Champions League Last 16 – February 19 2008 – Result.
Liverpool 2 Inter Milan 0
Rafa Benítez and his players answered the critics in the best way possible tonight – on the pitch.
Critics will find fault with tonight’s performance, but in the main those critics are scrambling to save face after being made to eat their words. Liverpool dominated this game from start to finish, even before Inter were down to ten men, and could have won by a far greater margin. Torres alone had a shot saved and another just an inch wide in close succession, and two strong penalty appeals were turned down.
Inter Milan are 11 points clear at the top of Serie A, have lost one game in all competitions, and have gone 29 games since September without losing. Tonight none of that was apparent, not because Milan played badly, but because Liverpool played so well.
The newspapers were expecting a chance to write Rafa’s obituary, sending up their usually London-based staff to help out with the attack on the Spaniard. The defeat against Barnsley on Saturday in the FA Cup was an awful result, but as much down to a good Barnsley performance as anything. Liverpool were foiled by a goalkeeper playing out of his skin at one end, and one playing out of touch at the other. Liverpool hadn’t played so badly, but headlines suggested otherwise which is why the big name reporters were ordered to Anfield. No doubt they were sitting glum-faced at the end, but they’ll continue to hover from a distance until their opportunity comes.
The unfortunate side to the modern-day fan is that not all fans are willing to stick by the club and its players, unwilling to support them through bad times and instead demanding nothing but good. That’s not what support is all about. Entertainment can be demanded at the cinema or the theatre, where you can ask for your money back if you aren’t happy. Football is slightly different – what you pay for includes, unfortunately, despair from time to time.
Performances all round were much better tonight. Even the noise levels were up, but that’s always the case on European nights. Anfield has been the butt of criticism from opposition fans more and more of late, but tonight it played a large part in helping the side come out fighting.
Rafa had made five changes from the team beaten by Barnsley, but this team closely resembled the one that got a draw against Chelsea in the last league game – a game Chelsea had never looked like winning. The changes between that game and tonight saw Riise replaced by Aurelio and Torres in for Crouch. Skrtel played at Stamford Bridge due to a Hyypia injury, but those roles were reversed.
The rotation issue won’t go away for Rafa, and it will remain until he wins every single game comfortably or until certain elements of the press get their way and he’s the next managerial casualty. But in reality Rafa is not rotating as much as he did, especially when domestic cup games are excluded. The Champions League is the most important competition for the owners, as it brings in the most money. Rafa’s had to sacrifice a league game before now after learning he’d be sacked if he lost the Champions League game that followed three days later. It’s therefore no surprise to see he played a strong, but not his strongest, side on Saturday. His priority, the owners’ priority, is this competition. He needs to keep them happy, and they need success to pay the loans.
Liverpool’s first goal came from Dirk Kuyt. He deserved it. He’s worked tirelessly through a run of poor finishing, bad luck and heavy – sometimes excessive – criticism. His confidence came back enough for him to score on Saturday, and tonight he scored again – two in two games and his ninth of the season. It came in the 85th minute, no doubt causing those London reporters to hastily re-write their stories with a slant of “can’t even beat ten men”.
Gerrard made sure of the win, and gave the Reds a much-needed cushion for that second leg, when he scored a wonderful goal on 90 minutes.
Materazzi’s sending off, after half an hour, was for his second bookable offence. Both were certainly bookable offences, but the former Evertonian was probably unlucky to go off in that referees often seem to be lenient where second yellows are concerned. The ref held the second yellow high, then seemed to realise rather belatedly that he’d already booked the defender.
His sending off came because he’d been trouble for that first half hour by Fernando Torres. Liverpool were upsetting a Milan side who had planned to defend, to keep hold of that unbeaten record that stretched back to a Champions League group defeat against Fenerbahce in September. Away from home their record was three defeats in 45 games. They look certain to lift their third successive Serie A title in the spring, but were made to look quite ordinary by a determined team.
Before the sending-off Liverpool’s chances included a shot by Jamie Carragher that hit Maicon’s hand for what Carra thought should have been a penalty – and that was in the opening minutes. Babel and Hyypia forced saves from the keeper. Torres was causing problems, including the two fouls Materazzi was booked for. The first one may have been a little harsh, although the card seemed to appear after the player had started to shout at the referee for his decision.
Liverpool kept plugging away, playing at a high tempo and getting their full-backs forward to support the three forwards. Milan were stretched but hung on determinedly.
Fabio Capello, England’s Italian manager, sat watching the game with Brian Barwick. He claimed last autumn that he’d been approached by Liverpool for Rafa’s job, but the club denied it. Their failure to deny the same kind of story about Jurgen Klinsmann rang alarm bells for Reds fans, who were later told that the lack of a denial in that case was because he actually had been approached.
Former Arsenal midfielder Patrick Vieira came on in the second half, Inter taking striker Julio Cruz off the field as they saw a need to try and hold on to the draw. The change didn’t slow Liverpool down, Torres getting a brilliant shot in that was matched with a brilliant save. Hyypia headed over soon after and then on the hour mark came Liverpool’s second penalty appeal. Vierra was guilty of handling the ball in the area, the ref asked his assistant if it was a penalty and the assistant adopted the stance of Vierra’s old boss Arsene Wenger – he didn’t see it, instead the Reds got a corner.
After Torres had shot a fraction wide Rafa decided to bring off one of the three central midfielders, replacing Lucas with Peter Crouch. Ryan Babel was tiring after putting in an excellent performance that showed why Rafa bought the promising youngster at such a high price. In his place came Jermaine Pennant. Crouch had a shot that went woefully wide, but was an important distraction to the opposition.
Inter lost Ivan Cordoba with 15 minutes to go, and it was certainly not going to hinder Liverpool that they had. They’d survived the one scare of the second half when Inter managed to win a corner, and were looking to kill the game off. Pennant’s cross looked slightly overhit, missing both Torres and Crouch, but Kuyt had moved inside and was on hand to hit a shot into the ground and on into the net.
Surprisingly Rafa was seen complaining to a fourth official after that about time being wasted. He wasn’t asking his players to hang on as might be expected; he was actually urging them to get a second. They did, Gerrard finding himself some space to hit a shot low from outside the area onto the inside of the far post and in.
There’s a three-week wait now until the second leg at the San Siro, which is in use by Inter’s fellow tenants AC Milan in two weeks. Two goals is a great cushion, a clean sheet means no away goals, but Liverpool really have to look to take the game to Inter. One goal for the Reds in the San Siro would leave Inter needing four, and that’s the kind of fact that needs to be in the player’s minds from the off.
Afterwards Rafa said: “This result is good for the confidence of the team, the supporters and the club. I always had confidence in my players, they played well with passion and they passed the ball excellently. It was clearly much better than the last match – and even though Inter Milan had ten men for a long spell, they were still formidable opponents who were organised, defended well and were always capable of scoring on the break.
“I think everyone knew we needed this. It was really important for the club and fans that we won. I have always had confidence in this team and we will win a lot of games. I accept that we needed this win as a team – we needed to progress in the competition. As a manager, you are always pleased with a win like this – and this is now the time to be happy.
“The red card was clear. It was for two yellow cards, and the referee was right. As for the penalty, everyone could see the Inter player handling the ball. But you cannot change things now. It is an excellent win, made better by a clean sheet.
“I know people will say they cannot understand how we can lose to Barnsley and then beat Inter Milan, but on Saturday we changed the team, we had 10 internationals on the pitch and missed a lot of chances. This time we were better – we had far less chances but we scored two good goals. It gives us a great chance in the second leg, but we must be careful because Inter are a very good side and they will make it very difficult for us at the San Siro.”
“Against a good team like Inter, who are a very well organised outfit, you have to be patient and wait for the chances to come, because they will. It will be difficult for them to come back now, but they have a lot of good players and while we are confident, we will not be complacent.
“The determination to prove people wrong was no different to any other game. We’ve not had much luck of late and the confidence is low but we must keep keeping working and that’s what we did.
“I’m also pleased for Kuyt. I have a lot of confidence in him because his commitment is always 100% and every team needs a player like that.”
On rotation, which Fernando Torres has already said players like him accept, especially given they knew that was how Rafa worked when they committed themselves to the club, Rafa said: “I rotate because I want to win. You can play with the same eleven all year long and finish fourth, and that’s a bad result. We have to rotate because our squad is not as good as Arsenal, Chelsea or Manchester United.”
Earlier on in the evening Rafa spoke to ITV Sport: “We had confidence and we needed to be passionate and the team was doing the right things, moving the ball, passing the ball, crossing and trying to win the second ball so at the end I had confidence but two goals in the last minutes always is very, very positive.”
He was asked what he said to his players in the interval: “Keep playing, keep passing the ball, keep trying to play good football, because we will have more opportunities.
Asked what pleased him most about the game, he said: “The attitude of the players was really good the commitment, and also as always the supporters.”
He was asked if tonight’s performance showed that his men are playing for him, to which he replied: “These players are playing for the club, that’s the most important thing. We are a fantastic club so they are playing with passion for the club.”
As for the penalty decisions: “I think that we have one in the first that we were demanding and another in the second half – clear, but anyway you cannot change things now.
“We have confidence – but we also know they are a good team, Inter Milan are a very good team, so we must be careful.”
Inter’s coach Roberto Mancini was unhappy with the red card: “I think the referee got both the yellow card decisions wrong, neither were worthy of cautions, and the sending-off changed the game. I was not surprised by this performance from Liverpool; I knew they would put in a good performance after what happened at the weekend, because they are a good side. But Marco’s sending-off changed things dramatically. It is hard enough to play at Anfield with 11 men, but with 10 it is very tough.
“But I will not concede that the task is now beyond us. We have another 90 minutes on our own ground, although the second goal they scored has made it all a lot harder.
“But it is not out of our reach. I accept that Steven Gerrard played well, but that only happened after Marco was sent off. It was only then that Gerrard got so much space to use.
“We knew that after Liverpool’s defeat at the weekend they were going to come out all guns blazing. However, Steven Gerrard’s goal is not our death knell. Other teams have come back from such deficits.”
Reds captain and scorer of the second, Gerrard, said afterwards: “It’s a big night, a big win, but it means nothing unless we finish the job off in three weeks time. We’re not going to get carried away. It’s a good performance, we’re happy with the clean sheet, and a two goal lead, but you’re talking about a second game against a top side so you mustn’t underestimate them.
“Not surprised at all – two bookable offences so he deserved to go. But when that happened, Inter Milan got a lot of men behind the ball. They were playing for a 0-0 and so it was important that we were patient. In the last ten minutes we got our reward. They were very tired, we kept the tempo high and eventually the breakthrough came.
He was asked, given the pressure he’s been under, if he thought this was an important win for Rafa: “Yeah of course, Rafa of course, but you know the team, the fans, the people upstairs – everyone connected with the club, it was a big win for everyone. I don’t think it’s fair to single individuals out for the praise, I think we all deserve the praise together.” Gerrard’s comments may be harmless, but they hardly help quash the rumours that Gerrard and other players have lost all faith in their manager.
Liverpool: Reina, Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Aurelio, Gerrard, Mascherano, Lucas (Crouch 64), Babel (Pennant 72), Kuyt, Torres
Unused subs: Itandje, Riise, Benayoun, Alonso, Arbeloa
Goals: Kuyt 85, Gerrard 90
Internazionale: Julio Cesar, Maicon, Cordoba (Burdisso 75), Materazzi, Chivu, Zanetti, Stankovic, Cambiasso, Maxwell, Cruz (Vieira 55), Ibrahimovic
Unused subs: Toldo, Figo, Crespo, Maniche, Suazo
Booked: Chivu, Materazzi
Sent Off: Materazzi (30)
Attendance: 41,999
Referee: Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium).
Great result we all needed that and lets hope we have turned the corner and we are on our way to a positive last quarter of the season.
Good to see Torres back and healthy, Macher was the player of the match for me he took charge of the midfield and was determined to chase everything that came within 20′ of him. This result will take some of the pressure off Rafa and the players and hopefully build more confidence in the players. Bring on Middlesborough.
Well done The Reds!!!
We really played well and I was hugely impressed by the supporters last night.
Speaking from Cape Town, my dream is to one day visit Anfield and sit on The Kop while singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’
It gives me goosebumps every time it is sung at Anfield.
YNWA
Last night the boys made us proud to be LFC supporters. What an inspiring performance from the team.
Everyone of the players on the pitch last night was my MOTM, they finally played like they deserved to be wearing the red shirt, especially “WELL DONE” to Dirk Kuyt, lets hope that this is the start of alot more goals to come from him.
“WELL DONE LADS”. Hold your heads up high knowing that your’ll totally outplayed AND beat the supposed “BEST” team in EUROPE.
YNWA
I WOULD REALLY LOVE TO SEE THE FACES OF THE THOSE FCUKING DOUBTERS OUT THERE.
Rollercoaster
It’s not easy being a Liverpool suporter nowadays. We get tossed from the heights of exhilliaration to the depths of depression week in and week out!
You know, the highs make the the lows worthwhile!
An as usual liverpool will lost next game after what called ‘outstanding’ performance. I bet liverpool will lost to Boro
Its weird how you get a feeling in the 15 minutes before kickoff at Anfield as to what kind of a game it is going to be. The crowd has a mood and last night I could feel the optimism and expectancy. “The Club” is a combination of the fans, the players and the manager, all of whom change from time to time and when all three play their part we get results like last night (and Istanbul). No groans at the odd misplaced pass or shot off target, no singling out of players, just 90 minutes of support and noise. Of course for the icing on the cake we had a display from Mascherano that bears comparison with any I have seen from a player in a red shirt. He’s nothing like Emlyn Hughes in stature but in a willingness to go over the top for his teammates and the club he is comparable. One part of his game which is not obvious on the tv coverage is the support and advice he was constantly giving to Lucas who, until he tired in the second half was showing real ability in the midfield role. Not so much a return to form for Rafa – more the fruits of his obvious prioritisation of this competion.
I thought this was a very well written article by Paul Tomkins:
TOMKINS: MAKING SHANKLY PROUD
Paul Tomkins 20 February 2008
Blood vessels bursting, voices creaking, eyes wide and disbelieving, the final 10 minutes of last night’s game were what football is all about to Liverpool fans: passion and skill set to a beautiful noise, as the Kop twice erupted like Vesuvius.
paul tomkins
I always felt this was going to be a very different Liverpool from the one currently bogged down in domestic competitions, and was confident of a good display, irrespective of the result. The fans as well as the team can struggle to find their full force during the ‘lesser’ games, and everything can get a bit flat at times, but European nights bring out the best of everyone connected with the club. It’s something to be proud of. The Kop inspires the team and the team lifts the Kop.
While playing with more intensity is always easier when it’s such a massive game, it usually takes an early goal in these kinds of situations to keep the momentum that builds up on the Kop from the first whistle. And last night it just seemed that it was going to be another of those occasions when a breakthrough just couldn’t be made, against some typical Italian stubbornness and, occasionally, cynicism.
Finishing teams off, rather than playing good football (bar the odd shocker) and creating chances, has been the problem for much of the season, and that includes Barnsley, whose keeper somehow performed miracles. Neutrals have told me they still can’t believe the Reds didn’t win that game by a landslide, and sometimes you get strange results and upsets in one-off games. Particularly if you don’t put the game to bed.
Of late, the Reds have tended to run out of belief as the game wears on if that first goal hasn’t arrived or, if it has, until a two-goal margin has been run up, and the team can relax and play better football. The lack of a comfort zone has then caused nervous defending at the back, and it’s all to do with the vicious cycle of confidence.
And against Inter it looked like a similar story: Torres denied by a remarkable stop and then inches wide, even if the Reds’ pressure and possession hadn’t led to dozens of chances. The penalty claim against Vieira was blatant, and yet ignored. But just as Liverpool got sucker-punched at the death by Barnsley, this time there was an equally unbelievable conclusion to the game, and the tie was turned on its head in a few delirious minutes.
This has not been Liverpool’s season in the league. Clearly. Nor in the domestic cups. But since the first three Champions League group games, when that competition appeared to be the first one to fall in the Reds’ season, a momentum has come about in Europe. You cannot deny that on the highest stage of all, Liverpool are now feared and respected throughout the continent.
When you see Liverpool play this well it makes you wonder why it can’t be transferred to the league on a regular basis, but equally, let’s be proud that the team can play this well in Europe, and do so consistently. It’s easy to bemoan what we don’t have, but let’s take a while to appreciate what we do.
I said it last week, but there seems to be a innate confidence when it comes to Champions League football ever since the belief-instilling antics of 2005, but almost 20 years of failure in the league is a hard barrier to break, with the massive pressure that began building way before Benítez arrived. Ask Alex Ferguson, when he was in the exact same boat two decades ago.
And the league table never tells of a team’s true abilities; it takes all competitions together to see the full picture. Teams like Everton, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Portsmouth don’t have to fight on two ultra-competitive fronts, and play teams like Inter Milan before Premiership matches. Yes, Everton are temporarily above the Reds, albeit having played a game extra, and it hurts. But can they beat sides like Inter, or win in Barcelona, or knock out teams like Juventus and Chelsea, and outplay AC Milan?
While he struggles to mount a title challenge, just as Alex Ferguson did for his first five years, is there a better manager in Europe than Rafa Benítez? The thing is, if Liverpool were challenging in the league but failing in Europe, there’d be moans of a different kind. After two decades in the European wilderness, I’m thankful for being back amongst the very best.
It was also a night which showed how confidence and luck play a massive part in every single game of football.
I am definitely a fan of Dirk Kuyt. He’s no Diego Maradona, as he himself would admit. But he had a very good first season at the club, and even this season he’s had some fine games, but it seemed that his luck would never change. His work-rate is staggering, but he needed to find some cutting edge, too. His play was clearly suffering, but the manager has stuck by him.
After his goal against Barnsley he was much more confident against the Italian champions, with his first touch restored to its better levels. His movement and position-taking were superb, as he found all sorts of clever angles to stretch the Italian defence and create space for colleagues, particularly Finnan.
While Kuyt’s work-rate gets praised, he has a real footballing intelligence that gets overlooked; he’s not technically gifted, but he has a football brain, and a fighter’s courage.
And suddenly the luck was back, too, as his on-target shot took a marginal deflection and flew past the keeper, to complete a personal Champions League double against Milan’s two famous giants. Not many players can say that.
It was the kind of luck that he, and Liverpool, didn’t have against the other great Milan side last May in Athens; while he got a late consolation goal, Kuyt had seen a first-half shot blocked by a brilliant piece of defending, then AC scored a deflected free-kick against the run of play. That’s football; two years earlier, as the inferior side for 105 out of 120 minutes, Liverpool won the trophy.
So much is made of what a manager gets wrong –– almost to obsessional degrees in the current age –– but luck and confidence are two of the biggest factors in football, and once the players cross the white line a manager can’t affect either. A team can only make so much of its own luck with good play, but after that it’s in the lap of the gods. And the referee.
That said, the refereeing decisions didn’t really favour Liverpool last night, with a clear penalty denied at a time when the Reds were desperate for a breakthrough. Perversely, the sending off of ex-Evertonian Materazzi stopped Inter coming out and leaving spaces for Torres to exploit, and as so often happens, threatened to destroy the game. It became a training session of attack versus defence, and you saw Benítez’s tactical acumen in how to play against 10 men.
He sacrificed defenders with the Italians having lost attacking ambition: pushing the full-backs on, and asking them to hug the touchline to stretch the play. And crucially, Liverpool kept the ball and wore the Italians out; 10 years ago you’d never see an English side out-pass and out-possess the very best Italian team. It was yet another sign of how far English football has come in the last decade.
While Liverpool had the upper hand in possession when it was 11 against 11, in the second half the Reds’ passing wore out a tiring side and a late breakthrough was always on the cards. Of course, with the way things have been going it just didn’t seem to me that it would happen. How wrong I was, as first Kuyt and then Gerrard sealed another famous victory.
Inter Milan, unbeaten for five months and 29 games, could only resist for so long when faced with a Liverpool team pouring into the Kop. As of 1965 there was a two-goal victory at the final whistle, but this time without the all-important away goal.
And perhaps Shanks was somewhere on the Kop last night, sucking the ball into the net as revenge for the dubious decisions of officials caught up in a bribery scandal, which denied him the honour of being the first manager to lead a British team to the European Cup final. Hopefully the Reds can go on to make the great man proud once again.