Liverpool FC Forum

[zarababe]

Lots of injuries for them , Essien to play in defense ( likely) 12th man gonna sing the place down - what are ya bunch of wooses (not Ciggy of course ) bricking it for - watch with BELIEF


GET IN THERE

[Dundalk]

This time tomorrow night we will be 2 up already

Wait and see

[tubby]

Hey all. Just uploaded this, give it a few minutes. Nice comment on Mourinho aswell by Carra I wonder if Jose will react to hearing this haha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q-Al8qqfsI

[EddieC]

Remember this? Get ready for it again tomorrow

[Ciggy]

I am absolutly shitting meself, not going to get any sleep tonight, tommorrow I wont be a bit of good.

[Anfield rapper]

I heard on the radio just now that Mourinho has predicted that we will play Crouch from the start. Does he think by saying this Benitez will not play Crouch just to prove him wrong. No, no Mourinho. You are bang on with that prediction get ready for some deep crosses, players trying to get freekicks around the Chelsea area, and loads of penalty appeals.

[Ciggy]

Why doesnt it feel the same as 2005?
Is it the fact that the possiblilty of the Mancs in the final has but a dampner on the whole thing 
Just feels so strange dont think Ive ever felt this way before.

[Effes]

Why doesnt it feel the same as 2005?
Is it the fact that the possiblilty of the Mancs in the final has but a dampner on the whole thing 
Just feels so strange dont think Ive ever felt this way before.

It is weird.

I think losing away has made people think it wont be the same

[Redman in wales]

Schevchenko also out just been on SSN Gerrin

Andriy Shevchenko has not travelled to Liverpool with the squad, joining the missing injured list of Ricardo Carvalho and Michael Ballack.

But Arjen Robben is back with the squad who have trained at Anfield this evening.

There are no other injuries.

tbh i'd rather shevchenko play! - he's been pretty all season and only managed 4 league goals in 22 starts. Now his place in the starting 11 will be given to someone like robben or SWP, who will pose much more of a threat on the break.

[metalhead]

Schevchenko also out just been on SSN Gerrin

Andriy Shevchenko has not travelled to Liverpool with the squad, joining the missing injured list of Ricardo Carvalho and Michael Ballack.

But Arjen Robben is back with the squad who have trained at Anfield this evening.

There are no other injuries.

tbh i'd rather shevchenko play! - he's been pretty all season and only managed 4 league goals in 22 starts. Now his place in the starting 11 will be given to someone like robben or SWP, who will pose much more of a threat on the break.

Agreed, ill be terrified of robben, hopefully mourinho will stick with kalou 

Comon redmen.

[J*o*n*D*o*e]

who cares who plays for them there going out

i probably wont be on before kick-off tomorrow so if your lucky enough to be going then give it to them lads and gals, dont give them a minute without the crowd on there back, the ground will be so loud tomorrow that they will surely crack under the pressure

tomorrow night you could be part of anfields greatest night, make it so

[matrix]

Remember this? Get ready for it again tomorrow

great clip there,   youv'e  got me in the mood already...

    we must take the game to them...   this is anfield...

                                                   

[El Nino_#9]

RAFA BENITEZ....

"At Stamford Bridge, we won in the stands, that was clear. The other supporters were with their flags, but our supporters were with their hearts. We don't need to give flags. It's easy for us."


   

[Effes]

in the Times:

Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, delivered a succession of low blows on the eve of this evening’s Champions League semi-final, second leg at Anfield, claiming that José Mourinho’s tinkering was to blame for the collapse of Chelsea’s Barclays Premiership title challenge and that his talking had increased the pressure on his players.

Benítez knows that the odds are against Liverpool as they seek to overturn Chelsea’s 1-0 lead from the first leg, but he was in ebullient mood at yesterday’s pre-match press conference when he responded to recent criticism from Mourinho by suggesting that the Portuguese had brought pressure on his team, first by talking up their prospects of winning a “quadruple” and then by resting several key players for their home Premiership match against Bolton Wanderers on Saturday.

“It has cost him the league title,” Benítez said of Mourinho’s decision to omit Claude Makelele, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole from the starting line-up against Bolton, as his team drew 2-2 to fall five points behind Manchester United. “If you’re playing for the league and you rest some of your key players, that’s your decision.

“It is difficult for Chelsea because before they were talking about winning a lot of trophies. Always they were talking about trophies, trophies, trophies. One week later, maybe they have one less to win now and that makes the Champions League their priority. They know the pressures they are under, you only have to ask Mr Abramovich what he wants, the Champions League or the Premier League. They know their priority is the Champions League.”

Chelsea are without a number of influential players again this evening, is likely to deputise for the Ukraine forward, while John Obi Mikel, 20 last week, may keep his place in the midfield.

Chelsea’s biggest worry is in the centre of defence, where Michael Essien, the midfield player, is the most likely replacement for Carvalho, with Mourinho expressing concern that Liverpool will play long balls to the 6ft 7in Peter Crouch to exploit Essien’s relative lack of height.

Mourinho, when informed of Benítez’s comments, said that he was not interested in what the Liverpool manager had to say, but he repeated his claim that Chelsea could not be considered favourites because of the toll of their battle for the title while their opponents have been involved in a less intense tussle with Arsenal for third place.

“Yes, 1-0 is a lead, but we have 90 minutes to play with our opponent at home,” Mourinho said. “It’s a team which has had one week to rest [since the first leg] and prepare for the game against another team that had to play two days ago and had to fight physically and mentally in a title race, so I don’t see a team as favourites.”

He made light of the role that would be played tonight by the Anfield crowd, which appeared to unsettle Chelsea when they lost 1-0 at the same stage two years ago, but Benítez had no doubt that Liverpool’s supporters will intimidate the visiting team and in particular their manager, the self-styled “Special One”.

“Our supporters know that they are the special ones,” the Liverpool manager said. “I’m sure Chelsea will see Anfield as a very difficult place to come. It will be a problem [for them].”

[Effes]

Independent:

Will Anfield's wall of sound make Chelsea crumble?
The Kop helped cause a Champions League upset in 2005 but Liverpool cannot rely solely on the crowd tonight. By Andy Hunter
Published: 01 May 2007
Frank Lampard claims that Chelsea were unaffected by the atmosphere the last time they faced a Champions League semi-final at Anfield. Those who witnessed their performance that night would beg to differ. Acutely aware of the wall of sound rolling off the Kop, the England international turned to the travelling section on 3 May 2005 and raised his hands in an appeal for greater vocal support. Anfield was barely a quarter full at the time. Kick-off was half an hour away.

The gesturing and the whistles that greeted Lampard's every touch that night, often before he deposited an anxious pass into touch or to a red shirt, came to mind last week as the midfielder dissected Chelsea's failure to put the semi-final beyond Liverpool at Stamford Bridge and looked ahead to tonight's second leg.

"Despite what people say, we were not intimidated by the atmosphere at Anfield and we won't be intimidated by it now," he insisted. More accurately, Chelsea are now forewarned and forearmed. Two years ago they were overawed and alarmed.

For more than four decades, Anfield has played frequent host to tumultuous European occasions - from Internazionale in 1965 through to Olympiakos in 2005 - but rarely, if ever, has it staged a night to compare with that defeat of Chelsea, when Luis Garcia scored his contested winner 205 seconds after kick-off and Eidur Gudjohnsen squandered the chance of an away goal in stoppage time. That semi-final gave credence to the mythology that has grown around football's most famous terrace, as 20 years in the European Cup wilderness released a head of steam from those raised on tales or memories of continental conquest that sparked applause from Roman Abramovich, credit for a "ghost goal" from Jose Mourinho and an atmosphere that left a greater impression on those fortunate to be present than the game itself. A place in Liverpool folklore was well earned.

"All of us found it a bit of a shock that night," recalled John Terry. "It was one of the most impressive atmospheres I've played in and credit to the Liverpool fans for that, especially the Kop. They made it a memorable night, something special."

So special, in fact, that, to judge from the noises emanating from Rafael Benitez and the Liverpool squad in the past six days - "The fans are the special ones," said the manager yesterday - the 12th man of Anfield would appear to represent their finest hope of overturning a first-leg deficit tonight. While a tribute to the stadium's acoustics, the assessment is a poor reflection on a team expensively assembled by Benitez, and is almost patronising to the input Steven Gerrard, Dirk Kuyt or Peter Crouch may have on the tie, likewise the absence from the Chelsea rearguard of Ricardo Carvalho.

Liverpool fans have been discussing ways to replicate the intoxicating air of 2005 since the quarter-final draw offered the prospect of a reunion with Chelsea, and it is beyond dispute that another memorable evening awaits as the Kop comes into its own. The problem for many Anfield regulars, however, and a truism that counters the image of a seething, swaying and singing mass, is that such events are too infrequent to justify its mystical reputation. On major European nights Anfield stirs the passions, and it would be fascinating to see Lampard's conviction put to the test should tonight be decided on a penalty shoot-out, but during many domestic affairs, Liverpool can be grateful to Roy Keane for labelling Old Trafford home to the prawn sandwich brigade first.

There are myriad theories as to why Fratton Park and Bramall Lane generate finer atmospheres than Anfield in the Premiership, ranging from the move to all-seater stadiums following the Hillsborough disaster - and the divisive effect that had on congregations of families and friends - to the team's performance in recent years. As one Kop season-ticket holder explained: "We think we've got more chance of winning the European Cup than the Premiership, so it's easier to get up for it."

Then there is "The Istanbul Effect", where those captivated by the comeback that yielded Liverpool's fifth European Cup now view a matchday at Anfield as a vacation rather than a vocation - cameras in one hand, megastore bags in the other - and detract from an atmosphere they have come to savour. Responses include creating an 1800-strong "Singing Section" on the Kop next season and a "Reclaim the Kop" campaign that has unified, alienated and embarrassed in equal measure, though whether there is a solution that can conjure the spirit of the 1960s or European nights on a regular basis in the modern era is a remote hope. But not tonight.

"No disrespect to Chelsea, but their supporters aren't like ours," said Jamie Carragher, cutting to the chase in the aftermath of Liverpool's victory in 2005. "We've got a working-class support while the majority of fans at Stamford Bridge are probably a bit more well-to-do. In my opinion, clubs which have that traditional core of working-class fans are always going to be more passionate about football." Liverpool, however, cannot reserve their performance for the stands.