Champion's League: Anfield Roars, Garcia Scores!
(I apologise in advance to those who clicked on the ping in PPS thinking it'll go to Eye on Everything but ended up here instead. I accidently pinged the wrong Blog Title. :P )
What a night! What a game! What a performance! What luck!
As Carragher says HERE, we WERE due a bit of luck, after losing out on luck to Chelsea FOUR bloody imes this season. And we REALLY rode our luck, especially in the final minutes of the game. My heart must have skipped a beat when Gudjohnsen's shot flasehd JSUT wide. Did you SEE how close that was to going in?
Carragher was a deserved Man-of-the-Match, and I'll put him down for the European Defender of the Year shortlist as well, if I were UEFA. The guy never put a foot wrong, and that tackle and dribble out of the box in extra time was not only calmed and composed, he took on Drogba AND Gundjohnsen at the same time!
Finnan and Hyypia were solid too, though I felt that Traore was our weakest link, especially in the first half when he gave the ball away and played some very scary backpasses. But he played well and defended well later on.
And what about the save by Dudek from Lampard's freekick eh? Dudek only made one small mistake the entire night, but he more than made up for it with that save.
Hamann was all business, not giving any mercy in his tackles. Him and Biscan protected the defense well, though Biscan was a little quiet later. Riise was all business, running, tackling, defending, atacking. He's also been one of our most outstanding performers all season.
Gerrard was inspirational. If he can play at this level in ALL the games, then I'll take back everything I said about wanting him to leave.
Of the attackers, Baros was anonymous, except for his part in the opening goal, while Luis Garcia... This guys remains an enigma to me. One day I hate him because he gives the ball away too often; but the next day, I can't help but love him, because he DOES have an eye for goal, and he's been scoring a lot of important goals in the Champion's League that got us this far in the first place!
As for the subs, Cisse really should have rapped up the game with his two chanes, while Nunez held up the ball brilliantly. Kewell didn't do much besides dribbling around the corner flag, but he played his part as well.
But for all the work on the pitch, it was really the atmosphere in Anfield that helped the team. The atmosphere was ELECTRIFYING. When they were singing You'll Never Walk Alone before the match, it was enough to bring tears to your eyes and make you ish you were there.
I don't think I've ever been as ecstatic and emotional over a game before (even more than the UEFA Cup and FA Cup wins in 2001), and it was all worth it, because ultimately,
WE'RE IN THE CHAMPION'S LEAGUE FINAL!!!!
BRING ON AC MILAN!
