well, tough look for Liverpool, we got so close, played hard, etc, and while i'm proud of the team, I would happily take Aurelio and Skrtl and shoot them both, since their defensive mistakes basically cost us the tie. Plus torres didn't play well in either tie, and without gerrard, it was always going to be very tough. but despite that, we came SO FUCKING CLOSE. I actually missed the 1st half because of a class I couldn't skip, which was probably good because in the end it would have been even more heatrbreaking. at this point, considering i've worn it for the whole first leg and the 2nd half of the 2nd leg, I'm about ready to burn my brand new Gerrard shirt as being unlucky.
Skrtel should have been on the ground blocking Drogba's inevitable touch. It's easy to say that Reina should have been more worried about blocking the space in front of the goal instead of passing it, but if I had been Skrtel that ball would have gone out for a fucking corner.
Aurelio's marking was complete crap and was the worst player on the pitch over two legs.
Cech has clearly lost confidence, and is a liability at high balls. He still has great reflexes, but other than that he really has gone downhill.
Drogba has taken over Henry's place as the Liverpool defence's bête noir (no pun intended), and while he showed none of the great finishing he showed in last year's tie, his strength and pace always causes us problems.
While Liverpool have showed that they can be as good as the best teams around, i think now that chelsea have a top coach the difference in squad quality has shown, while in the league we managed to do the double over chelsea, now their higher quality squad has come up trumps.
Lucas was never horrible, but against Ballack, Lampard, and Essien, he was always going to have a tough time. he's also slow as fuck. I would probably have withdrawn him instead of Mascherano, as we needed to keep someone in the middle who could tackle. I know Benitez has very carefully thought out reasons for his substitutions at all times, but I definitely would have left in torres and masch, and take off lucas and arbeloa, and i would have put Babel on instead of N'Gog.
Alonso-ok, he took the risky choice and tried to make a decent pass, it backfired and we got fucked. unlucky/bad decision. Doesn't change the fact that he's an excellent player, anyone here who wouldn't want him playing for Juve instead of Poulsen is a moron. With Sissoko destroying and Xabi controlling the game, Juve would be a much better team.
As for you laughing at liverpool, fuck off, you wish that your team had have the bottle that Liverpool do, and the admittedly horrendous mistakes, aweful as they were, shouldn't mask the tremendous progress that Liverpool have made in quality and consistency in the last 5 years.