Kop roars Liverpool to the semi finals
by Khilen Mehta
As a Liverpool fan, all I can say is that sometimes I wish my team wouldn’t make life so dificult for their fans, let alone themselves! Last night both sets of fans were witness to another glorious European night at Anfield…a night when hearts are worn out on their sleeves, and players have the chance to make a name for themselves.
This was a typical European second leg. What a night. What a series of comebacks. What a goal from Fernando Torres!
When faced with this kind of assignment, with home advantage in a tense European tie, Rafael Benítez sends his Liverpool team out with the instruction to set a tempo that the opposition cannot live with. But Arsenal only know how to play football one way and they responded in a ferocious manner. The pace was frenetic, the noise was incessant and the football was marvellous to watch. In the opening 20 minutes, Arsenal threatened to run riot. Their passing was fluent, and they tore through the Liverpool defence. The movement of Alex Hleb and the energy of Abou Diaby exposed the pedestrian nature of the liverpool defence, and allowed the African to open the scoring.
So Arsenal were in front. But the goal not only woke the Liverpool players up, it woke up the Kop. And they roared. They sung their hearts out and soon the pressure told. Big Sami Hyypia equalised with a fierce header when Philippe Senderos should have been marking him at the back of the area. It was not the last time the Swiss defender was to find himself culpable. The turning point of the match came in the 42nd minute when Flamini was stretchered off and when Gilberto came on, Arsenal seemed to lose all rhythm. In all honesty, Liverpool never threatened to run riot against Arsenal but the pressure was unrelenting and in the 69th minute the game changed when Fernando Torres put his mark on proceedings. Picking up the ball from a Peter Crouch flick on, he sent Senderos to the cleaners, and fired an unstoppable shot into the top corner. Liverpool were heading through but this was never going to be the end. Wenger responded with a double change and it was Theo Walcott who would have grabbed all the headlines this morning if Arsenal had hung on. His run in the 84th minute was incredible, leaving 4 liverpool players in his wake and squaring the ball across for Adebayor to make it 2-2.
And so Arsenal must have thought they were through. Surely with five minutes to go there was no way back. But Liverpool had their own saviour. Ryan Babel stormed past Kolo Toure and was hauled down in the penalty area. Captain Fantastico Steven Gerrard stepped up with an unstoppable penalty. And now it was Liverpool who seemed to be going through. Arsenal pressed in the final minutes but the Kop roared and the ball stayed out. Then the final act: a hoof forward by Dirk Kuyt and Babel out-sprinted the last covering man Fabregas to slip the ball past Almunia. 4-2… Game over.
So the fans left still finding it hard to believe what they had just encountered. But this is Anfield…strange things happen here on a European night…