Liverpool have been drawn at home to Arsenal in the quarter-final of the Carling Cup.
Liverpool travel to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday to face the Gunners in the Premiership and now both sides will meet again before Christmas to determine who progresses to the semi-finals of a competition Rafael benitez has yet to win.
Liverpool were beaten finalists by Chelsea during Rafa's first season in England and despite fielding a young team so far in the competition, the Reds boss will be hoping his side can go on to lift their second piece of silverware for the season in the new year.
The full draw is as follows:
Liverpool v Arsenal Newcastle v Chelsea Tottenham v Southend Charlton v Wycombe
I would've prefered other teams like Wycombe or Southend. But I'll rather lose to Arsenal (touch wood) than Southend (ha ha ha ha!). Anyway since there are only 8 teams left in the Cup, we will certainly have a good chance of winning the so called 'Mickey Mouse Cup'. Whatever it is, I'm sure Rafa will want to win it.
Saw this article on ESPN Soccernet which is an interview with Sky Sports' Spanish football expert, Giullem Balague. The interview was on Rafa, English football and Spanish football. He's a Liverpool fan too!
Q. What do you think it will take for Liverpool to challenge for the Premiership title in the near future? And has Rafa heaped the pressure on himself by winning the Champions League in his first season with the club? A. Winning the Champions League has won him time more than added pressure. After that (and consider the lineup he had on that day), he has had time to build a side that combined style and power. But money has been an issue and the job is still half done. I predict a big clearout next summer while he finds the right combination. Internally, this was the year they thought they would fight for the title, but I still think Liverpool will be closer to the top than last year
Q. Liverpool have struggled recently, with many in the media blaming Rafa's rotation policy. What do you make of his choice to change the team around so much? Is it something he used to do a lot at Valencia? A. He used to do that at Valencia and received certain criticisms but not as much as here. The main reason for this is that it did work well at Valencia. In a match against Sevilla, where a victory would give him the title, he left Ruben Baraja and Pablo Aimar out of the side! People should forget about 'the best eleven' and rubbish like that. Football has changed and rotation is the new rule! Everybody is doing it.
Q. Are they missing a player like Michael Owen? Why do you think Rafa declined the chance to re-sign him? A. All is revealed in the update of the book! But a clue - Owen was badly advised and he cried when he realized he couldn't go to Liverpool.
We will be without the service of Malian hard man Momo Sissoko for at least 3 months and that's not a very good news for the Liverpool fans. The midfielder represents power, ruggedness, resilience and Liverpool will have to make do without him for the next few months.
Steven Gerrard is rumoured to be the player to take his place in central midfield but Zenden could do the job as well if called upon. Without Momo, our midfield will be much less imposing and physical. The importance of Sissoko is seldom talked about, but his all-action style of running, chasing after lost cause will certainly be missed. His presence liberates Xabi or Gerrard to do their job while he acts as the extra shield in front of the back four.
Get well soon, Momo! Hope that you could come back faster than expected just like what happened to you previously when the eye injury nearly ended your career. Your presence and long legs will certainly be missed!
A worrying injury to Momo Sissoko took the gloss away from Liverpool's hard fought 1-0 win over Birmingham City, who made the match rather difficult with revenge on the back of their mind surely. After the 7-0 thrashing by Liverpool in last season's FA Cup quater finals, Birmingham made sure there will not be a repeat of event. But Liverpool's doggedness and a little bit of extra quality helped eased past the Coca Cola Championship side. The score could've been different if only Bellamy took his chances well. All which included a missed penalty.
But all in all, I'm pleased by the result more than anything. I didn't catch the game and only been on forums to check on what people have said. They poured forth praises to Jerzy Dudek who came in place of Pepe Reina in goal, Zenden in central midfield earned his accolade, Gonzalez who showed great skills down the left and also the defence of Peltier, Warnock, Agger and Paletta.
You could say that this is only our second away win for the season and hopefully, our boys will finally exorcise the ghost of the fear of playing on foreign ground. Our away form has been absolutely abysmal thus far and we will face Arsenal this Sunday, which is a crunch match for us. We cannot afford to lose another away game and I feel that it is the right time to play the Gunners because of their current form as well as coinciding with Liverpool's own upwards climb. But it will be a difficult one, far more difficult than Birmingham.
The concern would definitely be Sissoko's injury. He got his arm dislocated and will certainly miss a few weeks or even months. This could mean that Gerrard will regain his central midfield position and playing Pennant out on wide right. The lost of Sissoko is pretty unimaginable as he's the engine room of Liverpool and losing him might make the midfield tad weak and less imposing.
Bellamy have once again frustrated many fans with a disappointing show. He missed a penalty and 2 other easy chances and went home with nothing to his name. He hasn't been setting the Premiership alight so far this season after completing his move from Blackburn and you could already hear a few mumbles here and there already. He will need to regain his confidence because Kuyt and Crouch are having a time of their life and are in great form. To push for places ahead of the two giants are pretty difficult and to add on with his confidence crisis.
All in all, at least it was a win and we're through to the Carling Cup quater finals. Carling Cup might not be a priority in Rafa's mind, but I'm sure he won't mind winning it!
Taken from the Football 365 Mediawatch, seen at the official Chelsea web page. Excellent evidence to back up the fact that they're all graceful losers and lose it with much dignity:
'The unbeaten record has given meetings with Spurs a meaning during a period when the idea of a 'rivalry' between our two clubs needed all the help it could get, because Tottenham were lagging too far behind us for proper rivalry to make any real sense.'
Wow. Brilliant journalism there.
Analogy:
A fat rich kid lost an arm wrestle with a not so well-built classmate. So he whinge and cries foul. Then turn back and say 'I didn't lose the arm wrestle match anyway. Because I've got more fats than you'.
I won't be watching as again I've school tomorrow morning and waking up at 3.30am will make me sleep walk tomorrow, especially when it starts at 8am and ends at 5pm. Anyway I think a lot of you will remember the night where we spanked Birmingham so hard that you felt a little guilty and embarrassed.
Relive the 7 goals then:
And there was a joke circulating around...
Wife: Brucie! Wake up! It's 8! Bruce: What? They've scored again?! Good lord!
But don't expect this game to be a walkover. You've seen what happened to ManYoo last night and Birmingham are certainly no pushovers this time. They're in pretty good form and who knows, they might want some revenge. But let's hope we win this one and it will certainly boost the morale of the squad as well as halting the away day blues.
One of the best passer of the ball I've seen, Xabi Alonso is quickly turning into an indispensible part of Liverpool. His vision, skill, touch and grace is rarely found in modern day footballer and it's even harder to spot one in the Premiership, with Cesc Fabregas the closest comparison.
Looking at Xabi Alonso play might make you reminsce of the good old days when Liverpool totally dominated the domestic front as well as in Europe. The exact carbon copy of a certain Dane named Jan Molby, he's the closest we've ever had albeit the different in size. Alonso did looked a little light-weight when I first saw him donning the Liverpool jersey, but he has improved tremendously as a player as well as the brain of the team. His playmaking ability is certainly second to none and his ability to spot players and then sending a laser guided pass to team mate is what makes him such a popular figure to both the fans and neutrals alike.
Although his form seemed to fluctuate pretty much over the 2 and a half seasons at Liverpool, one cannot take away his accomplishment in the red shirt. In fact, he's one of the players that will forever etched in the fans mind because he seemed to be ever-present in those historic moments.
We're 2-0 down at Craven Cottage against Fulham and he inspired us with the comeback. In the 2005 Champions League finals, he took the decisive penalty and missed, but still managed to put it into the back of the net for Liverpool's miraculous equaliser. 2006 FA Cup against Luton when we're pretty much destroyed by a Coca Cola Championship team, he inspired with the 40 yard shot and that memorable goal from his own half.
But the one incident which I'll remember him for would be Liverpool vs Everton at Anfield last season. Our skipper, Gerrard, was sent off and when players were needed to stood up and be counted, he turned on with the best performance by far and led Liverpool to victory over the bitter rivals. 10 men against 11 was never gonna be easy, but he was so inspired that he did two men's job.
I've always mentioned to my pals that I suspect Alonso has an eye at the back of his head. As a deep lying playmaker, his role will be to link up the defence with the rest of the team and the physical side of the English game makes his role much more difficult than ever. You could see game after game, he got harried and pressurised by opposing players, but he never put a wrong foot in. Always so composed and graceful, he's always so aware of the surrounding and player positions.
As Alonso continues to grow in stature and move a step into Liverpool's record books, people at Liverpoolfc.tv has unveiled a video montage of the pass-master from Spain. He will be making his 100th appearance for Liverpool soon and he has came a long way. But I'm sure his future will still be at Liverpool and will have much more to offer than what we've seen.
I got this from the Liverpool thread on the F365 forums.
So some of you might know the team went for a go-karting session to build up team spirit and in Momo Sissoko's interview, he mentioned Zenden finished first while he himself got last. Hyypia was a good driver as well. So I've found..
this picture of them, taken during the trip!
Oh and this has to be the most candid picture of Liverpool players.
Questions: 1. What is Gonzalez and Fowler looking at? 2. What makes Gerrard so happy there? 3. What the hell is Dudek doing?!
I didn't catch the game at all, therefore I will not do the match report for this one. But here to say thanks to StevieGo8 for the live updates. Anyway our revival seemed to gain pace as we defeat a spirited Reading 2-0 at Anfield with our Dutch hero Dirk Kuyt scoring a double. He is soon turning into an Anfield hero and is already justifying the amoung we paid for him in the summer.
As Rafa said on LiverpoolFC.tv, Kuyt is a complete player and I believe it is difficult to find a player with the qualities he posses already. The passion and the drive are hard to come by and already adored by the Kopites with his down to earth character and always the last to leave the field as he embarks on his routine walk round the stadium applauding the fans, showing his appreciation for the support.
He actually didn't take too long to adapt to English football and after so many years, it's as if we've found someone that can score the '20 goals a season' and win us cups and trophies. Gone were the years of Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish but I believe Kuyt has already shown that it won't be long before he joins in the pack of 'Anfield Elite Strikers'.
Away from Kuyt, back to the team. Other than the 2 goals, it's always nice to see a '0' on the side your opponent's name. The record breaking defence last season was found wanting so far as we conceded too many soft goals during the early part of the season. But after the 2-0 spanking by ManYoo, they have conceded only once to Aston Villa. The match yesterday was not easy even on paper. Reading has already impressed me with their fighting spirit and never say die attitude.
(Crouch and Kuyt to tango)
The win is an encouraging one, especially with ManYoo already running away ahead with 11 points more, we have to grab every single chance that is placed ahead of us and we need to start finding consistency while getting something out of the away games. We are pretty much untouchable at Anfield but our away day blues seemed to be the stumbling block to us. Once we regain back the confidence of last season and build on the win for more momentum, the '12 wins in a row' record might be somewhere round the corner.
Arsenal will be our next away game with Birmingham City sandwiched between in a Carling Cup tie. The seemed to have been shaken by the recent visit by our neighbours Everton and then CSKA. So therefore we might be able to nick something out of it hopefully and that will certainly boost the confidence and belief in the players.
Still a long way to go. Who knows what will happen. But always look to the next game only and let's smash another 7 past Birmingham, eh?
Founded on the 25th March 2006, this blog is not only for the Liverpool fans, but for anyone who loves football. Latest stories, banters, personal thoughts, up to date match reports, videos, pictures and a whole lot more!
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