Feeling Blue :-(

Not being sarcastic either. They were the better side on the night and deserved to go through.

What a fantastic game though!?! Edge of the seat stuff! and much better than the dross served by the two otherwise entertaining sides in Utd and Barca. That Drogba is shit-hot when he stays on his feet! Also, it was good

I'll be backing Chelsea 100% to win it obviously and probably more so since I quite like that grant fellow. Seems to be a genuinely nice person trying his best to do a job to the best of his abilities despite taking stick from his own fans and the media. Yes he's not as entertaining as Mourinho but he's got class and dignity, and its good to see him refraining from mindgames (Rafa should've done that!) unlike the classless prick that was Jose Mourinho. Special one my arse, special needs one more like.

As for Chelsea, a trained monkey could get results with the quality in that team and that shows Mourinho up really. With that side and his transfer / wages budget, anything less than a treble should be conidered a failure.

I might do a season review later with a bit on our potential new owners as well.

BELIEVE!!

You'll Never Walk Alone Liam Harker

There is a general consensus amongst football fans that the boardroom antics of George Gillett, Tom Hicks and Rick Parry have degraded one of the world’s leading clubs and reduced the Anfield outfit to a “laughing stock.”

But, between the stories of ownership turmoil and unsettled managers there emerged a tale that showed the rest of the footballing world that the Liverpool spirit has never been stronger.

The story was the tragedy of young Liverpool fan Liam Harker, a die-hard reds fan who was struck down with cancer and told he had just two weeks to live after a long, but ultimately futile battle against the disease.

The 17 year old’s dying wish, to spend the rest of his days in a signed shirt, was taken up by his father who contacted the club and made Liam’s request on his behalf.

Liverpool’s response was not only to offer Liam the shirt, but furthermore to give him the chance to visit the training ground and meet the players and staff, including Kop heroes Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard and Rafael Benitez.

Unfortunately, he was too weak to accept the invitation, but nonetheless the club gave Liam a signed shirt, publishing the story on their official website on the Friday before the Reds’ Premiership meeting with Fulham.

Few could have predicted the fans’ response to Liam’s heart-rending plight. Following a huge supporter initiative and the story appearing on several unofficial sites, a plan has been formulated to make and display a banner for Liam during the Chelsea match and have it shown on TV so he can see it in his final few days, displaying the ethos behind the club’s legendary song.

The banner has now been made, along with several flags that will fly in the Kop during the match.

It is stories like this that show the true spirit of our national game, with football once again displaying its capacity for compassion and togetherness to support an individual who, like many of us, feel the bond shared by a country through its love of the sport.

So, even though Liverpool’s American owners seem to be doing their level best to tear the club apart from the inside, the strength and solidarity shown by the heartbeat of the club, the fans, is holding as firm as ever before.

WHY LIAM HARKER WON’T WALK ALONE

KOP TO FLY FLAGS FOR DYING REDS FAN LIAM

Lets hope the lad can make it until the final and pass away with a big fuckoff smile on his face. Fuck you Cancer.

MAKE US DREAM!

And we're here again.

Nervous as f*ck as we wait for kickoff tonight. For whatever happens after kickoff, the only thing that will matter is that we are here tonight. And damn proud of it too.

Gannaro-scary-as-a-kitten-Gattuso has been mouthing a lot. Or maybe its words lost in translation, or the british media trying to spice things up a bit, but I'm sure once on the pitch, the one thing that will matter to both sides is not personal grievances, but that famous trophy.

Milan are hurting after 2005, oh they are hurting real bad.

They say they want revenge.

But so did Chelsea.

All it will take for Milan to disintegrate is one early goal and lets hope we can make it happen. Those tired old legs, running extra hard chasing the game from there on, won't last the whole 90 minutes against our mighty, mighty f*ckin reds.

The memories of 2005 are fresh and they know it will hurt even more this time if they aren't able to extract revenge. They'll make mistakes, they will panic. And that, hopefully, will bring Milan's downfall.

You'll Never Walk Alone


Steven Gerrard:

"We've shown on plenty of occasions, particularly in big cup finals, that no matter what the situation, we'll never give up. We'll have exactly the same attitude tonight.

"It gives you a lot of confidence when you look around the dressing room and see players who will perform on the biggest stage and can be matchwinners.

"We have lads who've played in World Cups, European Championships and massive Champions League games, so there's no sense of going into the unknown with us anymore. There are leaders all over the team.

"We also have a manager we know we can trust to prepare us in the right way. He proved it at Valencia and now at Liverpool that when it comes to the big occasions, he knows what we need to do to win. It's up to us after that.

"From a personal point of view, some of the finals have gone well for me. I'm realistic enough to know you can't produce those kinds of performance every time, but I'm going into it full of belief and I can promise I'll be doing everything I can to win it.

"People have paid a lot of money to see us perform, and the least all of us can do is give our all to make them happy. We all want the same thing, and it's an honour for us to have another chance to do what we did two years ago."

Banners for Athens: Part 1

Reds warming up before the game

Bye Bye Mourinho...

Although Liverpool won the game, were the only team that scored, had another disallowed, hit the woodwork and after 30 minutes had enjoyed 79% possession, I think clearly Mourinho is justified in saying that Chelsea were the better team and were the only ones trying to win the game. What an arsehole.

I think he will leave Chelsea now. Over the last week he's had rants targeted at Liverpool and Man U that were almost childish in their incoherence and as a result he has lost the league to one and been knocked out of Europe by the other. He's definitely lost his aura now. He's just a whining little maggot.

I do feel sorry for the likes of Drogba, Robben and Ferreira though, as the effort they put into some of their diving was truly heroic.

The Special One

Roman are you watching?

The COOLEST man at Anfield

Loved watching Rafa on the grass, chillin, calm as fu*k. Imagine the message it gives his players, the confidence, the belief, the calm... Compare that with that headless chicken Jose Mourinho, running around screaming his instructions to his players, pointing towards the sky and whatnot.

A direct quote from the columnist on the chelsea website

"Do they train for it? You would have to assume so: all summer, I would reckon, and then on into the winter and spring. Two European Cups, one FA Cup, one League Cup - all nicked on penalties. That's an extraordinary amount of penalty-based plunder for one football team.

Also, one FA Cup semi-final, and now one Champions League semi-final. Amazing. They've got a record to be proud of there.

And incredible, the rewards a team can accrue without ever needing to be ahead in a match. The European Cup Final against AC Milan in 2005? Liverpool were never ahead, but they nicked it. The FA Cup final last year against West Ham? Liverpool were never ahead, but they nicked it. The Champions League semi-final last night? Liverpool were never ahead but they nicked it. " Full Article

All of Red Rom's roubles couldn't buy a fantasy writer of these proportions. Brilliant theory though. "We tried to win everything and in winning nothing, we should all bevery proud."Some might term that "complete failure" but there you go

The Agonies of John Terry: Vol 2

Just how sad does he look in this

After the '05 CL semi:

"But at 80 minutes I started to panic and when I saw the clock going to 88 minutes, my eyes started filling up with tears. When Eidur Gudjohnsen's shot somehow went out into touch in the last minute of injury time I can't explain quite how I felt. It was like everything went from my body. We had had one more chance. This was it. And then it was all gone in a split second.

I was distraught after the game. I didn't know what to do with myself. What I couldn't quite comprehend was that for the second year in succession, we had lost a Champions League semi we were supposed to win.

For the second year in succession we had got so close to the final, the match that is the Holy Grail for every professional footballer, and then we had blown it.

I wanted to run straight back down the tunnel when the final whistle went.

But I went up to Stevie Gerrard and Jamie Carragher and told them: "Go and lift it now. Go and lift it for yourself and for your club." It was hard because a big part of me just wanted to get back to the dressing room away from the cameras and the eyes of the crowd and just wallow in my despair.

When you have got grown men on the pitch crying because they have just lost something they have worked so hard for, the rawness of that can be quite shocking. William Gallas was beside himself with despair. A few of us were.

When I heard the final whistle, I broke down. I was crying. People were saying to me that it wasn't our year and our chance would come. But I was in bits. Willie and Eidur were the same. The manager came over and said "No tears again. We will have our time."

Going back to the dressing room was the lowest I have felt in football. I know when I walk in there next time, when we play Liverpool in October, it's all going to come flooding back and I'm already dreading that.

I sat there in the dressing room that night with a towel over my head, just crying.

Nobody wanted to move from their seat. We sat there for an age. No one wanted to look up, speak, move, to get up to get showered or even wanted to get changed. It was an hour and a half before the lads were out of the dressing room.

I kept thinking about something Marcel Desailly once said to me, that in the Champions League, you get one chance at it and if you don't take it, it doesn't happen. That haunted me as we drove away from Anfield".

From his autobiography. Might need an extra chapter or two.

(Thx Kennedy81)

The Semi Final Second Leg

Chelsea have Carvalho, Ballack, and Shevchenko missing. The absence of the first two is obviuosly a big blow to Chelsea, with Shevchenko's absence being a blow to us. Its amazing (and a bit sad) to see one of the world's top strikers turned into a joke by the translator.

Liverpool on the other hand have Finnan back, which will be a relief for Alonso and the rest of the squad as he provides the width and an outlet on the right which was missed in the first leg. I know a lot is being made out of our the impact our fans can have tonight, and I'm torn between going to the pub to watch it where it'll be too noisy to hear the sounds from the stadium, or watching it at home on the telly where I could hear the KOP roar. Anyone who remembers 'that semi final' two years ago will know what our fans can do, and hopefully we'll get a chance to relive that tonight.

I can see us getting an early goal as Chelsea will no doubtedly take time to get used to the incredible noise (They have to advertise in Metro to sell CL tickets, you see). Carvalho's missing which definately helps. Essien, no matter how good a player he is, won't make a good centerback. And hopefully we'll see less diving from that c*nt of a player, Drogba, who's on a yellow and another will see him miss the final (if they get there).

Overall prediction? I'll go with a 3-1 that'll include a Steven Gerrard screamer from 25 yards. Make sure you've got enough toilet roll.

Watch the world's best players at Anfield tonight!

Yes, thats right. Gerrard at his best is usually a sight to behold isn't it?

It's the big one tonight - Liverpool face Barcelona in the second leg of their last-16 clash and Jamie Carragher says victory will be one of their greatest ever achievements in Europe. Barca are clearly running scared as Rijkaard has had a pop at 'know-it-all' Rafa.

My prediction is that Crouchy will start with the simple task of terrorising Barca's tiny defence with either Kuyt, Gerrard or Bellers getting amongst the goals.

I predict a 2-1 win for the reds.

Banners

from TizzleCahizzle & Baruqaa

Just To Tee Things Off

A selection of our favourite golfing references from today's match reports, for all of you with better things to do than us:

'Craig Bellamy and John-Arne Riise putt on the style in the Nou Camp last night' - The Daily Star.

'He then teed-up Riise...' - The Daily Star.

'...and teed up a second for John Arne Riise' - The Daily Star.

'...all that was left was for Bellamy to tee up Riise' - The Guardian.

'Bellamy equalised with a 43rd-minute header before teeing up Riise...' - The Daily Mail.

'...dig them out of a European bunker' - The Daily Star.

'Rafael Benitez's decision to start Bellamy proved a master-stroke' - The Daily Telegraph.

'How fortunes swing' - The Daily Telegraph.

'It was a relatively short but powerful assault that was always likely to find a hole' - The Times.

'The Norwegian international overstruck his cross...Riise clearly chose the wrong club!' - The Daily Star.

'Weekend golfers will have recognised the error of using a nine-iron when a seven-iron would have been a better choice' - The Daily Mail.

'Riise over-clubbed his centre...' - The Daily Express.

'A case of using too lofty a club...' - The Daily Mail.

'Football's equivalent of sinking a hole in one...' - The Daily Mirror.

Swinging Headlines of the Day

'Swing When You're Winning' - The Daily Mirror.

'Bellamy Back In The Swing' - The Daily Express.

'Bold Bellamy Swings It' - The Daily Mail.

'Bellamy And Riise Swing Into Action For Liverpool' - The Times.

'Bellamy And Riise Get In The Swing For Liverpool' - The Independent.

I repeat, its Barcelona 1 - 2 Liverpool!!

I love it when the so called pundits and 'experts' write us off against big European sides.

We were supposed to be brushed aside by Juventus.

We were never good enough to hold Chelsea back.

We were supposed to be annihilated by AC Milan.

And then Barca was supposedly going to teach us a footballing lesson last night?

Andy Gray in particular gets my blood boiling. All he could muster after a few minutes of silence once Riise had scored was 'Barcelona need 2 goals to go through at Anfield. Surely they can do it can't they?'

Great performance by the lads. It looked in the first half as if the occasion had gotten to some of our players and they looked shellshocked - however it was the self belief and some brilliant tactics by the master tactician that is Benitez, what saw them through. Ronaldinho is a show-pony. He's skilled, but only for showreels or Nike adverts. He was found out last night, and so were most of the barca squad.

Momo & Alonso were fantastic in the middle, Gerrard not his usual attacking self but still solid, him and Finnan had Fat Ron in their backpocket most of the time. Messi on the other hand was taken care of by Riise and Arbeloa. Riise's performance, specially in the first half was cack I thought. He's going through a terribly run lately and I hope the goal last night goes some way in restoring his confidence.

Kuyt worked tirelessly as ever but should've put that cross in the back of the net. Bellamy was out with a point to prove last night and he did his talking on the pitch - a stunning effort from the welshman.

Him and Riise on the scoresheet was, as Riise himself said after the game, destiny. Liverpool fans could not have asked for more last night. Lets finish off the tie at Anfield next week in what promises to be another fabulous European night at Anfield.

Oh and to the 'experts' and the media, pleaaaaaaassssseeeeeee keep writing us off, the underdog tag suits us beautifully.

I've lost a little bit of respect for Barca fans...

after watching their fans spitting on Steven Gerrard when he took his corners, and some of the theatricals of their players on the field.

Every club has its idiots and I'm sure we've got a few as well, however, spitting on opposition players is disgraceful and has no place in football.

Riise lifts the lid off bust up with Bellamy!

After scoring the winning goal for Liverpool against Barcelona tonight at the Nou Camp, John Arne Riise exclusively reveals what was said in the drunken Algarve row which had threatened to over-shadow the tie. Riise was speaking after a Craig Bellamy goal, followed by a golf swing celebration, and his second half right footed winner gave Liverpool the advantage is this vital Champions League 2nd Round tie.

"Well it was all a bit blow out of proportion." Revealed Riise, "The lads had been ripping me a bit about how my right foot was only for standing on for a few months now, especially after I'd shifted the ball to my left to try and hit the target, it was a bit of light hearted fun. Craig thought it would be funny for the bar staff at the restaurant we were eating at to show the DVD Rafa had made of my misses, I'll be honest, I didn't like it. Myself and Craig had a bit of a barney in the bar, I stamped on a wine glass to show frustration and a shard went into Craigs knee, that's why he has a plaster on it.

Anyway, Carra and Stevie calmed us both down and Carra took me back to the hotel for a nice hot cup of coco and naturally I fell asleep. I was awoken a couple of hours later by what seemed like a screaming banshee, but when I opened the door it was Craig with a golf club shouting

"If you ever get a f**king chance on your right f**king peg then you f**king use your f**king right peg, it's not just for standing on dickhead! If I ever see you shift the f**king ball onto your left I'll stick my f**king putter so far up your f**king arse it's be coming out of your mouth and I'll f**king use you to putt the f**king ball"

Looking back it was sound advice, it just didn't come out well because he was slurring his words, but it's quite funny that I took his advice tonight and it came off. It's a shame, I was looking forward to him shoving his putter up my arse!"

Liverpool take the advantage back to Anfield where it is expected the fans will be in full voice supporting the redmen and of course Bellamy and Riise.

Bully Shithousen reporting.

With thanks to WelshRed

Cheeky Twat

What a fitting result for Bellamy! There were suggestions (and there still are) that Bellamy would be sold at the end of the season after his bust up with Riise, and I'd been saying since that whole episode in Portugal that he needs to redeem himself in front of the fans by scoring at Nou Camp.

Never had I imagined that he would not only do that but set up a winner for RIISE out of all people! I've been impressed with Bellamy, to be honest. He's made more intelligent runs behind opposition defences than any other striker in the premiership (although he's mostly offside) but you can see he has the pace, the ability and the drive to perform at the highest level. He's always causing problems to defenders and is a real handful. Above all, he's a c**t to play against. And that is a compliment. He's at a club he's supported since childhood and knows he cannot f*** it up, but how many of us can really say we've never had any drunken arguments with our mates? Yes, that was a low point for him but the key thing is the way he's bounced back.

Its always a sign of a true great, the harder they fall down, the higher they bounce back up. I'm in no way suggesting Bellamy is a true great (not just yet), he's a twat, but he's OUR twat and as long as he keeps performing on the pitch, we'll try overlook his little imperfections off it.