Ok the first match might have been a tad undeserved - but a win is still a win. And we're through to the 4th round of the FA cup where we face Southampton away in about 3 weeks time. Can't really say I was impressed with our play - there were bits of good moments (the one that involved Reina saving LFC's a** for the xxx-th time!) but the rest was fairly mundane. We controlled the match yet didn't manage to kill it off - this has been my greatest concern about the team and somehow, we haven't seemed to be able to address this. We're lucky to be where we are right now although sometimes I wonder when we'll have to REALLY start playing properly before our luck runs out on us....
The OTHER match was the total opposite. "End to end excitement" is an understatement, really. Villareal plays really good football and are a joy to watch. Their tiki taka play (ala Barca) is a lot more direct and they totally ruled us over the first 45 minutes. In fact, we had to come back from behind TWICE in the first half. After we let in the first goal in the 8th minute, I thought we'd be facing our 2nd defeat... there were 1001 pictures of *El Clasico Murder Part II* in the works of my mind. But thankfully some good footwork by Ozil and Benz + CR7 levelled us. We were still really scrappy and losing the midfield battle (think El Clasico) and so ended up letting in another goal. But CR7 saved the day (again!) when he headed in a FK coming from the left by Xabi... he is absolutely amazing - if one observes his positioning throughout the whole FK + goal scene, you see him first, flaffing about near Xabi and as Xabi kicks the ball, he somehow whisks his way through to head the ball in. Absolutely fantastic! That was actually the turning point, and we just improved from then on. Mou brought in Khedira for Lass - and shifted Ramos to CB (Albiol was poor as CB and couldn't cope with the speed of Ruben or Rossi). We started taking charge and it was all Blancos there on! =D I can probably go on about how the 2nd half was soo amazing yada yada, but I would sound like a broken record - so please watch the 2nd half for the comeback. Mou's tactical changes were brilliant - and as much controversy as the 3rd goal caused, cr7 was NOT offside. It was really awesome watching us play 4-1-4-1 when we were chasing the game (Marcelo, Carvalho, Ramos, Khedira) + Xabi + (Cr7, Kaka, Ozil, Di Maria) + Benz. Admittedly, it could have been a suicidal move, but I think Mou wanted nothing more than to win the game and it paid off. The final goal came from Kaka (cr7 assisted). Anyway, in the last few minutes Benz came off for Gago to tighten the defence. Wonderful football - from both sides and we deserved the win IMHO. =)
OK enough for now as I need to rush off - I doubt anyone really understood my ranting above but please, just watch the match!! =)
*Listening to Poltava by Stroke 9*
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