Liverpool v Lille: Europa Match Thread

[Ben86]

Strong run by Gerrard.

[Hyypia Legend]

Finally, the real Liverpool show themselves.

Stay away from this shithouse football and there's no problem from me.

Fernando Torres - Because sometimes it's okay to fancy men.

[grandrake]

Between the 2nd and 3rd goal, we looked increasingly jittery as they piled on forward and stressed the defenders with their pace. I take it as an indication that our guys are still being hounded by nightmares of conceding late goals this season and hence involuntarily start to panic as the game winds down. Reina's save from Hazard in the first half was immense, as the encounter might have had a different ending had Hazard scored.

Good showing by the lads. That's 2 good performances and results we've delivered in a row.

[Nerik]

Missed the game but just saw the goals. Incredible what a transformation the team witnesses when 2-3 key players raise their game once again.

http://www.bootroom.org/smf/index.php/topic,17803.0.html

[mouse]

Had Gerrard 1st goalscorer 2-0

Just glad Torres scored the 3rd to ease us through

[kopdude]

Just saw the goals.  What 2 great finishes by Torres...made it look so bloody easy.  Definitely back to his best now.  Bring on the Mancs!!!

[grandrake]

Missed the game but just saw the goals. Incredible what a transformation the team witnesses when 2-3 key players raise their game once again.

http://www.bootroom.org/smf/index.php/topic,17803.0.html

Or when Benitez gets a hard knock on the head from Pellegrino's clipboard and suddenly remembers that we're a better attacking team when we play at a higher tempo.

[Rob Jones]

Not spectacular, but still a clinical win.  We were far from being brilliant but with Torres up front we were very efficient.

Torres, Masch and Lucas were the main players for me last night.  Insua did himself no harm at all under Maradona's gaze last night.

The early goal helped us.  We tried to play it safe after that, being disciplined and trying to hurt them through breaks.

We did look nervous towards the end when a goal from them would have sent them through but Torres settled it for us.

Some good signs for the big game this week-end:

-Torres seems back to near his best.
-Gerrard and Kuyt seemed to have improved from their last poor showings.
-Masch was brilliant once again. 

When the main players perform well, the others usually deliver more easily.  The likes of Insua, Lucas and Johnson did well.

[Robser]

Nice handy game for us. They were very bad however. We didnt do anything amazing or special, just did what was needed and the early goal was a nice settler for us although we did start really well to be fair. They had a couple  of chances where had they scored we'd of been in trouble but in the end they didnt and we strolled through wihtout ever really having to hit top gear or close to it even.

Great to have Torres back!

[grandrake]

BTW anyone think the penalty awarded for Lucas' fall was a bit generous? We've seen these given time and again of course - defender plants a foot on the ground, and the attacker initiates contact and falls over it, even though they could probably just skip over. Penalty!



Very good performance from Lucas in the first half yesterday though, he played at a higher tempo than I'd seen from him and he made some good runs.

[kopdude]

Maybe Rafa let off the shackles and told him to play his natural game; probably was what he used to play like in Brazil.

[shass]

i thought we played ok. nothing spectacular, and they werent good, although i think we didnt allow them to be good.
Torres punishes mistakes, hes so clinical. Its ridiculous how good (and quick) he is.

one thing i noticed was that our centre halves cant head the ball forward far enough. aggers headers were dropping 5 - 10 feet around him instead of going back down lilles throat. then we were having to win second ball which i think masch and lucas did well, but its just something i noticed. The pressure doesnt get released as well as it should.

atmosphere was good, better than i expected. although i was full, the Park and the Albert were good steam before the match. 

again i'd have preferred kuyt to have went off instead of babel, we needed that 3rd goal. And i thought lucas and kuyt were out of it for a lot of second half.

good game to go to all in all, some craic, dying today but worth it.   

[grandrake]

one thing i noticed was that our centre halves cant head the ball forward far enough. aggers headers were dropping 5 - 10 feet around him instead of going back down lilles throat. then we were having to win second ball which i think masch and lucas did well, but its just something i noticed. The pressure doesnt get released as well as it should.

again i'd have preferred kuyt to have went off instead of babel, we needed that 3rd goal. And i thought lucas and kuyt were out of it for a lot of second half.

Our centrebacks get a lot of distance in their headers. Vertically though. A season or two again, I think I mentioned that Agger didn't seem to get a lot of distance on his defensive headers. There's been no progress since then. In fact, Carra and Skrtel aren't a lot better too. Frustrating how a core defensive skill for our centrebacks could be so weak.

As for the sub - yeah, I was disappointed to see Babel go off rather than Kuyt, especially given that Kuyt had done nothing of note up till then. We needed the third goal and if anything, Babel's pace looked like a better weapon when they poured forward and left gaps behind. Credit to Kuyt though, he woke up after that subbing and played very well for the remaining minutes, forcing the keeper into two good saves in quick succession.

[Timothy]

Bit late as i've been ****ed with uni work, but good win and great to see Torres get 2 goals. What's that, 4 in 2 games now? God if only he stayed fit. Saw the first half, had to get on the train for the second. You can see the difference without Aquilani and Lucas in. Although he won the penalty I didn't see much else from him, you could see the difference in off the ball possitioning etc.

Thought Babel wasn't too crash hot.
Reina (head) was as amazing as usual.

Good to see us win convincingly though.