a few inescapable conclusions...

[badpiggy]

I think thats a fair post

I think its wrong, but its fair and agreed you shouldn't get slated for it

Football is a game of two halves. This one shouldn't have been, but lets be fair Barcelona remembered how to play football in the second half. I may be in 'the cups half full' frame of mind but we battered them in the first 45. We defended well, gave them NO time on the ball, and broke and countered for 45 minutes

Alonso, in contrast to your view was very very good in the first half. Ok he's not spraying 40 yard passes about, but lets not forget that those passes need a recipient, and whilst Gerrard is relatively quick he spent a lot of time drifting and holding. Riise can run, but he's not that quick and again, he did his defensive job well

Hitting the post twice in the first half is unlucky.

The second half saw Barcelona throw whatever they had at us. And it was only when Guily came on that they looked threatening, but we coped. We defended again incredibly well, and only started to look a tad shaky when they put yet another attacking player on. And come on, we were playing against a back 3, and then Xavi, Iniesta, Deco, Messi, Giuly, Ronaldinho and Gudjonsen
Not sure what else we were supposed to be doing, if not defending!

All in all, I thought we were fantastic

have to respond fierce - we were fantastic when we didn't have the ball. hounding, harrying, attacking in packs. there isn't a team in the world that couldn't learn something from that aspect of our performance. but does it have to stop there? does a phenomenal workrate and a passing game have to be either/or? is there some reason that with players like alonso and gerrard that we can't keep the ****in ball when we win it? it's not as if barca had to kill themselves to be in possession - we gave them back the ball most of the time. if we held onto the ball, the need to expend vast amounts of energy on chasing the ****in thing would be significantly reduced. why were we not making a very poor barcelona chase a game that they wre losing IN ANFIELD.

[Guest]

have to respond fierce - we were fantastic when we didn't have the ball. hounding, harrying, attacking in packs. there isn't a team in the world that couldn't learn something from that aspect of our performance. but does it have to stop there? does a phenomenal workrate and a passing game have to be either/or? is there some reason that with players like alonso and gerrard that we can't keep the ****in ball when we win it? it's not as if barca had to kill themselves to be in possession - we gave them back the ball most of the time. if we held onto the ball, the need to expend vast amounts of energy on chasing the ****in thing would be significantly reduced. why were we not making a very poor barcelona chase a game that they wre losing IN ANFIELD.

Try to retain a football when you've been doing this amount of running through pressing constantly mate. Rafa had a choice before the match, either try to retain the ball and run the risk of losing our shape (by attacking and leaving gaps behind - which would have been nonsensical with our advantage), or playing on the counter as we played, which implied that we had to run and run and keep pressing Barca.

It's clear you haven't played that much footy mate.

[simey85]

i can take your points mate but we done what we had to do. i think rafa tells the midfield to be disiplined because barca have the quality to hurt anyone even if they aren't playing well. it is impossible to think that we can dominate at team like barca for an entire game they are always going to have their period in a game bacause they are fantastic footballers and sometimes it meant we were holding on!

[Laddsy]

have to respond fierce - we were fantastic when we didn't have the ball. hounding, harrying, attacking in packs. there isn't a team in the world that couldn't learn something from that aspect of our performance. but does it have to stop there? does a phenomenal workrate and a passing game have to be either/or? is there some reason that with players like alonso and gerrard that we can't keep the ****in ball when we win it? it's not as if barca had to kill themselves to be in possession - we gave them back the ball most of the time. if we held onto the ball, the need to expend vast amounts of energy on chasing the ****in thing would be significantly reduced. why were we not making a very poor barcelona chase a game that they wre losing IN ANFIELD.

Have any of you actually played football???????????????????????

im going to bed. I cant believe some of the posts on here after we have beaten the best ****ing team on the planet

[Guest]

Should I just point you to the great AC Milan sides of the 90's. They were a fantastic attacking force (with Gullit and Van Basten at the fore) but they were mostly a crushing machine which played a pressing game most of the time. They destroyed Barca in a final (4-0) where Barca were the overwhelming favorites. And guess what, they played exactly the way we did yesterday ... The difference being they were clinical and converted most of their chances. If we had done that yesterday night, nobody would have complained.

[badpiggy]

Oh my god why the **** cant people just be happy after such a great result. It really ****ing hurts to see posts like this

ironically this is pretty much the exact opposite of what both myself and ynwaireland said... ahh well.

[Laddsy]

ironically this is pretty much the exact opposite of what both myself and ynwaireland said... ahh well.

Please elaborate

[YNWA_IRE]

That AC Milan team of 90's were masters at keeping possession, movement, technical ability. Yes they were extremely tight at the back, yes they pressed hard and worked their socks off all the time but they were masters at keeping the ball, last night we couldn't keep the ball for two mins.

That Milan team would have crushed Barca last night as they were there for the taking. They wouldn't have let Barca into it in the second half because they wouldn't have given them the ball, that's the way Liverpool used to play.

As for all the 'have you ever played football nonense' or 'you must be a scum fan' how about trying to discuss some football points rather then just coming out with this rubbish. There are plenty of football commentators that have played at a hell of a higher lever then me or you who were saying the same things last night.

[Diego]

if i said these things on koptalk i'd be totally pilloried by muppets saying "you're obviously a scum fan" etc... so i hope anyone who responds to this takes the fact that i'm a die-hard liverpool fan for 27 years into account...

1. my team are in the last 8 of the champions league and are there because they knocked out the holders - ****IN BARCELONA!!!! however, the manner in which we played last night leaves me slightly sad - barcelona as they stand at the moment are a demoralised shadow of their last years incarnation and were there to be taken apart last night by a good team with a willingness to hold onto the ball and terrorise their embarrassingly ineffectual defense. in fact we did this any time we held onto the ball and attacked them. so somebody ****ing explain the 2nd half to me. how the **** were we holding on against this team? we shold have trounced them.

i get what you are saying mate, but i can't agree with you. if we would have tried to out flair them, played them on high tempo possession game, they would have torn us apart. they are amongst the greatest attacking teams in the world and have some of the best players in the world who were giving it all they could throwing everything at us, if we had given them an inch of space they would have punished us, but still we created chances in the second half...

i agree with you though the second have was supposed to be different we were supposed to be 2-3 goals up. however it wasn't to be, and when you don't score against barcelona theres little you can do.

i don't agree with you that Benitez is an extremely defensive minded coach, cause he likes to control games and keep possession. he is a tactician and likes to to play onto other teams weaknesses rather than onto our strengths. and thats what he did in the first half, he let barcelona come to us, cause he knew if put on the pressure for 90 minutes they couldn't cope with us. our only weakness in last nights game was our inability to score, and thats hardly Benitez' fault as we got the chances...

i can't wait for us to get propper strikers and winger, we'll be on top of the world

[YNWA_IRE]

Please elaborate

Because we both said we were absolutely delighted with the result and extremely happy, we just wanted to bring up some things we thought worth discussing with other Liverpool fans.

[badpiggy]

i get what you are saying mate, but i can't agree with you. if we would have tried to out flair them, played them on high tempo possession game, they would have torn us apart. they are amongst the greatest attacking teams in the world and have some of the best players in the world who were giving it all they could throwing everything at us, if we had given them an inch of space they would have punished us, but still we created chances in the second half...

i agree with you though the second have was supposed to be different we were supposed to be 2-3 goals up. however it wasn't to be, and when you don't score against barcelona theres little you can do.

i don't agree with you that Benitez is an extremely defensive minded coach, cause he likes to control games and keep possession. he is a tactician and likes to to play onto other teams weaknesses rather than onto our strengths. and thats what he did in the first half, he let barcelona come to us, cause he knew if put on the pressure for 90 minutes they couldn't cope with us. our only weakness in last nights game was our inability to score, and thats hardly Benitez' fault as we got the chances...

i can't wait for us to get propper strikers and winger, we'll be on top of the world

[Guest]

That AC Milan team of 90's were masters at keeping possession, movement, technical ability. Yes they were extremely tight at the back, yes they pressed hard and worked their socks off all the time but they were masters at keeping the ball, last night we couldn't keep the ball for two mins.

That Milan team would have crushed Barca last night as they were there for the taking. They wouldn't have let Barca into it in the second half because they wouldn't have given them the ball, that's the way Liverpool used to play.

As for all the 'have you ever played football nonense' or 'you must be a scum fan' how about trying to discuss some football points rather then just coming out with this rubbish. There are plenty of football commentators that have played at a hell of a higher lever then me or you who were saying the same things last night.

Nobody has been insulting in this thread so hold on mate. It's all about opinions you know.

If Rafa knew we had the ability to keep the ball for 90 minutes and outplay Barca at their own game, he would have done it. Even manure or Arsenal wouldn't have tried it though if you ask me.

The game has changed from the type of football we had in the 90's but Milan is the model which Rafa is trying to copy and with the right players, we'll be able to control most games, even the one against Barca in the future.

That's not to say that we haven't played fantastically, as we undoubtedly have yesterday ! With more luck and ruthlessness, we would have won that match at a canter, even without 50% of possession.

[Guest]

Because we both said we were absolutely delighted with the result and extremely happy, we just wanted to bring up some things we thought worth discussing with other Liverpool fans.

That's great and we're discussing it.

[tomasjj]

i get what you are saying mate, but i can't agree with you. if we would have tried to out flair them, played them on high tempo possession game, they would have torn us apart. they are amongst the greatest attacking teams in the world and have some of the best players in the world who were giving it all they could throwing everything at us, if we had given them an inch of space they would have punished us, but still we created chances in the second half...

i agree with you though the second have was supposed to be different we were supposed to be 2-3 goals up. however it wasn't to be, and when you don't score against barcelona theres little you can do.

i don't agree with you that Benitez is an extremely defensive minded coach, cause he likes to control games and keep possession. he is a tactician and likes to to play onto other teams weaknesses rather than onto our strengths. and thats what he did in the first half, he let barcelona come to us, cause he knew if put on the pressure for 90 minutes they couldn't cope with us. our only weakness in last nights game was our inability to score, and thats hardly Benitez' fault as we got the chances...

i can't wait for us to get propper strikers and winger, we'll be on top of the world

Good one, mate.

[Laddsy]

Because we both said we were absolutely delighted with the result and extremely happy, we just wanted to bring up some things we thought worth discussing with other Liverpool fans.

OK fair enough

I am just so happy that we got through. I think I let about 4 or 5 ****s go before the final whistle.

but can i just say that we are the best team in the WORLD period. Its the passion, the fans and other things I cant explain.

but we are the best

with a few little pieces of the elusive jigsaw we will be unbeatable (mark my words)

GO LIVERPOOL YOU MAKE ALL THE OTHER PREMIERSHIP TEAMS LOOK ****ING MEDIOCRE