I could not believe that was Liverpool I was watching last night in our Champions League match against Fiorentina! It was a totally opposite performance from that we put on on the weekend against Hull. I have just been reading what Rafa said after last nights game and he is saying that he has never seen Liverpool play as badly as they did in the first half. I agree 100% with Rafa. Our first half performance was shocking and the second half was not much better!

So what when wrong? What stood out for me was the poor displays from Johnson and Insua as the wing backs. Going forward they were slightly okay but their defending was a joke! People have questioned Johnson’s ability to defend and I have stood by him but last night he let me down as he was found wanting when it cam to defend.

Fiorentina could attack down either of our flanks at will. Insua had the worst game I have ever seen him play in a Red shirt as he was exposed terribly by Fiorentina. What also really worries me about Insua is his height. They say he is the shortest player in the whole of the Premiership, I do not know how true that is. All it takes is for a team with a tall right winger and they just have to launch high balls into the box in Insua’s direction and we will be screwed.

Rafa opted to start with Aurelio in the middle of the park with Lucas. This did not work at all. As much as I am a fan of Aurelio, I would much rather see him in the left back position where he can go forward in whip in some telling crosses. We do not see the best of him in the middle. I will not slate Lucas today as he had another bad game but the whole team just did not pitch up for the game so I can not lay all the blame on Lucas this time. Just that he missed a wide open header which a player of his calibre should have converted.

Where was Gerrard in the first half? I asked myself that question as I could not see Captain Fantastic. He seemed to drift out of the game and never really got a foot hold on the game. Torres had another off day as he was marked brilliantly by the Italians.

I guess this is a game we have to quickly forget about especially with Chelsea coming up on Sunday. I can not see us playing that badly on Sunday because if we do we could be on the receiving end of a humiliating scoreline.

But all is not lost in the Champions League. Yes we lost 2-0 to Fiorentina but we still have four more games to play and I am sure we will still qualify for the knock out rounds.

Liverpool are in Italy tonight to take on Fiorentina in our second Champions League game of the season. We did not do too well in our first match in the Champions League but the team has run into some great form in the last couple of games and I am confident the lads can do well tonight.

Trips to Italy are never easy and we can expect a very hostile atmosphere in the stadium but it should be nothing new to the guys.

I have not watched any of Fiorentina this season as to be honest I hardly watch Italian football anymore. But I see that they do possess Alberto Gilardino and Adrian Mutu. But even with these two players we should be too strong for them.

Looking at us, we make the trip to Italy without Mascherano. He has picked up a hamstring strain and has not traveled with the team. I feel this could be a big blow to us as away games such as these are where Mascherano should be the first name on the team sheet. But hopefully he will recover from this strain in time for the Chelsea game on Sunday. I would much rather have him fit for Sunday than him playing tonight.

Yossi Benayoun is also struggling with an injury but he has made the trip with the squad. I am sure if he is not 100% fit, Rafa will not risk him and rather have him ready for Sunday.

On paper this looks like a tricky game for us but it is the kind of game we need to win so that we do not have to fight to make the knock out stages of the Champions League. I wonder what kind of a starting lineup Rafa will go with tonight? Will he have one eye on the Sunday game and thus decide to leave out some key players? I think Rafa should go with the strongest squad available and make sure we get the 3 points and then we can look ahead to Chelsea after the game.

My starting lineup prediction: Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio, Riera, Gerrard, Lucas, Kuyt, Benayoun, Torres.

I have just finished watching the game and I must say it will go down in the history of great Champions League games but it is not a game I will want to see ever again! I am gutted! Honestly speaking, before the game, I did not think we were capable of pulling this one off but at half time today, there was a buzz in my living room where I was watching the game from that, we could actually do it but alas it was not meant to be!

When Aurelio gave us the lead with that cheeky freekick, that was just what the doctor had ordered. We had to score first and score early. Perfect start. Then Alonso won the penalty which some may say was controversial but that was as clear cut as they come. Alonso stepped up himself to bury the spot kick. 2-0 up and it was not even half time. We had Chelsea reeling, they were playing poorly and were there for the taking and we were having them. It is not often you see a manager make a tactical substitute before halftime but Guus made one and took Kalou off for Anelka. He had to make that change or else we were going to continue tormenting them.

The first turning point of the game for me was halftime. Chelsea needed that break so Guus could scream at them and get them to wake up and it looked like he did just that as Chelsea came out in the second half as a different team. Then the second turning point of the game and for me the moment we lost the tie: Anelka down the right whips in a low cross which Drogba gets a touch on and it beats Reina on his near post. For me that was a Reina own goal and such a school boy error by our goalie. He should never have allowed that goal to go in. That goal to make it 2-1 just got Chelsea going and there was no stopping them from there! If Reina had saved that, who knows, we may have continued to frustrate Chelsea and knicked the winner ourselves at the other end. But from 2-1 it just went downhill! Alex then dispatched a rocket of a freekick, this time you can not blame Reina. At 2-2 it was game over. Then Lampard made it 3-2 with 15 minutes to go. There was no way we could get back into this one!

But hold on, there was still drama. Two goals in 2 minutes from Lucas and Kuyt made it 4-3 to us. All we needed was one more goal to win the tie with 8 minutes left. Now I had belief it could be done only for Lampard to make it 4-4 with a minute to go. 4-4 the final scoreline, what a crazy game but one I doubt many Liverpool fans and players will want to remember.

If you had said before the game that we were going to score 4 goals at the Bridge then I would have said we are certainly going through to the semifinal. But who would have thought we would concede four goals at the same time?

Football is a funny old game but what is done is done. Good luck to Chelsea when they take on Barcelona, they are going to need it! As for us, we will keep on walking on with hope in our heart in our quest to win the Premiership.

YNWA
96

It is now or never for Liverpool. After loosing 3-1 at home in the first leg, many have written us off. But one thing I know about Liverpool and the character in the squad right now is that they have a strong never say die attitude. We have come back from the dead so many times this season and I honestly believe we can do the same on Tuesday against Chelsea. It will not be easy but there is still 90 minutes of football to be played and anything can happen.

We just have to look back at Istanbul in 2005 when we were 3-0 down at halftime against AC Milan and we fought back. On Tuesday night it is highly imperative that we get the first goal. That will just build up even more confidence and who knows what will happen.

Having seen Bolton score 3 goals in their 4-3 loss to Chelsea on the weekend, I have even more confidence that we can actually go through. Better yet, Chelsea will be without John Terry for this game and that will give us a hole in their defence to exploit.

Essien had Gerrard in his pocket in the first leg but I am sure Rafa has a plan for this if Chelsea decide to use the same tactic again. I believe Tuesdays game is going to boil down to the tactics adopted by the managers. Guus won the battle in the first leg but I know Rafa will not let us down for a second time. With Torres starting to fire again and Gerrard having being rested on the weekend, our attack should be revved up for this. The return of Mascherano on Tuesday will be a welcome boost for us. We missed him so much in the first leg.

I am charged up for this game and highly confident we can pull it off. My prediction; 3-0 to the Reds!

YNWA
96

Click here for the Match Report from OurKop.com .

I never find it easy to write a post following a loss, but here it goes! The simple matter of last nights defeat at home to Chelsea was that we lost to the better team on the night in my opinion. After Torres gave us the early lead. Chelsea attacked us and we made mistakes and thus they scored. A 3-1 loss is heavy and it is going to take something special to pull this one out of the bag but if there is any team in Europe (Besides Barcelona) who is capable of coming back from this, it is us!

We have to go to the Bridge next week and score three goals without conceding any. It sounds simple enough but it is not easy BUT we can do it.

For me, the biggest difference between the two teams last night was Chelsea’s tactics. We have praised Rafa in the past for his super tactics in Europe but we have to admit that Guus got it spot on last night for Chelsea. And it was simple for them; put Essien on Gerrard for 90 minutes. We laughed against Man Utd when we said Aurelio had Ronaldo in his pocket the whole game, this time round, Essien had Gerrard. Essien man marked Gerrard the whole game, where Gerrard went, Essien was there. The funny thing is that most teams may now think that if you put a man marker on Gerrard you have shut Liverpool out, but that is not the case. I do not think there are more than three players in the world who are capable of man marking Gerrard out of the game and Essien is one of them. Blackburn can not now think they should put a man marker on Gerrard come Saturday because who ever they put will be run ragged by Gerrard and create gaps for the other players. Gerrard simply could not shake off Essien last night.

Looking in hind sight now, once we had seen Essien man marking Gerrard, I probably would have pulled Gerrard out to the right in Kuyt’s role and put Kuyt upfront with Torres and then see if Essien will follow Gerrard out onto the right. It would have been worth a try.

Lucas Lucas Lucas!! I was thinking the guy is finally winning over the fans but he struggled big time last night. He was caught in possession too many time and gave the ball away on countless occasions. We really needed Mascherano in that midfield last night.

What is done is done now. We lost and we know what we need to do now next week at the Bridge. Many may say this tie is over but I still have faith. There is still 90 minutes of footie to go and anything can happen especially since John Terry will not be playing in the second leg. I know some Liverpool fans may actually think it is good if we get knocked out then we can focus on the league. I don’t buy that! But then on the other hand who ever goes through between us and Chelsea is going to face Barcelona! After what they did to Bayern Munich last night (winning 4-0), I don’t think any team in Europe stands a chance against them.

Here we go again, Liverpool vs Chelsea in the Champions League. I am actually getting sick and tired of always playing these guys. It would have been nice to play someone else but I guess we just have to deal with what we have infront of us. After Man Utd’s win against Villa on Sunday, I feel that it could just be a bit tougher for us to win the league now and the Champions League may prove to be our best shot at getting silverware this season. But with that said, I know a large majority of us would rather with the Premier League than the Champions League. But knowing Rafa the way I think I do, he still wants to win the Champions League and he will set the troops out tomorrow night to beat Chelsea.

I do not see why we can not get a good result in the first league. The important thing is that we have to make sure Chelsea do not get an away goal. And we are more than capable of preventing them from scoring. We may be missing Mascherano in midfield through suspension but Lucas will step in and hopefully he will step up his game. I must admit that Lucas has improved quite a lot since he cut his hair! The rest of the team should pick itself with Aurelio coming in at leftback for Insua and Riera replacing Dossena at left wing.

What I know we are capable of doing is going to Stanford Bridge and scoring so even a 0-0 draw for us would be okayish. I hope the lads are pumped up for this game. We need to go as far as we can in the Champions League and forget about the league for 90 minutes. I have heard a few fans in the last few days saying that we should forget about the Champions League and rather focus on the league. If we were top of the league and were in a situation where if we won all our remaining games we would win the league no matter what the other teams do then I would agree with them. But right now the league is out of our hands and we have to rely on United slipping up which I hope they do!

I see this game against Chelsea going our way. A perfect score would be 2-0 to us but I see us only getting a 1-0 win which would be good enough to get the job done at the bridge.

Click here for the match report.

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The draw for the quarter finals of the Champions league has been made and guess what… Liverpool are going to play Chelsea AGAIN. The is the fifth time in a row we have drawn Chelsea in the Champions league. Can’t we have someone different for a change? I was hoping to draw Porto or Villarreal but it looks like luck is on Manchester United’s side again as they have gotten a relatively easy draw against Porto and Arsenal have Villarreal. The other tie sees Barcelona take on Bayern Munich.

If we are to win the Champions League this season it is not going to be easy! If we get passed Chelsea we will face the winner of the Barcelona - Bayern tie.

Looking at the Chelsea tie, we will play the first leg at Home, which is never the best situation. I was hoping we would play the second leg at Home but I guess we have to love with it. We have to make sure we beat Chelsea at home and not allow them to score an away goal. Atleast if we get through, the semi final first leg will be away and the second leg at home.

It is also great that UEFA has made the second leg of the Chelsea tie to be played on April 14 and not the 15th when we commemorate the Hillsbrough Disaster.

As was with a couple of mates yesterday at the pub following the win over United and then one of my fellow Liverpool supporters came up with a funny joke about Juande Ramos. It is thought that Real Madrid are going to sack Ramos at the end of the season. Now after we hammered Real Madrid 4-0 during the week there were some suggestions that Ramos could be sacked following that result. Now if that were the case, following yesterdays demolition of United, Ramos could come out and say to the Real Madrid board, “If you want to sack me because we lost 4-0 to Liverpool then United should also fire Sir Alex Ferguson as he also got hit for four! But in my defence, I lost 4-0 away at Anfield whereas Sir Alex got hit for four at Old Trafford! Surely my result was better? So wait for United to sack Sir Alex first then you can sack me!!”

Now that this round is complete and we know the teams that will be in the hat for the Quarter Final draw next week, Friday 20 March, for the Champions League, who would you want us to face in the Quarter Finals: Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Porto or Villarreal?

At this stage there is no such thing as an easy draw but surely it would be ‘easier’ for us to face Porto or Villarreal as I feel they are the weaker of the teams left. Yet again it will be critical in the draw if we are able to play the second leg at Anfield.

I have been reading today that Frank Lampard is hoping that Chelsea do not draw Liverpool again. We have played Chelsea quite a bit already in the past couple of seasons and we have had the upper hand against them so thus I will not be worried if we draw Chelsea again. I would also not be disappointed if we get Arsenal as I feel we are a much better team than them.

I do not want to face United or Barcelona at this stage, maybe in the semi’s or the final.

Who would you want to face in the Quarters?

The ex-Kings of Europe came to Anfield last night and met a Liverpool side who backed up their credentals as the number one rated team in the Champions League witha sizzling performance, inflicting Real’s worst result EVER in the competition.

We all knew, well me anyhow, from the first ten minutes that there was only going to be one result on the night. Torres’s back-heal turn and shot then Mashers long range effort brought the best out of Casillas to keep the game goaless but it was only a matter of time before we would have him beaten. Real Madrids Pepe insisted that Torres had hauled him down as they chased a long ball, but Liverpool’s striker did not wait for the whistle, racing to the edge of the six-yard box to apply a simple finish to Kuyt’s cross.

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