Liverpool: Denied

By: Al | October 22nd, 2008

Atlético Madrid 1 – Liverpool 1

We have been saved by Simao. End of story. The stupid linesmen didn’t end up making us lose in the long run, and we’re in a good position to progress to the next round.

It wasn’t so much the fact that we got a point from this fixture, it was more of the fact that we didn’t lose again. If we had lost, we would’ve given in to that tiny little demon sitting on our shoulders telling us to press the Panic button. “Press it, you know you want to….”

In the words of Atlético president Enrique Cerezo, there was no racism tonight: just football. My favorite post-match moment was that of Liverpool and Atlético supporters waving at each other and shaking each other’s hand. This is the beauty of football, folks. All rivalries and hated aside, everyone was at the stadium to watch football, and that’s what they got.

Before the match, many Atlético fans planned on turning their backs during the Champions League theme, and that’s exactly what many of them did. The theme was also greeted with loud whistles and boos, all because of the madness caused by UEFA’s punishment given to us. On a side note, PSV is doing the same thing Liverpool did and requested to have their match played in Madrid again.

Liverpool were firing from all cylinders since the beginning, and the first half of the match was rightfully theirs. Their first goal was clearly offside, since Robbie Keane’s shoulder was ahead of the rest of the defenders. But the goal was allowed, so no use crying over spilt milk. Yossi Benayoun was very scary as well, as he was blasting shots like nobody’s business and even scored a disallowed goal. Ryan Babel introduced himself to the match by blasting the ball from halfway to test Leo Franco. Liverpool were/are a very scary team, and today was no exception.

We were dead until Kun Agüero was brought into the game at the beginning of the second half. But why? Why did it take Agüero’s presence to wake our attack up? In the second half, Maniche scored a goal from the corner of the box but it was allowed because of offside (and it wasn’t really offside, the genius linesman at it again). Moments later, Simao hit the crossbar, and at this moment we were ready to fight back.

The best moment of the match was obviously Simao’s goal, which was scored by a nice through-pass from Diego Forlán. The stadium was roaring with excitement (as was I) because it was the “about damn time” goal. A few minutes later, Miguel De las Cuevas shot a volley that was barely saved by Reina. Atlético’s resilience was excellent, and we earned that point (that sounds so lame).

If we win one more match, we’re 90% there in our path to the final 16, assuming PSV doesn’t win their next 3 matches (one of them a visit to our stadium). I don’t expect Atlético to win at Anfield, so we must try hard at getting a result at Marseille and another win a home to PSV, which shouldn’t be too hard.

We can take this match as a better reason to hold our heads high when we face Villarreal this weekend. A preview will follow shortly.

Thank you Liverpool for a great match, and thanks to the peeps at Liverpool Offside for a great liveblog.

All I want for Christmas… is a ticket to the next round of the Champions League. And maybe better results in the league. Just maybe.