AnfieldRoad.com - Liverpool through to the quarter finals of the Champions League

AnfieldRoad.com - Liverpool through to the quarter finals of the Champions League: "Liverpool through to the quarter finals of the Champions League
Written by Jim Boardman
Wednesday, 09 March 2005
Liverpool went into tonight's game with a 3-1 lead from the first leg at Anfield. The emphasis before the game was on that one Leverkusen away goal, which came from a fluffed Jerzy Dudek save right at the end of that first leg.

The first goal was always going to be important. An early goal for Leverkusen would have ensured a difficult night for Liverpool - the scored would then have been 3-2 on aggregate, but thanks to that infamous away goal, only one more would be needed by Leverkusen.

For twenty-five minutes Liverpool played comfortably. The main chance in that first part of the game came when Milan Baros was brought down in the area, right in front of the linesman. Replays clearly showed it should have been a penalty. It wasn't though, and Leverkusen did look like they had the potential to keep Liverpool at bay and to get that first goal themselves.

Then along came Luis Garcia. The Spaniard has shown a lot of promise for Liverpool this season, but has often seemed to be struggling with life in the Premiership. He's more comfortable on the European stage though, and scored two goals in 4 minutes, leaving Leverkusen with an unsurmountable task to get back into the tie.

Both the Garcia goals came from pressure Liverpool put on from set-pieces. For the first goal on 27 minutes, Steven Gerrard collected a ball that had been cleared from a corner to put Garcia through. For the second a Gerrard corner after 31 minutes was headed down by Biscan and Garcia's simple touch wrong-footed the goalkeeper and in it went. Garcia almost got his hat-trick towards the end of the first half but was denied by an excellent save.

Overall Liverpool took more and more control as the game went on, with Dudek rarely troubled. The second half goal from Milan Baros was as much as he deserved for tireless work as a lone-striker. Baros has been complaining in the press recently, saying he'll leave if he doesn't get more games. The previous Liverpool manager might have taken that as a cue never to play him again, but Benitez stuck with him, partly due to Morientes being both cup-tied and injured, and tonight Benitez was paid back. Excellent, confident passing from Liverpool, and once again Mr Gerrard was involved.

Liverpool felt sufficiently confident in the game to bring off Didi Hamman and Jamie Carragher with still a fair amount of time remaining, and in the end it would have taken six goals for Leverkusen to save their place. As it was Liverpool did concede, but by then they'd pretty much taken their foot off the pedal.

The sound system at the German stadium rang out to the sound of 'You'll Never Walk Alone' at the end of the game. An excellent gesture by the Germans, and recognition of an excellent performance.

Benitez was 'very proud' of his team tonight, and had every right to be so. He'd joined the Liverpool fans in Germany last night for a couple of drinks. He's returning to England tonight, but he'll probably be having a small tipple on the plane.

Steven Gerrard told Sky Sports that tonight's performance was the best away from home by Liverpool for some time.

The draw for the next round takes place on the 18th of March, and we now know that Michael Owen won't be making a playing return to Anfield this season. Real Madrid, 1-0 up from the first leg, were beaten 1-0 over the 90 minutes, leading to extra time, where Juventus scored again, leaving Real to join Barcelona in exiting the competition before the quarter finals. Also leaving the competition tonight were Arsenal, who won 1-0 but were beaten 3-2 on aggregate. In tonight's other match PSV knocked Monaco out.

Liverpool proved tonight just how good they can be. The key now is to continue this form in the league to close the gap on Everton for that final Champions League place. Or can they win the Champions League this season? Jamie Carragher thinks they can."