Stadionul Steaua : Steaua Bucuresti 1; Liverpool FC 1. A non-glamorous match, but an important match nevertheless for a Reds supporter.
The opening 15 min minutes offered nothing, and just as I was about to doze off came the first chance, and it fell to Steaua. A pinpoint cross found Bicfalvi free right at the face of the goal, and with the goal at his mercy, he could only head over. 4 minutes later, Jovanovic showed how it's done. It started off with a long punt to Babel, who headed it to Joe Cole, who passes it to Jovanovic, who dealt with some defenders who'd closed on him and passed it to Babel who was running down the right flank. Babel then made some dummies, wrong footing the defender covering him and made space to deliver a cross, which arrived perfectly for the unmarked Jovanovic to head into the far corner of the goal.
I've always maintained that Babel must be used as a right winger rather than a striker or a left winger, and yesterday's performance added credence to it. He always looked sharper yesterday when going down the right, and his crosses have always been way better than many who are currently in Liverpool. He has got pace, which is a trait one looks for in wingers in modern day football, and he also tries dummying and wrong footing defenders, which ends up pathetically most of the time, but atleast he tries, the intent is there. With more opportunities he could get better at it. He also has a phenomenal long range shot. What he does not have is the intelligence to make a run at the opportune moment, and his imperfection in playing one-twos - he either passes it late or hits the ball too hard. This last skill doesn't seem to be required now - Roy Hodgson is at helm. And Jovanovic? He could very well be Dirk Kuyt Part-2. His reaction & gestures after the goal, which I interpreted as "I love Liverpool. And I'm here to stay, not go away." which is a good sign to see, especially when people are predicting a catastrophic season for Liverpool.
After the goal, in typical Roy Hodgson style, Liverpool started sitting back, content with only defending and hacking the ball clear hoping Babel would get the ball in control and launch a successful counter attack, which he nearly did in the 26th minute. A clearance, from Martin Kelly?, should have been easily dealt by the Steaua defender who comfortably got underneath the ball, but misjudged his header, and to make matters worse lost his balance too, thus allowing Babel to snatch the ball and run clear down the left. He then placed an unerring pass to Joe Cole who arrived in the box, and instead of the shot past the goalkeeper which should have followed, he ended up horribly misjudging the pace of the ball, and the chance was lost. Steaua did start dominating possession after Jovanovic's goal but threats arrived mainly from the wings. The Liverpudlian full backs and centre backs though dealt with many of them comfortably, and though Steaua got 8 corners in the first half, compared to Liverpool's one, they could not create any good chance except one towards the end of the half, and what a chance it was!! A Steaua player attacking from the left wing arrived in the box beating Kelly and placed a decent low pass to Stancu who was just outside the 6 yard box. But he put his shot wide of the left hand post with a gaping goal in front of him.
The second half started with Angelov replacing Bicfalvi, and he made a very positive impact for Steaua. Suddenly, Steaua started controlling the midfield and started looking as the superior side, with Angelov at the heart of their many moves. They had a few shots at goal from a long distance and placed a few dangerous through balls which were desperately intercepted by Liverpool defenders. The wings were still the main source of Steaua's attack, and a good chance was carved out from the left with Gerardo Alves' decent header after an excellent cross only finding Pepe Reina's hands who collected it comfortably. But Pepe was not in such a confident mood ten minutes later when he let a tame header from Eder Bonfim squirm under his hands to gift Steaua an equaliser.
Pepe Reina, who has been a very reliable goalkeeper since he joined Liverpool, which was highlighted better when he was the only solid rock behind an unhelping, shaky defence last season, has been out of sorts this season. His confidence while stepping out of his line for crossed balls, holding on to high balls played into his area have all been short of his usual standards. The howler against Arsenal in the first league match didn't help, nor did his howlers for Spain in their friendly against Argentina in Buenos Aires early in the season. But instead of bouncing back strongly from such poor displays, his confidence has been ebbing away. Probably a few words of encouragement from our "man-management expert, unlike Benitez" manager might have helped, but looking at Pepe's performances I believe Roy has failed at it, as he has done in a number of other things. The lack of wins and constant pounding at his goal by the opposition because of Roy's liking of his team sitting back and soaking up the pressure can only add to his misery, which certainly has been battering his confidence of late. I sincerely hope he'll be back to his best sooner than later, as we need him so, more so now when our top 2 defenders Carragher & Agger have been injured.
After Bonfim's equaliser, Liverpool got up from their slumber and started attacking with verve, and pressured the Steaua defence for the next 5-10 minutes. A Kyrgiakos header from a Dani Pacheco corner which hit the cross bar was the best chance they conjured in this period of time. After this short spurt of attacking play, it was back to good old Roy style of sitting back and defending. Steaua attacked for the remainder of the match creating some half chances which fizzed away and a very good chance which Stancu shot just wide. The match tapered out to a draw, and as the other match in the group between FC Utrecht & Napoli also ended in a draw, but a thrilling 3-3 draw unlike this one, Liverpool has gone through to the next pre-quarterfinals with still a match left in this group.
Liverpool's Performance :
The defence did well, though they let 2 free headers for Bicfalvi in the 1st half, and Gerardo Alves in the 2nd, and that chance of Stancu at the end of 1st half. Considering it was 18 year old Danny Wilson's first match, he did pretty well. He showed very good composure and looks like he has a very bright future. Martin Kelly was solid in defence, but was uninspiring in attack, which a fullback is supposed to do in today's football. Being only 19 years of age, he has time on his side and can only get better. Aurelio is still some way away from his best form, and it was showing yesterday. It was an average performance from him. Kyrgiakos should take much of the blame for allowing that free header of Bicfalvi and the glorious chance of Stancu. Though in the attacking third, his header which hit the crossbar once again showed us how effective he could be in setpieces for Liverpool, and can add a new dimension to our very average attack.
The midfield went missing yesterday. The central midfielders Shelvey and Poulsen were invisible for most of the game. No wonder Steaua dominated possession. The 18 year old Shelvey atleast is young, and has some way to go before he can dish out good performances, but Poulsen, a Roy signing, should have done better. It is increasingly looking like a very pathetic signing, and 5 and a quarter million down the drain, not to mention the wages too. Among the wingers, Jovanovic looked lively and good, scoring in the first half, but he disappeared in the second. His replacement, the 19 yr old Eccleston showed some promise. Pacheco had a game to forget, and apart from his excellent corner kicks and good composure on the ball, he showed nothing worthy to talk about. But the 19 year old "El Asasin" who won the Golden Boot award in the UEFA U-19 championships, surely is a good talent, and needs to be given more playing time to improve if we do not want him to be wasted in the way Babel was.
Joe Cole had a very very poor outing. Less said the better. Right from missing a glorious chance to send Liverpool 2-0 up in the first half, to playing misplaced passes when presented with good counter-attacking opportunities, he was downright abject.
Babel though, had a good game. He was strong in the air winning many of the long balls (sigh!) punted upfield by defenders, created 2 good opportunities, one of which was converted, and placed some good crosses. He must have acquitted himself well with this performance.
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