So many questions asked before a ball was kicked about this fixture most of them relating to Liverpool, and how they were going to approach this game relating to the contest between Chelsea and their bitter rivals Manchester United for the Premiership Title. A title that seems a million miles away for Liverpool. It was always going to be a very difficult game for Liverpool especially after their heartache on Thursday night, and also the extra exertions of extra time whereas Chelsea had all week to rest and to focus on this fixture.
Well I felt Rafa put out as strong a team as he could have considering all his injuries and with the latest being an injury to Glenn Johnson. Just felt the team more or less picked itself due to the lack of personnel.
THE GAME
I felt Liverpool started not too badly and certainly were not going to roll over for Chelsea and were pressuring them without creating a lot of chances themselves. Chelsea were not playing too great to be fair and were not hitting the heights of the previous weeks performance. But gradually they started looking more dangerous as the first half wore on with a shout for a penalty when Mascherano made a clumsy challenge on Kalou in the box but I think it would have been a soft one.
Aqualani had Liverpool's best effort with a good strike from outside the box which shaved the Chelsea crossbar, but that was as good as it got.
Then out of nothing Chelsea took the lead, Gerrard collected the ball about thirty yards inside his own half and facing his own goal decided to pass the ball back to Reina, but as he passed it back he never noticed Drogba in close proximity, as the ball was played back Drogba nipped in stealing it front of Reina and passed the ball into the empty net, Gerrards expression said it all.
There was still time for Chelsea to have another shout for a penalty bafore half time when Kalou burst in to the box and with Lucas chasing him tried to avoid contact with him but seemingly caught his heel and the Chelsea man hit the ground, I personally thought it was a penalty but happy that it wasn't given.
The second half was awful from a Liverpool supporter's point of view, with the opening goal seemingly killing them off, Chelsea cruised the second half and got a second goal when good work down the right ended with a ball across the face of the six yard box which Lampard finished off. There was a fear it could get ugly with Chelsea in rampant mood now and Liverpool had to be thankfull to Reina with some excellent stops to keep the score down. It really was a sorry end to a sorry season at Anfield. The players after the game came back out to thank the fans for their support all season but they looked rather weary and trudged round probably reflecting on what went wrong this season.
SUMMARY
I think Thursday's disappointment took a lot out of the players and when they went a goal down thats when they started to feel the tiredness from their exertions the other night and I felt they had nothing in the tank and ended up really struggling in the second half. Mascherano really struggled at right back where he has done a sterling job in recent games in that position, Gerrard tried hard and Aqualani tried to create, Kyrgiakos defended well at the back, but the heart was out the team with the killer first goal. and it really was a sorry end to a sorry season at Anfield.
MAN OF THE MATCH- Reina, lost count of how many times he's been man of the match this season, just proves how poor a season we've had.
Yeah, it was a bit of a disappointment but at least we had a reason not to be that gutted about it. I read in the paper today that Mascherano was rated only a 3. I thought that was terrible considering he was obviously targetted because he was out of position at right back and quite often had 2 players on him at one time. That just goes to show the ignorance of some people though.
ReplyDeletePs. I've put forums on the new site and I'm starting to send traffic there now too, Any chance you could change your blog roll please fella?
Im really disappointed and youve really pretty much summed up the match as well as the season. Reina was the best performer all round through out the season and i hope things get sorted out in the summer.
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