Good Game Bad Game [vs Lyon]

A kick in the stomach. There's no better way to describe a game where, with a squad decimated by injuries, Liverpool went to Lyon and totally dominated. With better finishing, the contest should have been over by half time and when Ryan Babel scored, it looked as if Liverpool were going to get a much merited win. But it wasn't to be as the only mistake of the night resulted in a Lyon goal that makes it highly difficult for Liverpool to win.

The hope, now, is that Liverpool take heart of this performance and take this attitude into next Monday's game against Birmingham. Win there and then it will start to look a little brighter after what has been an attrocious month.

A final word about Lyon: they're a decent side, it has to be said, and have a very good goalkeeper. Yet they're also as lucky as hell. Take away two minutes from the end of both games against Liverpool and they would have three points less. Instead they're already through to the next round. Let's hope that they take something from their game in Florence. A win for them would be fantastic but a draw would leave Liverpool what that glimmer of hope (provided that Debrecen are beaten, of course).

Good Game
He didn't have much to do but Pepe Reina was always alert to what was going on and pulled off a fantastic save midway through the second half. Could do nothing about Lisandro's goal even though, agonisingly, he touched the ball. There is a rumour that Daniel Agger didn't sit for most of the trip to Lyon so as not risking aggravating his back injury. Whether true or not, thank goodness that he played as he was absolutely fantastic. What a boost it would be to have him available for the whole season.

Jamie Carragher was, yet again, ask to do a shift at right-back and he did a decent enough job. At least defensively because going forward he offered practically nothing. The same cannot be said of Emiliano Insua who was bright throughout the whole game and looked back to his best after a couple of games during which his confidence seems to have been shaken.

Is there anyone who still doubts Lucas' quality? That's a rethorical question - of course there are - but that probably is down to stubborness. For once again he was brilliant here: his anticipation, passing, tackling, movement were all spot on. His performance is one of the reasons why Liverpool managed to get a stranglehold of midfield.

Another reason was Javier Mascherano. Ever since Argentina qualified for the World Cup he has been completely transformed and his performances have been on par with those of two season back. This was the case once again here as he never gave the Lyon players any breathing space. My man of the match.

Yossi Benayoun tried as hard as he could to unlock the Lyon defence but he couldn't make one of his incisive runs. Even so, his intelligent movement and eye for a pass caused the defenders plenty of problems. Similarly Dirk Kuyt who, as always, worked as hard as possible for the team. Without a right-back with whom to dove-tail it was harder for him to create much but he still put in a couple of very good crosses.

One half chance is all that Fernando Torres got and, had he been fully fit, he would have probably put it away. Yet, despite his injury, he still fought hard and cause Lyon problems - so much that they often resorted to surrounding him with two or three players - as his mere presence can cause defences to panic.

Bad Game
He should have done better for the goal for which, Stolis Kyrgiakos has to shoulder a good share of the blame. In general, he was good and held up well against Gomis but then had brief moments where he made the most stupid of mistakes which could have easily resulted in goals against Liverpool.

It seems harsh to say that Andriy Voronin had a bad game because he did try hard. Yet you cannot have an opportunity like the one he had in the first half and not put it away.

Substitutes
Ryan Babel came on and looked as if he was going to continue in his recent vein of poor form. Suddenly he found that metre of space and smashed in that fantastic goal that deserved to be a winner. The question is why doesn't he show that sort of talent on a more regular basis.

David N'Gog came on for Torres in a move that was clearly aimed at running down the clock. Even so, he did well in the few minutes he was on the pitch.

Related Posts :