One heck of a match today.
To set the stage, Liverpool is in this year's Champions League. It used to be the Cup Winner's Cup and was the international competition in Europe for the best teams in each domestic league. The winner of each domestic league - no matter the size of country - got to play off against the other best teams in Europe to decide the best overall club team.
Liverpool has been playing well the last couple of years and won one Final and reached the other (last year) against Milan. They lost, in my opinion, because of some very poor refereeing but what can you do?
In this year's pool stage - where you play ever team in your group twice - they have played three games and only have one draw and two losses to show for it. So in order to advance (and then only as second in the group) they would have to win all three remaining matches.
So today they played Besikitas, the Turkish league champion. We had lost to them two weeks ago in Istanbul in a close-fought match. Really, we've been a shadow of what we can be as a team for the last couple of weeks. Some put it down to Rafa's rotation policy. He plays only the players who are fittest, given that we are competing in four cup competitions most season this makes sense.
I do feel, as most others do though, that it causes problems with the fluidity of our game. Well, for the first time in a very long while everyone wearing Liverpool red pretty much played at the limit of their abilities. And they played as a team, nicely anticipating each other, running into space.
They destroyed Besikitas. 8-0. Biggest margin of victory since the Champions league began fifteen or sixteen years ago.
They still have a mountain to climb - they have to beat the other two teams in the group to advance. But after a performance like this, I'm confident that they could beat any team in Europe. I'm just praying it's not a one-off.
Posted by artandscience at November 6, 2007 04:19 PM