by andy_g » Sun Feb 26, 2006 6:04 pm
another frustrating game in my book. i enjoyed the first half immensely and was sure we were going to put a few past them. some of the interplay was a joy and nando actually had an impact on the game - the move where he took the ball outwards, had a change of pace, turned and whipped in a beautiful cross rolled back the years. the goal was a cracker and crouchy looked on fire. i was surprised to go in only one up at the break.
second half they go down to ten men, wake up and start causing us some problems. nando disappears again but still its crouch who goes off, then kewell goes off for traore(!) when we should have gone for the jugular. i really don't understand benitez's substitutions a lot of the time and i'm fully in agreement with the thread woof started voicing concern about a certain over conservativeness in our attacking intent at times.
good to get another three points and another clean sheet but one-nils are getting frustrating. we need to put two past benfica at home and i'm wondering how we're going to manage to score so many goals. i'm sure we can carry on dominating games like we do but until we beat someone 3 or 4 nil there are going to be questions.
finally, a word for xabi. gets his head cracked, gets 10 staples in it and runs back on looking for a header from a set piece. tough as nails.

Get up! everybody's gonna move their feet
Get Down! everybody's gonna leave their seat