday night. Just because I criticise a player in my analysis of a game doesn't change my ability to get behind the team