Liverpool 0 Roma 1 (Liverpool win 2-1 on aggregate) (Guigo)
Lets face it, knocking Roma out of this competition is a magnificent achievement, they showed that they are a very good team, but this was a shockingly bad performance. If last week's performance in Rome really did make people sit up and think that "Liverpool could well be back", then last night's performance will have had them slumping back down and rolling out all the usual clichés about inconsistency and false dawns.
The evening started off on a high with the Paisley tribute. Mrs Paisley and the rest of the great man's family were on the pitch to witness it and what a sight it was. The mosaic stretched from the Kop, along the Lower Centenary and into the Road End (I even noticed a few Roma fans holding up cards). As I was stood in the Kop I don't know what image we were creating but the name of Paisley was spelled out clearly by the boys in the Centenary. As You’ll Never Walk Alone was belted out the mosaic gave way to hundreds of flags and banners and scarves. When we make the effort there is no one better than us.
And so to the game, lets just say we defended far too deeply and let Roma have it far too easy. While there was clearly no need for us to take the game to the Italians there was also no need for us to let them totally dictate the play. Defensively Liverpool did quite well but because we had literally no one in midfield for most of the game the only option for the defence when they had the ball was to launch alehouse balls into the night sky in the hope that either Heskey or Owen would win it. More often than not they didn't and another wave of attacks began.
The goal was as inevitable as Owen's penalty miss and had the referee actually allowed Roma to take the penalty he clearly awarded them then we'd have been in real trouble. It was a bizarre few minutes. A cross from the Roma left hit Marcus Babbel on what appeared to be his chest. A quick glance at the Ref to confirm he'd given a corner was met by the sight of him pointing at the spot and Batigol celebrating the decision. I couldn't bear to watch so I looked away, towards the corner flag in fact, where I then saw a Roma player who appeared to be preparing himself to take a corner kick. Confused? Not as confused as the rest of the Romans who, quite understandably, went berserk. After a flourish of yellow cards it was indeed a corner that restarted the game and we could all breathe again.
What was already a tense physical game now threatened to turn nasty as the challenges flew in all over the pitch. Tomassi was dismissed for a second bookable offence and on a number of occasions players squared up to one another. As the clock ticked down Roma were awarded a free kick was cleared vertically into the air by Carragher and for a second 45,340 people held their collective breath but Sander Westerveld was equal to the task and collected bravely. Seconds later it was all over. Its always a strange sensation to celebrate after a defeat and as an ever louder version of You’ll Never Walk Alone rang around the ground you had to feel that we'd had a healthy slice of luck!!
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Feb 27th, 2001
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