[lfc-news] Spanish surprise ready to help Liverpool bridge gap - Post

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Help save the life of a child. Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's
'Thanks & Giving.'
http://us.click.yahoo.com/6iY7fA/5WnJAA/Y3ZIAA/2_TolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Liverpool Daily Post, 27 April 2005
Spanish surprise ready to help Liverpool bridge gap
EXCLUSIVE by Andy Hunter, Daily Post

IT takes a real stretch of the imagination to accept Liverpool's
incredible injury problems as a blessing in disguise, as one former
manager might have put it.

And yet the absence of so many leading lights against Chelsea this
season could rank alongside Rafael Benitez's tactical prowess as
Liverpool's greatest weapon when they renew acquaintances tonight.

It is Liverpool, not Chelsea, who bring the element of surprise to
Stamford Bridge.

Like so many in the Anfield ranks Xabi Alonso has added incentive to
make Jose Mourinho's men suffer in their Champions League semi-final.

The Spanish playmaker can measure the pain of a defeat by the
champions-elect in exactly three months, the amount of time it took to
recover from the late challenge by Frank Lamp-ard that left him nursing
a broken ankle on January 1.

It was a setback that meant he had to watch February's Carling Cup final
instead of gracing it, and from the Millennium Stadium stands he saw the
misfortunate that befell Steven Gerrard and needs no repeating here.

Together they have faced Chelsea for only 28 minutes of a possible 300
this season. Not only does that signal Anfield's most commanding spell
of the Chelsea trilogy so far, it means Mourinho is still unfamiliar
with what both Alonso and Benitez have taken to calling the 'real
Liverpool'.

The Portuguese schemer has little first-hand experience of Gerrard and
Alonso at work, likewise Djibril Cisse and any settled formation Benitez
could only wish for. By contrast, Liverpool know all about Chelsea, and
while that hasn't prevented three defeats out of three this season, they
are getting closer and closer and closer...

This season we have lost a lot of key players through injury but now we
have almost a complete squad, or as strong as it has been this season,
and the manager has many options now," admits Alonso..

"We know we will be facing Chelsea with a strong team now. This season I
haven't played many games with Stevie apart from before Christmas when
we won three games and then I got injured on New Year's Day.

"This season hasn't been great for either of us in terms of injury but
now we are both ready and it gives the manager more options.

"The team is getting stronger now but we haven't played together too
many times this season. So while we know Chelsea maybe they don't know
the real Liverpool yet.

"We will have more options against them at Stamford Bridge then we have
had at any other time this season and if we use them properly we can
make things very difficult for them."

In keeping with this perverse season at Liverpool better options have
not always translated into better results.

But Alonso has several reasons to be confident ahead of tonight's first leg.

"There is a lot more pressure on Chelsea than there is on us," he
insists. "They are expected to win almost every competition they play in.

"They've won the Carling Cup, they are going to win the Premier League
and they think they have a great chance of winning the Champions League.

"They are favourites but that's good for us. So were Juventus. The most
important thing is that we have a lot of confidence in ourselves."

He adds: "I am confident because we have played them three times this
season and every time we have been close to beating them. We know a lot
about them and we are very motivated for this game.

I'm sure it will be close again, but hopefully this time it will go our
way. Chelsea have few weaknesses and if you make a mistake in the
semi-final of this competition then it can be very dangerous.

"We might not have many chances like this in the future so we have to
concentrate on our game and work extremely hard.

"Chelsea are a good team, very strong, and we know they will try to
press us at home because they want to score."

Then there is the fact every Liverpool player has his own bitter memory
of Chelsea to draw upon when they commence the biggest game of their
lives tonight.

From Gerrard's Cardiff own goal, Lampard's tackle, Mike Riley's
aversion to handballs and Mourinho himself, Benitez's men have all the
motivation they will ever need to upset the European odds yet again at
Stamford Bridge.

"What happened in the Carling Cup final and in the league against
Chelsea this season has given us great motivation for this semi-final,"
Alonso admits.

"It is a very important Champions League game and so that makes it the
ideal time to beat them for the first time.

"I know the fans are very excited about it.

I've know for sure there is no chance of getting any spare tickets for
this game! Everyone wants them.

"We realise how excited the supporters are. They are very happy to be in
the semi-finals but at the same time they really want to get to the
final. "I'm very excited about this game too, I am really looking
forward to it. It is a game every player wants to play in and everybody
is ready for it. We are confident."

On the outside such confidence appears misplaced after
relegation-threatened Crystal Palace inflicted a 10th away defeat of the
season on Liverpool on Saturday.

But as Juventus discovered after Manchester City had inflicted the
ninth, such spectacular inconsistency only strengthens Liverpool's
desire on the biggest stage of all.

Alonso explained: "We have to separate the Premier League from the
Champions League. We have done well away from home in the Champions
League, especially against Juventus where we played exactly the way we
wanted and got the result we wanted.

"If we can do the same at Stamford Bridge we have a great chance of
reaching the final.

"We have to forget about what happened at Crystal Palace now but we have
analysed what went wrong. It was a shame we didn't get a good result and
get closer to the top four, it's going to be very difficult to get there
now.

"But Champions League games are very different and we know if we can get
a good result at Stamford Bridge we have a great chance at Anfield of
reaching the final."

Benitez has done all he can to exaggerate the divide between Premiership
and Champions League football ahead of tonight's dual.

"We decided to do all the things we would do for a normal European away
game in London," he revealed.. "It is a Champions League game, not a
Premier League game, so we trained at Stamford Bridge the night before
and we are preparing for a European game.

"That means we want to score. We want to win and we want to score, but a
2-1 defeat in the Champions League is a much better result than it is in
the Premier League."

And the player he brought from Real Sociedad for £10.6m last August
admits Benitez is another reason why Liverpool can finally put Mourinho
in his place this season.

"Rafa is as good a manager as Mourinho," insisted Alonso.. "I don't know
Mourinho very well because I have never worked with him but Rafa is a
very good manager and will do a great job at Liverpool.

"Maybe he hasn't got all the players and the complete squad that
Mourinho has but he is doing great things here. He has a great
responsibility here and against Juventus he made a few changes that
worked very well. Hopefully it will be the same against Chelsea.

"We know we have a great chance of reaching the final."

Unsubscribe: lfc-news-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
http://www.lfc-list.org.uk/

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lfc-news/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
lfc-news-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/