I didn’t want to write anything just in case i jinxed the team but woo hoo, we won the war !!!!

In the CL first leg at Emirates Stadium, we did well to hold Arsenal to a 1-1 draw and get an away goal. Kuyt was our scorer.

Then in the league at Emirates Stadium, we drew 1-1 against Arsenal again but this time, it was a squad full of “second-stringers”. But it was a brilliant game. Our team took the game to Arsenal and for the first half, we dictated play and controlled everything and were duly rewarded with a brilliant goal from Crouch. We should have won the game late in the 2nd half but Voronin contrived to do everything wrong. Sheesh..

And finally, the epic match at Anfield. It was heart-pounding, frustrating and exciting stuff. Rafa snooked everyone by coming up with a 4-4-2 formation with SG on the left. It was a big shock bcos the 4-2-3-1 has been serving the team well and brought us very good results. At that point of time, i guess Rafa was going to attack and kill the game early. I also thought that the atmosphere would have shaken confidence of the young players in Arsenal but kudos to them, they did not cower and it seemed that they relished the atmosphere. They came out with guns blazing and controlled the first 15-20 minutes with their one-touch football. I was quite frustrated that LFC couldn’t get the ball and my heart dropped when they scored. It was the worst start that LFC could have.

Subsequently, we started to get back into the match. The stadium screamed and roared the players on and Hyypia scored with a brilliant header. Man-marking works perfectly my ass !

Then it was a tense second half and i was nervous as hell. I knew that if Arsenal scored a goal, we were finished bcos we would have to score 2 to overhaul their away goal advantage. As usual, Torres came up with the goods with a brilliant strike which went to the top right corner. By that time, i was quietly confident that we would shut up shop and Rafa would have substitute more defensive players into the game. But no, the team keep going forward to kill the game and i was screaming in my head that they should just head to the corner flag and kill off the game.. I was worried that Arsenal would counter and score and they did. A brilliant run by Walcott from his penalty box to ours resulted in Adebayor scoring the equaliser. My heart totally dropped. I banged the table so hard that the phone dropped and i think woke up my tenant.. hahahahaha..

Then straightaway after the replays, i see Babel(who came on for Crouch) running into the penalty box. Two Arsenal players (Toure and Fabregas) was tugging him as he was bursting into the box and suddenly, Toure jumped and tug him back. I screamed(in my mind) “PENALTY !!!” and the ref agreed. Looking at the replays, i felt that it was a a 60-40 penalty call (same as the Kuyt one on Helb during the first leg) but i guess after the big hoo-ha by Wenger, the ref gave this one.

My heart was in my mouth when SG took the penalty and i didn’t dare to watch it till i heard the commentators said, “What a great penalty” and then it was all defensive all the way till Kuyt managed to hook the ball into Babel’s path. Babel broke thru the Arsenal defence and scored the fourth goal which ended Arsenal hopes of a comeback.

It was an absolute classic and i guess the inexperience of the Arsenal players was a big factor. Instead of focusing on the match after they equalized, they seemed to relax and gave LFC the chance to drive foward. I was surprised to see that Babel was able to burst through so easily.

Anyway, a brilliant night and a brilliant game

Final score : LFC 4 - 2 Arsenal (Agg : 5 - 3)

Next up, Chelsea AGAIN ! sian..