After beating Madrid during the week, then being drawn against Patrick Vieira and Juventus in the next round, the final act of "European Week" was to play against the recently deposed European Champions of last year. Liverpool have had trouble scoring goals of late, but have always managed to score against us, no matter how much they are struggling for form elsewhere. Of course, there was also the danger of getting too excited about beating Real Madrid, and losing league games as a result. With Spurs losing the day before, a win was essential to stay in with a shout of 4th place.
The game started well enough, with Arsenal taking an early lead through a brilliant Henry goal. The pass from Fabregas was perfect, and the finish was equally amazing - truly a great goal all round. Arsenal had much the better of the remainder of the half too, creating a number of good chances. All were missed, however, and you started to get the feeling that we might pay for our failure to kill the game off.
A second half containing yet more missed opportunities, then the punishment happened. It took a foul on Fabregas to create the space for Liverpool to exploit, and get in a shot that Lehmann was unable to hold. The rebound was forced over the line by Luis Garcia. It was one of the few sniffs of goal that Liverpool had all afternoon, and thanks to typical jammy luck, it went in. Very annoying, but you can easily get punished if you don't take your chances to put the game beyond doubt.
If Liverpool had enjoyed their stroke of luck, Arsenal's turn came soon afterwards. Xabi Alonso got a deserved booking, quickly followed by an undeserved one. The red card came out, it wasn't at all justified, but these things happen sometimes. Arsenal were as much the victims of bad luck as Liverpool, with the foul in the build up to the goal, so it really seemed like swings and roundabouts, despite Benitez's complaints after the game.
Ten men or eleven, the mistake that led to the winning goal was a howler, about which Steven Gerrard will have nightmares for years to come! In no danger at all, a misplaced backpass turned into a perfect defence-splitting pass for Henry to run on to. He picked up the gift of a ball, rounded the keeper, and stuck the ball into an empty net. Thanks, Stevie!
A lesson there, for boring teams that try to waste time in games by going back to their own goalkeeper - it isn't always a good idea. Much better is to do what I heard Jens Lehmann saying in the first half, to a ball boy that gave him the ball back - "All the time we are leading, you take your time, OK?"
I was sitting in Row A of the North Bank for this game - I don't usually like being so far forward, as you lose all sense of perspective on what is going on in the game. Today, though, proximity to the players added something that I haven't experienced for a while, and I unexpectedly really enjoyed being so close to the front of the stand. Hearing the mad German keeper's rantings does make for a very entertaining afternoon!
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