Champions League semifinals Day I
So today kicked off the semi finals of the Champions League, with Chelsea visiting Anfield to face Liverpool for the first leg of their journey to get to Moscow next month. While Liverpool has been to the final 3 of the last 4 years, Chelsea has been in the semis, but unable to get a ticket to the final match. I am watching the match in the evening, because work was on the agenda for the day, so while this is delayed I will try to give a fair match summary for those of you who may have missed the match. At the 15 minute mark we are tied at 0-0, early possession and attacks seem to be going Chelsea’s way, Liverpool have had one good chance on a missed play by the back line of the boys in blue, but Chec was there to squelch the chance. Play is still rather frantic at this stage of the match, no calming down yet, each team is attacking and it still seems that the majority of chances are going the way of the team from London. I lot of long ball play is dominating the early play, and the officials seem to be calling every bit of contact, which could spell a very long match with lots of set plays and little in the way of fluid play. At minute 22 a light touch by Kuyt drops Drogba as if he had been shot, but as soon as the ball was played out by Liverpool he was back up and looked no worse for wear.
Liverpool seems to have calmed down a bit and are trying to control the possession and slow down the Chelsea attack, the only major injury is that Essien is out for the match. Liverpool are attacking slowly in the 25th minute they are using the wide attack to try to work their way into a position where they can get the ball into the box and hopefully to Torres, who has 30 goals so far this season in all competitions. It does appear that Liverpool know that they will need to score a couple goals in this match if they want any chance of moving on in the tournament, with the next leg in London Liverpool also will be trying to prevent an away goal, which could really cause a hard time if they have to score more than one goal next week. In the 29th minute Drogba is attacking at the edge of the 20 and goes down on very light contact, and the official is having none of it. It is interesting to note that Claude Makelele, a name that was running hot in the RSL DP rumors of last year has been not only back into the lineup, 31st minute a great pass from Gerrard to Torres in the box, but Chec again is up to the task and shuts him down cold. Claude has been a steady force all season long for Chelsea, interesting how a players fate can change so much in just a short amount of time.
On the 35th minute the scoreboard is still at 0-0, most of the possession has been to Chelsea, but the best scoring chances have been Liverpool’s, despite coming up empty so far. I guess even the big boys can finish every chance they get, especially when you’re facing Peter Chec. I have to imagine that playing in a match like with is an amazing experience, to come out of the tunnel with the crowd singing in one voice and the sea of red in the stands, oh some day to sit in those stands, before they build the new stadium, that no matter how nice will never be the same as Anfield. Liverpool has been controlling the last couple minutes with a number of corner kicks and throw ins deep in the Chelsea third of the pitch. Liverpool are now up to 57% of the possession, after a slow start, they also have a higher percentage of completed passes than Chelsea. A 40th minute corner by Chelsea come to nothing as the ball is played out and all the way back to Chec, who again kicks it deep, but Liverpool takes possession with just 4 minutes left in the half. A foul at the mid field line, and a quick restart lead to a couple Liverpool chances that end up with Dirk Kuyt putting the ball in the back of the net and a 1-0 lead as the ball goes between Chec’s legs. How will this impact the second half? Chelsea appear to be simply trying to get to the half, and try to regroup and see if things will go their way in the second half, it looks like Liverpool are not happy with just their one goal lead and even as the half goes to the final seconds they are still trying to attack, as the match moves to injury time (1 minute).
The half time numbers show Liverpool with 5 shots to Chelsea’s 3 and Liverpool with 59% of the possession despite their slow start. The halftime announcers seem to think that both teams might be happy with this result, but I am thinking Liverpool know they probably need an additional goal to be able to feel comfortable in the 2nd leg next week.
No changes to either side at the half, but it appears that Rafa is talking with his assistants about something important, perhaps what changes to make as the half progresses. A nice pass gets the ball to Drogba in the attack but Liverpool again has someone at the right place at the right time, clear the ball out of danger. A long ball from Stevie G to an onrushing Torres, but a body blocks his path and nothing results from it. Any questions about Liverpool sitting back and protecting their lead have been answered as they continue to attack. In the 49th minute Chelsea try to quickly restart from a freekick, but no luck for them, a counter attack for Liverpool looked promising as Torres was inside the box with the ball at his feet, but Makelele is there to clear it out. 50th minute and it is still 1-0, as Babel puts a ball into the box, but no one is there to do anything with it. Again Babel gets wide and plays the ball into the box, and Gerarrd is just a foot or two out of place or it would be 2-0, but the ball slides out to Alonso who cranks up a shot, but no danger as it bounces off a couple players in blue. Liverpool seem to be wearing out the left side of the pitch with attacking coming fast and furious, now they try the other side and there is no doubt that they want more than one goal tonight.
A ball driven into the box in minute 56 is cleared out by Chec, a replay shows that the official missed a hard foul on Torres just outside of the Chelsea box. Liverpool is still controlling the possession of the match, as Chelsea appear to be content in trying to launch long balls in an attempt to get the ball to Drogba. It appears the only way they might be able to counter the act that Liverpool is simply owning control of the match. An hour into the match and it is still 1-0 as Babel misses just wide (a couple inches), Ryan has been a real engine in the second half. Aurelio is down with what appears to be a groin injury, perhaps a hamstring, Riise is up and appears like he will be coming into the match.
Well the first change for either team doesn’t appear to be slowing the attack of Liverpool, now it is a change for Chelsea as Kalou comes in for Cole in the 63rd minute. Wow off a free kick, it appears that a hand ball in the box by Ballack was missed by the officials. Once again a touch to Drogba and the officials whistle signals another foul against Liverpool, leads to a nice attack by Chelsea but Lampard runs out of room and nothing comes from it. It was the best looking attack by Chelsea since the first 20 minutes. Well it appears that Chelsea have gotten their second wind as they are mounting more attacks than they have at any time in the match. Both sides appear to be playing more open, and once again Drogba is down on the ground from a slight touch as he backs into Riise. I do believe he has spent more time on his back than he has on his feet, surely a player worthy of a pink card if such a thing existed.
70 minutes in and the score is still 1-0, but I will admit that the attack of Chelsea has looked much stronger in the last 10 minutes and it will be interesting to see which side will make another change and try to get the advantage back in their favor with some fresh legs. A well organized attack by the guys from London is shut down by the official holding up his flag to signify an offside, another attack with Drogba staying on his feet but Liverpool shuts him down. Benayoun comes on for Babel, who had a great match and logged over 8K’s of running in his 75 minutes on the pitch, what move will Chelsea make to counter the fresh legs that Liverpool have brought in. Chelsea have a nice attack going but the final ball runs out of bounds, they simply have not been able to get a good final touch, or a real shot on goal.
Well we are in the final 10 minutes of the match, and as expected things are getting a bit more physical from both teams, and Chelsea have a great chance on goal with a ball in the box and several options, but the defense of Liverpool is up to the task. Kalou goes down from a hard challenge and gets a free kick from about 8 yards outside of the box, but a foul on Renya puts an end to that attack. Liverpool counter as Gerrard and Torres play a little two man game, but fail to get a solid shot off, and then again Chelsea counter. Wow a fingertip save by Chec prevents a Gerrard ball from going in, cornerkick Liverpool, but nothing comes of it. Anelka is coming in for Ballack but with only 4 minutes left will it make a difference? A long ball over to Torres, but his first touch is bad, but they get another cornerkick, but a foul in the box and the whistle stops that one dead. Interesting stat that Liverpool have not scored in their last 8 matches on Chelsea’s home pitch, so they will have to shut out the Blues if they want to move on because we are in the 89th minute and it is still 1-0. A hard foul on Kuyt by Terry, as the fourth official says there will be 4 minutes of stoppage time, can Liverpool keep a clean sheet? Can they counter attack and get a second goal? Well one minute of time is gone and nothing on the scoreboard, wow the first yellow card of the match in the 2nd minute of stoppage time as Terry get’s the yellow. Nice ball in from Liverpool, results in a corner, another Chec save prevents what appeared to be the best chance for a goal in the last 30 minutes. Well time is running out and the Liverpool fans are up and singing as Riise puts a own goal into the back of his own net at the clock reads 4:05 of stoppage time, what a shame. So if Liverpool are to move on, they will have to do something to score next week in London. This one is over. Wow talk about an ending, who would have guessed? Liverpool 1 – Chelsea 1
OFF MY SOAPBOX
This entry was posted on April 22, 2008 at 9:16 pm and is filed under The soapbox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.