How I Met Your Mom :)

A thoroughly clinical performance by Chelsea. The scoreline doesn’t
do justice to the way Chelsea dominated the game. It was one of those
days when almost everyone had a fantastic game. Going by the way the
game was played, for a moment you might thought that it is Liverpool
who are in all competitions. This match was a quite a treat to watch.
It wasn’t a goal fest but you could see the tactical battle where
Liverpool was worn down by our superior midfield which was missing
Essien The Engine and Boom Boom Ballack.

As Essien and Ballack weren’t there I was little reluctant to about
4-3-3 as I thought we’d be defensive. How wrong I was! Jose opted for
4-3-3 with Joe Cole and Sheva on the wings. I remember that 4-4-2
against Liverpool in the FA Cup semifinal last year brought about our
downfall. May be boss wanted to really punish them with pacy
counterattacks instead of through middle slow set up goals. Jose chose
Ferreira over Diarra and also he preferred to risk Carvalho by playing
him for 90 minutes.

In the first half, we were all over the scousers. We kept pushing
and pressurising them and the goal was coming any minute. With just 10
minutes into the first half, it must have been clear even for Rafa
Benitez, that we’re gonna score. With whatever possession Liverpool
had, they weren’t able to create anything. Our midfield of Lampard,
Maka and Mikel were simply too hot to handle for Gerrard and co.
Carvalho’s last minute inclusion was such a massive relief and he
completely justified his inclusion and showed what difference he can
make. Just when I was getting impatient, Ricardo stormed unchallenged
through the midfield and made a 24-carat throughball to find Drogba.
And then, it was for everyone to see what Didier is all about - power,
perseverance and precision. Drogba made a fool of Agger and dribbled
the ball under his nose and that little footwork lost his marker. He
positioned himself so well to unleash a precisely timed pass for Joey
to make a great left-footed finish.

Drogba and Joe Cole were always posing problems for the Reds
defence. Especially Drogba, with his cunning anticipation embarrassed
the Liverpool midfield quite a few times. Ashley Cole linked up with
Drogba as he has always done and that was one thing for which Liverpool
simply did not have any answers. He must be disappointed that he
couldn’t score but I have a strong feeling that the precious away goal
will come from his boot. Drogba’s role changed slightly in the second
half as he took on more defensive duties. His marking of Peter Crouch
was fun to watch while being very effective. Joe Cole has been missing
football and you can see that when he plays. I’m sure he’s gonna score
more this season. I’m sorry for Sheva again. After some promising
performances, he once appears to lack pace and needs more time for his
decision making. He had just one good moment when he tricked away two
defenders on the right wing to dash to the box.

Joe Cole gives his very matured assessment of the tie:

We’ll see the importance of the goal next week - it’s
only half-time. Liverpool played well in the second half and there was
a bit of fatigue creeping in - it’s one of those games where we had to
dig in. It was a good battling performance from everyone and although
we’re happy to win the game we’re not going to get over-excited with a
1-0 win. I’ve seen teams with bigger margins than us get overturned in
the second leg so it’s a case of keeping our feet on the floor - next
week will be the decider. It’s the first time we’ve scored against them
in Europe and maybe it’ll open the floodgates.

Lampard had a very good game. He should have had a couple of goals
himself and killed the tie but for Reina’s (I hate him too) reflex
saves. I had mentioned in the earlier blog, that Lampard is a big match
player and we cannot afford to rest him for this match. They way he
lifted his game at the right time, at the right stage confirms this
statement. Though I myself had chosed Maka to play, when I saw his name
on the teamsheet, I was little worried if he would be the weak link.
Maka did exactly what was expected of him. I’m not sure if he ever
stepped in the final third. I’m tired of appreciating Mikel. I’ve
heaped enough praises on his performance and potential. Like Essien, he
also can play the whole match without losing the ball even once.
Whenever Mikel gets ball, you can kinda bet with confidence that he
just won’t let you down. Not many are better than him when it comes to
the positional discipline and ball retention skills and tackling. How
many of you thought Alonso must have been carded for his nasty foul on
Mikel?

Surprise of the match is Paulo Ferreira’s performance. Certainly,
lot of fans are losing their confidence in Paulo and many of us even
want him to shipped off. He has not been in great form and Diarra’s
arrival at the right back has further dented his chances. This was a
big occasion and thankfully he did bloody well. Apart from a couple of
instances, he had Zenden in his pocket. While Terry was okay and once
again Carvalho outshone Terry. Hell, I didn’t even realise Bellamy was
playing until he was subbed! Ashley Cole ensured that Gerrard does not
get any space on the right wing to make any crosses. As I expected
Gerrard was ineffective except one opportunistic 25-yarder which was
the closest Liverpool came to scoring. Though Cech did not have much to
do, he dealt with all those desparate pot shots very well.

Jose got his strategy spot on. If I say we outplayed them in the
first half it will be a gross understatement. It looked like this was
exactly Jose’s script - push them hard until you get a goal, defend
well and hit them on the counterattack. In the second half, Liverpool
had more of the ball but never really looked like scoring. I loved the
way our defence went back to draw them to create spaces behind them to
lead a counterattack. This also created doubts in the minds of the
Liverpool players. As much as they wanted to come forward and attack,
they did not want give another counterattacking chance to Chelsea. We
did all this with no yellow cards and with less than half the number of
fouls committed by Liverpool.

Jose believes that we will score in Anfield:

We normally score a goal and if we score a goal we have
got a big chance of reaching the final. I think Liverpool think they
can overturn the result but we are winning 1-0 and have a good
defensive team. I thought our performance was top class. We had so many
chances and we finally scored with chance number six. The second half
was different from the first. Liverpool attacked more and had a chance
with a great shot from Steven Gerrard.

So where does this leave this tie? I’d say Rafa will be really
worried that they didn’t get an away goal. He knows that Chelsea plays
very well away and would surely score with Essien and Ballack back in
the squad. If Chelsea scores the away goal, Liverpool will have to
score three! Not many would fancy this against a rock-solid Chelsea. If
Sir Alex can be happy with a 3-2 win at home, Jose must be rejoicing.
Before the start of this match, the ‘F’ word that was doing rounds was
‘Fatigue’ and now it has become ‘Favourites’. I know the job is only
half one, but Chelsea are surely the favourites to go through.