Anfield has a tradition like no other stadium in Europe when it comes to great European nights. Think of European nights at Anfield, and you think of St Etienne, Auxerre, and more recently PSG and Strasbourg. All wonderful games, but more importantly, wonderful atmosphere's. Anyone who was fortunate enough to have been at any of those games will know how special European nights are at Anfield. That's what makes this pathetic excuse for a football match all the more infuriating. Liverpool had decided to halve the normal cost of a ticket, but even allowing for the reduced cost of admission, a crowd of almost 38,000 was a pretty good turnout to say the least, and it is almost criminal that Liverpool made virtually no attempt to provide those fans with any entertainment whatsoever. We had seen enough of Rapid from the first leg in Romania to know that they posed no threat to us at all. They are capable of playing the odd pretty pattern or two in the middle of the park, but they are so toothless up front that they could enter the World Gurning Championships. They posed about as much threat as a British Heavyweight boxer (Lewis doesn't count, he's Canadian), and although I don't like constantly harping on about the Ðgood old daysŽ the simple fact is that this is the type of side that would have been sent back to the land of Dracula nursing a real thrashing had the game taken place ten or fifteen years ago. Christ, even four or five years ago we'd have probably put five past them.
Unfortunately, we now have a manager who is of the opinion that if you don't concede you don't get beat. I'm of the opinion that if you score four or five, then you won't get beat eithe. As a result of GH's negativity, 38,000 fans were bored to tears watching this pathetic excuse for a cup tie. Rapid seemed pretty happy to get a nil-nil draw too. At least that's what I assume judging from the cautious way they approached the game. Had they shown more ambition then they might have caused an upset, because there was absolutely no chance of Liverpool breaking the deadlock.
It was nice to see Robbie back in the side, although he looks nothing like the player we know he can be. A lot more games are needed before the old Robbie is back. Berger was back too, albeit in an unusual central midfield role. He started well, but ended the match in the same poor form that nearly all of his team-mates had shown throughout. Sami and Veggie also made their comebacks, as Liverpool treated this like a practice match.
We have seen some pretty dismal games at Anfield over the last few years, but I think this was possibly the worst. Maybe my judgement is clouded because this is the most recent, but I can't honestly think of a game more lacking in entertainment and attacking football than this one. Gerard thanked the fans after the game, for not getting on the players backs and becoming impatient. He reckons we showed great understanding. Understanding my arse Gerard, we were asleep, that's all!
And what was the big idea in bringing Ziege on? His introduction got the crowd going, and that woke me up. I was having a lovely kip at the back of the Upper Centenary, and didn't appreciate being suddenly woken up whilst the reds spent a full five minutes actually attacking. Normal service was resumed soon after, but I was already awake by then and couldn't nod back off again, which meant I had to watch the rest of this shambles. Someone should tell Mr Ziege that crossing, shooting and generally trying to go forward are not on the menu at Anfield these days. Still, he's new and hasn't had time to adjust yet. He'll learn. I never picked a man of the match because I thought the whole team stank. The ref had a pretty decent game though.
TEAM: Sander Westerveld; Vegard Heggem, Markus Babbel, Sami Hyypia, Djimi Traore (Christian Ziege); Steven Gerrard, Dietmar Hamann, Patrik Berger, Bernard Diomede (Nick Barmby); Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler:
