Yes!
For the first time in twenty years, Liverpool are back in the Champions League Final. Of course, it was the Cup Winner's Cup back then in the mid-80s but it was the same competition.
A brilliant game of staunch defending away at Chelsea where they clearly looked the better team on both attack and defense and then a great game at home. Huge support from the fans (hard to feel on TV but the commentators were floored by the volume). A goal in the first few minutes put Chelsea on the back foot and they never gained any fluidity in the their moves.
Lord knows what Mourinho was trying to do fielding a 3-man midfield but Liverpools now-familiar 4-5-1 Champions League formation dominated the middle of the park. Very disciplined positional defending with a mix of man to man and rotating zone (where the free man comes over to help out). Very well conceived and nearly flawlessly executed. I think Chelsea got maybe three or four shots on goal from free play for the entire match.
Would that Liverpool could play this way in daily Premier League play. But perhaps that is too much to ask. This was a victory of will, where the sum of the parts is definitely greater than the payroll of the individuals (unlike Chelsea).
Whomever they have to face in Istanbul in the Final in a couple of weeks should prove an interesting match. Whomever that team is must by now be uncomfortable knowing that they made it through the easier side of the bracket and they are facing the Cinderella team that beat the two favorites (Juventus and Chelsea) in successive matches.
Liverpool has now conceded only 6 goals in 12 Champions League matches. Brilliant defending and just enough offence to eak by.
I'm taking May 25th off to watch the match.
Posted by artandscience at May 3, 2005 07:18 PM