We should have had a blatant penalty, when their defender carried the ball out of the box with his arm. Babel came inches away with a headed effort against the bar. Benayoun watched his effort pushed out off the post. The referee didn't play the added minutes on at the end. It could've been 10 or 11!!
Our
Champions League form has been abysmal by anyone’s standards, let alone the Kings of Europe's standards. But in the first half, not only was this performance eclipsing our last three by a million miles, but it was our best performance since way back to the first day of September against Derby. And to think that we were without Alonso, Agger and Torres (albeit Mascherano and Alonso cannot play at once).
It's totally bemusing. How can we go from not being able to pass or even control the ball, let alone score - to scything through the (same) opponent with such ease, playing excellent one touch football and next to everything we touch finding the net? It makes no sense, our prior matches couldn't even compare. We were a shadow of our real self in those matches, i guess it all comes down to confidence.
Even though the performance was superb, especially considering the stature of the fixture, it wasn't by any means perfect. We got very fortunate with a number of the goals, highlighted with Babel's second - a total fluke. Crouch's first, Benayoun's first (albeit very marginally), Benayoun's second, Benayoun's third, Gerrard's first and Babel's second all came from either parries from the keeper or deflections into the goal. Obviously all the goals won't be masterpieces, i'm not expecting that - but the clear chances in front of goal we squandered (Gerrard / Riise having strikes in the box, saved; Babel's header against the bar; Leiva's poor strike on the edge of the box - amongst others). We have shown here to be much more clinical and relentless but it's difficult to rely on mistakes from the opposition, who were poor (anyone who concedes 6, 7 or 8 goals are going to be dire). It is too much to ask i guess at the moment, considering our lack of confidence, but we still have room to improve infront of goal.
Aside from finishing, there were other negatives too. You could see the confidence growing from all the players as everything they tried came off, but the main thing that i want to see from confidence is the assurance to take on a strike and go for goal themselves. How many times have we seen players scared to shoot, terrified of missing, and so pass to someone else so they can mess up instead, passing the blame? All this does is squander great chances. This has been a major flaw we've had this season and something that has to improve - it's something i admire about Crouch though, he'll usually go for goal whenever possible. We need selfish, hungry, attacking players, which in most parts we got.. as the game progressed anyway. One time to note though was when Kewell came in from the left and i just thought "shoot" and he squared it into the box for it to miss his target. Maybe Kewell should be exempt though as he is coming back from injury and low on form, although i'd still of expected him to try and find the goal in such a position and the situation of the match. Voronin's another player who this applies to, where we get in and around the goal we need to look for whatever strike is on - he doesn't get too close to the frontline it has to be said, but he's capable of shooting from outside the box and so should do so. I want these players to have the confidence in their own ability to score and not feel like the other players (particularly Gerrard and Carragher) will hurl abuse at them for missing.
I'll try not to be too negative, but just a final thing is the passing still wasn't up to scratch. It's alright when your 4-0 up knocking it about at absolute ease, but you've got to get the 4 to be in that comfortable position. At the beginning we were sloppy in control and careless with passing which wasn't good enough. I was despairing with Arbeloa when he stalled on the ball and got caught out, it was just a stupid mistake to make as he had so much time to play the pass he'd chosen. This was typified by the early chance they had which nearly came to a goal, as they shot just wide. I know it went fine, but if we'd have conceded so early we would have really had a mountain to climb, and who knows? We could have been out by now. We should have been as solid as possible at the start to avoid a horror start, which was disappointing. But i guess nerves played a part as they knew a win was absolutely vital. As we relaxed into the game we started playing good one-touch football and things finally were falling into place, it's like we'd gone back 3 months to our first few performances!
With the negatives obviously there were positives, with the point above being an obvious one. It was incredible how we couldn't even string a pass together in the games against Porto, Marseille and Besiktas away yet here we were linking up as though the dire form we've been in had no psychological reflection at all. Our players just came to the fore when it mattered and pulled it off. Voronin, Crouch, Gerrard and Benayoun were all excellent in this as Arbeloa and Riise played more than a part too, with the pair unlucky not to score themselves. Even Hyypia wasn't playing those awful, frustrating long-balls we see him do so often, that amount to very, very little.
You can't deny though however good the performance was, that confidence was taking its toll. We grew and grew as the game went on and surely this has to propel us to some exceptional league form (which we're often susceptible to around the December/Christmas time) and in turn kick-start our season. It couldn't have come at a better time either, as we are still in touching distance of
Arsenal and United; not that we won't have to be incredible to catch up with their relentless form, but the least we can do is try. We have a perfect opportunity with Fulham at home next weekend. Make one thing sure though, we cannot lose or draw to either Porto or Marseille now - defeat in the
Champions League, based on confidence aspects, could defeat our domestic aspirations in the very same instance..
