CL-Semifinale: Chelsea - Liverpool

[goleador2000]

Goleador's Vorschau auf das CL-Semifinale FC Chelsea – FC Liverpool

Am Mittwoch erwartet die Reds an der Stamford Bridge eines der wichtigsten Spiele der Saison – der FC Liverpool ist nach der mehr als dürftigen Vorstellung gegen die Eagles wieder mal gefordert eine Topleistung abzurufen, um gegen die Topmannschaft der PL bestehen zu können. Die Schonung einigen Stammkräfte am Wochenende (Luis Garcia, Xabi Alonso) könnte von Vorteil sein.

Chelsea wird vermutlich zu Hause einen Angriffswirbel starten und versuchen die Reds überfallsartig unter Druck zu setzen, ein schnelles Tor vorzulegen die schnellen Flügel (ob Robben, Joe Cole oder Duff) einsetzen, die entweder selbst den Abschluß suchen oder das Duo Gudjohnsen/Drogba in Szene setzen werden. Wie ianrush bereits sagt, sehe ich die größte Schwäche Chelseas auf der rechten Abwehrposition. Die Nr.1 auf dieser Position – der starke Portugiese Paulo Ferreira ist verletzt und sowohl der jungen Engländer Johnson als auch der Deutsche Huth sind immer für Patzer gut und ein John-Arne Riise könnte ihnen das Leben schwer machen. Die zu Saisonbeginn bombensichere Abwehr ließ zuletzt in der PL immer ein Gegentor zu und wirkte überspielt und fehleranfällig, auch gegen Barcelona und Bayern kam das Auswärtsteam an der Bridge zu vielen Möglichkeiten. Der FC Liverpool hat Spieler in seinen Reihen die Chelsea sehr weh tun können, aber wehe sollte den Blues ein schnelles Tor gelingen, dann wird es verdammt schwer werden zu bestehen. Die Blues können zu Hause einen unglaublichen Druck erzeugen, das haben sie schon oft genug bewiesen. Es wird verdammt schwer für die Reds, aber...

...der FC Liverpool hat in den bisherigen Saisonspielen gegen Chelsea nie schlecht ausgesehen und war in keinem Match die schlechtere Mannschaft, das sollte uns großes Selbstvertrauen und Zuversicht in Hinblick auf die Partien geben. Ein gutes Resultat – ein Unentschieden mit einem erzielten Auswärtstor - wäre mMn ein sehr tolles und annehmbares Ergebnis, mit dem wir zuversichtlich ins Rückspiel gehen könnten. Die Vorzeichen stehen zwar denkbar schlecht, aber wie sagt man so schön und treffend : "Wir haben keine Chance, wir müssen sie nur nutzen !!!"

C' mon you reds !!!

Meine vermuteten Aufstellungen:

FC Liverpool:

(4-5-1)

Cissé

Riise – Gerrard – Xabi Alonso – Luis Garcia

Biscan

Traore – Carragher – Hyypia – Finnan

Dudek

FC Chelsea

(4-4-2)

Drogba – Gudjohnsen

Joe Cole – Lampard - Makelele – Duff

Gallas – Carvalho – Terry – Johnson

Cech

@Genki7 und ianrush: Bitte diskutiert hier nur über das kommende Spiel und mißbraucht diesen Thread nicht für eure privaten Scharmützel, auf die keiner neugierig ist -->schreibt euch eine PM und räumt euren unnötigen Streit so aus !!!

bearbeitet 25. April 2005 von goleador2000

[ianrush]

How Mourinho will give Chelsea the lead in the mind game

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Harry Pearson warns Liverpool

Tuesday April 26, 2005

The Guardian

Tuesday 3pm

Reports saying that Peter Kenyon has been seen in a Greek restaurant in the company of the new Pope spread alarm through Merseyside. "They were laughing and joking and even smashed a couple of belly-dancers together," says an eye-witness. Chelsea's chief executive admits that the meeting took place but says it was just "a friendly get together to forge closer business ties between our two organisations".

"Rest assured that as far as Chelsea football club is concerned there is absolutely no thought that our special relationship with Benny and the guys in Rome might lead to a situation in which anyone who scores against is instantly excommunicated and booked a place in purgatory," Kenyon explains in a whispery and frankly rather sinister voice. "It is just a friendly ongoing relationship with absolutely no serious long-term repercussions vis-à-vis the heaven/hell situation regarding Anfield's many Catholic players. Or at least, not as far as I am aware, anyway. Clearly the Vatican may have its own views on that issue."

Article continues

Tuesday 3.30pm

Mourinho enters the fray at a press conference in which he suggests that the referee might favour his opposite number Rafael Benítez: "Of course, it is true. The referee is maybe looking at me and seeing somebody who is very, very successful and also young, handsome, a bit like Sacha Distel or maybe the sophisticated yet playful presenter of top European Saturday night light entertainment show Oui, C'est Monte Carlo Ooh La La! and it makes him maybe nervous and a little jealous. Then he is looking at Rafael Benítez and sees a big, hefty baldie fellow who look as if he is neighbour of Sid James in a 1970s sitcom with wife played by Joan Sims. And of course he instantly feels pity for this hapless dolt". Benítez says he will not be drawn into a slanging match, adding, "That is the sort of thing only a short person with a slightly showy overcoat would get caught up in".

Tuesday 5pm

Asked to explain his earlier remarks about Benítez Mourinho is contrite. "I am maybe wrong to say these things. I am a foreigner to this country. I must adapt to your ways. For me I see that I have hair and he does not have hair. I have the lithe figure of a flamenco dancer and he is shaped like one of the Fimbles. I am regarded as the world's No1 football coach and he is regarded as the man who did a bit better at Valencia than Claudio Ranieri did. To the whole world this is the plain truth but I am sorry for saying it."

Wednesday 9am

Photographs appear in a tabloid newspaper of Peter Kenyon dining in a West End restaurant with the Mersey Ferry. Chelsea are known to have a long-standing interest in strengthening their squad with an historic merchant vessel. "Jose has previously expressed interest in both the QE2 and Ellen MacArthur's yacht B&Q," says a source, "but obviously Ferry's associations with the world of pop make him just the sort of star who would be at home in the fashionable King's Road and help the Blues in their merchandising drive in China and the US."

A friend of the ferry says: "Ferry loves Liverpool, but he feels he is getting stale plying his trade to and from Birkenhead and would welcome the change that a mooring in the glamorous Chelsea Harbour development would bring." Rafael Benítez admits the news that a reliable aquatic transport service to Wallasey may become a thing of the past "could prey on my players' minds tonight".

Wednesday 1pm

Peter Kenyon comments publicly on his meeting with the Mersey Ferry. "It was a chance encounter that took place over several weeks," he explains, grinning in an unnerving manner. "This sort of thing is inevitable when you have as many old friends from Merseyside as I do. Only last week, for example, I had tea with Xabi Alonso, Jamie Carragher and Cilla Black, but luckily that didn't make the newspapers or no doubt they'd have been talking about Chelsea trying to destabilise our rivals once again. Hang on that's my mobile. I'm sorry boys I'll have to take it. It's Aintree racecourse."

[Austria_Salzburg 1933]

"That is the sort of thing only a short person with a slightly showy  overcoat would get caught up in".

herrlich

Rafael Benitez is confident Liverpool's European adventure can continue at the expense of Champions-elect Chelsea.

 

The Blues will land their first title in 50 years if they beat Bolton on Saturday but they will also have their eyes on the two legged Champions League semi-final with Liverpool over the next week.

 

Chelsea will start the tie as favourites to book their place in the Istanbul final, but the Liverpool manager has seen enough in meetings against Jose Mourinho's side this season to tell him his players can cause another upset.

 

"We will be looking to it as a European game. Things are always different in the Champions League," said Benitez.

 

"Chelsea have been very good in the Premiership this season. But we have come close to beating them on all three occasions we have played them.

 

"They are not invincible. All the teams can beat each other in England. It is important to get an away goal, but it is not absolutely vital. Juventus managed to score against us at Anfield but they did not get through. We will have to be strong and compact as a team."

© liverpoolfc.tv

[ianrush]

Can I join the Red army?

Tonight Liverpool take on Chelsea in the biggest all-British football match in decades - the Champions' League semi-final. But who does the neutral support - a Russian billionaire's plaything or a club that has long been the heart and soul of its community? Easy, says Stephen Moss. But is 24 hours in Liverpool enough to make him an honorary scouser?

Wednesday April 27, 2005

The Guardian

It's 8 Pm on a Monday night at Dickie's. At least I think it is. I was attracted to Dickie's, which is close to the Adelphi hotel in the centre of Liverpool, because of its pleasingly down-at-heel appearance, the three bouncers on the door and the fact that as I was passing - at just before eight, mind - a middle-aged woman was being carried out.

Inside, the karaoke is already in full swing. It is still light outside, but the greying, overweight, underdressed clientele is already having a great time. At £2 for a large tumbler of red wine, so am I. When I get a refill, the woman behind the bar asks me if I want ice in it.

This is a magnificently vivid place. Men with square boxers' faces, women with hair the same red as Cilla Black's, pool players with cigarettes clamped to their lips, and defiant, burning-bright torch songs. A middle-aged man gives a brilliant rendition of King of the Road, a short woman with big blonde hair follows it with a spirited Stand By Your Man (and, slightly wobbly, immediately leaves, alongside said man), and an elderly woman brings the house down with That's Life - "I've been up and down, and over and out, and I just know one thing - that's life!" Who needs Aristotle?

I have only been to Liverpool twice before, en route for Aintree. This time I am staying - to try to get a sense of what makes it tick. When Liverpool take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the Champions League semi-final tonight, the nation must surely unite behind the democratic Reds against the plutocratic Blues. We are all scousers now. But what is a scouser and how do I become one?

I begin my quest at the cultural heart of Liverpool: Anfield. The key thing to realise about this footballing Mecca is that the area doesn't just contain one football club but two - Everton as well as Liverpool. Goodison Park is only a stone's throw from Liverpool's stadium, though happily there isn't too much stone-throwing. Retribution is subtler: the streets adjacent to Goodison are covered in shit because Liverpool fans make a point of walking their dogs there.

The local pubs also make clear their affiliation, and I have a lunchtime drink in the Arkles, emphatically in the red camp. Barman Kieron Hilton explains the appeal of being a Liverpool fan. "People pay out thousands of pounds for shrinks and they're told they have to lose some aggression or anger. At Anfield, you pay £27 and you can sing, you can shout, and you can get rid of all your aggression."

Liverpool fans like to see themselves as culturally different from those of any other club. Their songs are more complicated; their banners wittier; their identification with the club absolute. "It's not about money or success," says Stephen Done, curator of the Anfield museum. "It's to do with a philosophy and an attitude. Steve Heighway [a Liverpool star in the 1970s] called it 'The Liverpool Way'. To play honourably and honestly, to give your heart and soul to playing for the club. And then at the end of the season, what will be will be."

Done recites the litany of triumphs - four European Cups, 18 league championships, six FA Cups - but says that the pursuit of prizes is secondary. "Liverpool fans aren't glory hunters - buying into some glamorous club that simply wins everything. We've got fans who were here with us through those long dark years in the 50s when we were a second-division club going nowhere. There was no glory then, yet the biggest attendance in the history of Anfield was in the early 50s."

I ask Done what I have to do to become a Liverpool fan in time for tonight's game. "Well, you'd better learn the songs," he says. "You have to know the words to You'll Never Walk Alone. That's a basic requirement: stand there with your scarf and sing You'll Never Walk Alone at the top of your voice." You'll Never Walk Alone I can probably manage, but I'm not so sure about Scouser Tommy - a song that imagines a soldier from Liverpool lying mortally wounded on the battlefield and reciting, with his dying breath, great players and results from the club's history. I fear this epic may be beyond me. Liz Crolley, a lecturer in football at Liverpool University, says that a supporters' website recently made the tongue-in-cheek suggestion that all new fans should compose a 60-verse song about the club as an initiation rite.

Crolley, a long-standing supporter, is also besotted with "The Liverpool Way". "We admire Jose Mourinho, but we couldn't have him as our manager," she says. "He's too flash. It's just not our style. Not all our fans are poor; there are rich ones, too. But they hide their wealth; they almost feel guilty about it. No one is ostentatious."

As well as knowing the songs, you need to be a dab hand with a banner. Done mentions some of the classics, including what he considers the all-time gem, a homage to player Joey Jones unveiled on the terraces of Rome in 1977 before the European Cup final - "Joey ate the frogs' legs, made the Swiss roll and now he's munchin' Gladbach". "I defy anyone to find a banner which is better than that," says Done. "Joey Jones was probably the least talented of the team in that wonderfully gifted double-winning side of 77, but he had a heart as big as Liverpool and the fans loved him."

The demands of being a Liverpool fan seem rather arduous. You need what Kieron Hilton calls "cracking wit"; more than that, though, you need passion and warmth. At the club's large shop, where I buy my scarf, hat, "Scouse community" passport and a biography of Bill Shankly, they are doing brisk business selling red charity wristbands commemorating the Hillsborough and Heysel disasters. Beneath the plaque outside the ground that names the victims of Hillsborough, many of them teenagers - the age 17 recurs with grim frequency - are several hundred floral tributes marking the recent 16th anniversary of that tragedy. This is a club, and a city, that cares.

But does it care too much? The critics who label it "self-pity city" certainly think so. One football reporter told me he had never witnessed as many one-minute silences as he had in Liverpool. The view was represented in its most extreme form by the Spectator editorial after the murder of Ken Bigley. "A combination of economic misfortune ... and an excessive predilection for welfarism have created a peculiar, and deeply unattractive, psyche among many Liverpudlians. They ... see themselves, whenever possible, as victims, and resent their victim status, yet at the same time wallow in it."

The article was wrong about so many things, not least the number of victims of Hillsborough, that it is fair to assume that the still anonymous writer was someone with only the scantiest knowledge of the city, a Tory whose shorthand for Liverpool would read yob culture, workshy, Derek Hatton, Militant. The leader of the council, Mike Storey, says that such outdated views are still surprisingly prevalent. "Perceptions haven't caught up with reality: we have low unemployment, one of the lowest crime rates in any metropolitan area, and the population of the city is rising for the first time in 70 years."

Mike Hill, director of recruitment agency Bluefire Consulting and a passionate Everton fan (lest I give the impression that this city is entirely red), has been campaigning to attract Liverpudlian professionals, who fled in the depressed 80s and early 90s, back to the city. That means countering London-centric prejudices. "It's fair to say that if you want to come to Liverpool and reinforce the stereotypes via examples that you may see on the streets, I'm sure you can find those stereotypes - the solariums and the shell suits and the overall Chelsea culture. There's certainly evidence of that, but walk around any provincial city and you'll find individuals like that ... There's a highly entre preneurial culture in Liverpool which has developed over the past 10 or 15 years."

There is no escaping the shell suit, though. In fact, a key question in my attempt to become an instant Liverpudlian is should I buy one for my tour of the city's sites. "If you do, make sure it's a good one," a journalist who covers the city tells me. "Go for Lacoste." But Gemma Bodinetz, artistic director of the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, talks me out of it. "I don't see many shell suits," she says. "It is a city of labels, however. I always feel slightly underdressed. People like their Dolce & Gabbana. The girls always look as if they're about to go out nightclubbing when they could just be going round Tesco."

Bodinetz came up from London to work at the Everyman and Playhouse two years ago and says she has been struck by the engagement of the Liverpool public. "Before I even took up this position," she says, "I was having a cup of coffee outside a cafe with a literary manager, and people were stopping and telling me how I should be running this theatre and what plays I should be putting on. I could sit outside any theatre in London all my life and nobody would really care. They possess these theatres, they possess their culture; they want to do it, they want to write it, they want to be in it, they want to dance in it, they want to write a song for it."

In 2008, Liverpool will be European City of Culture. The only visible sign of that at present are the roadworks in the centre of town, but Storey promises a year-long festival that he hopes will complete the transformation of the city from social and economic basket-case to European super-city. However, Paul Jones, a sociologist at Liverpool University, adds a note of caution. "What people like Councillor Storey and others who are rebranding the city don't talk about is inequality or poverty or racism or sexism," he says. "It's not as if these things have gone away, and the real challenge for the city is to lessen inequality. It's not just to make Liverpool a better place for a small number of young urban professionals. There's a real danger that significant numbers of people are being written out of Liverpool's identity."

Jones tells me I should have a bowl of Scouse - a thick broth made from leftovers - while I'm in Liverpool. But the yuppie cafe in which we meet, a white-walled, pastrami-on-rye kind of place, doesn't have it on the menu. Sociologically significant, he thinks.

At the risk of indulging in lazy journalism, and even though Jones warns me that all generalisations are wrong, I need some shorthand to define the Liverpudlian. Bodinetz suggests articulate, engaged and passionate. "They like heart," she says. "The dry end of theatre doesn't go down well, but if something has heart they will travel any distance with it intellectually." I would add self-possessed, mocking, defiant.

When I take the Mersey ferry, which proudly claims to be the world's oldest, I only have a few minutes to buy a ticket and there's no one on the booking desk. There is, though, a woman at the gift desk, head bowed, writing something. I ask her how I buy a ticket. She looks up, smiles and says: "You ask me and I sell you one. Do you want to try it?" It is not said unpleasantly, but I am taken aback. It is very, well, Liverpudlian, has an edge you probably wouldn't find in Godalming. "I decided long ago never to walk in anyone's shadow," as a woman with honey-blonde hair and a fabulous tan had belted out at Dickie's. Does Jose Mourinho know what he's up against?

Oh I am a Liverpudlian and I come from Spion Kop !

bearbeitet 27. April 2005 von ianrush

[ViolaPatriot]

Ich drücke den reds ganz fest die daumen. Dieser Arrogante Trainer darf mit seiner grausamen defensiv taktik nicht ins finale kommen!

Ich denke das Liverpool den fehler machen wird und von anfang an das gegnerische tor "stürmen" wird, daher werden sich brandgefährliche kontermöglichkeiten für die blues ergeben. Wie das endet haben wir ja schon beim spiel der blues in münchen gesehen!

[multispeed]

Also das war über lange Strecken ein echter Hundskick - vor allem die 2. Hälfte entpuppte sich als echter Langweiler.

Bäh!

[Djet]

Das schlechteste Spiel das ich seit langem gesehen hab. Da war nach 30 Minuten schon klar dass da keine Tore fallen werden. Eine Hundspartie sondergleichen, aber Hauptsache in England wird so toller Fußball gespielt. Ein Wunder dass ich noch wach bin.

[Indurus]

Naja, das ist halt standard, nach einer 0:0 Partie selbige schlechtzureden. Ich hab das Match heut gar nicht mal soooo übel gefunden. Torchancen auf beiden Seiten waren da.

Die auffälligsten waren meiner Meinung nach auf Chelseas Seite Joe Cole und Drogba, bei den Reds Riise.

An Liverpools Stelle wäre ich aber nicht zufrieden mit diesem 0:0. Die bessere Ausgangsposition haben jetzt eindeutig die Londoner...Glaube daher dass es Chelsea schaffen wird. Das Geld wird leider nicht nur in Österreich siegen...

Was mir ansich ganz egal ist, da ich beide eigentlich schon in der letzten Runde hätte ausscheiden lassen

Glaube aber dass es Chelsea schaffen wird. Das Geld wird leider nicht nur in Österreich siegen...

bearbeitet 27. April 2005 von Indurus

[Austria_Salzburg 1933]

Naja, das ist halt standard, nach einer 0:0 Partie selbige schlechtzureden. Ich hab das Match heut gar nicht mal soooo übel gefunden. Torchancen auf beiden Seiten waren da.

Die auffälligsten waren meiner Meinung nach auf Chelseas Seite Joe Cole und Drogba, bei den Reds Riise.

Was mir ansich ganz egal ist, da ich beide eigentlich schon in der letzten Runde hätte ausscheiden lassen

Glaube aber dass es Chelsea schaffen wird. Das Geld wird leider nicht nur in Österreich siegen...

naja deine beschreibung trifft vielleicht auf die erste häflte zu, aber die zweite war echt nicht gut

An Liverpools Stelle wäre ich aber nicht zufrieden mit diesem 0:0. Die bessere Ausgangsposition haben jetzt eindeutig die Londoner...Glaube daher dass es Chelsea schaffen wird. Das Geld wird leider nicht nur in Österreich siegen...

ich glaube, ihr unterschätzt die road alle ein bisschen da wird ordentlich was los sein

gerarrd kam mir heute irgendwie sehr nervös vor, und auch luis garcia hatte sicherlich nicht seinen allerbesten tag...

nur schade, dass xabi alonso im rückspiel fehlen wird

... und zum dem foul von terry an garcia braucht man glaub ich gar nichts mehr sagen

ich schätze die chancen nun 50:50 ein...

[basilese]

Das schlechteste Spiel das ich seit langem gesehen hab. Da war nach 30 Minuten schon klar dass da keine Tore fallen werden. Eine Hundspartie sondergleichen, aber Hauptsache in England wird so toller Fußball gespielt. Ein Wunder dass ich noch wach bin.

ist so! wäre das bei milan vs inter so gewesen hätte wieder ganz europa geschrien....

fussball ist halt mehr als kick & rush, ich mag technik und taktik eindeutig mehr.... zudem war inter vs milan dagegen der knaller, in jeder beziehung.

bearbeitet 27. April 2005 von Genki7

[multispeed]

Naja, das ist halt standard, nach einer 0:0 Partie selbige schlechtzureden. Ich hab das Match heut gar nicht mal soooo übel gefunden. Torchancen auf beiden Seiten waren da.

Genau 2 Stück in Hälfte 2.... und das war ein Solo ohne Abschluß für Chelsea und ein Weitschuß aus spitzem Winkel für Liverpool.

Also der Burner is des net!

bearbeitet 27. April 2005 von multispeed

[themanwho]

ist so! wäre das bei milan vs inter so gewesen hätte wieder ganz europa geschrien....

fussball ist halt mehr als kick & rush, ich mag technik und taktik eindeutig mehr.... zudem war inter vs milan dagegen der knaller, in jeder beziehung.

an Djet und Genki:

Ihr seid glaub ich echt schon geblendet vom italienischen Fussball.

Ich fand die Partie heut allein schon besser als das Milan Spiel gestern. Gut, es sind keine Tore gefallen, aber es ging trotzdem flott hin und her (auch wenn fast keine Chancen herauskamen) und die Spannung und Atmosphäre war immer drin.

[Starostyak]

...aber Hauptsache in England wird so toller Fußball gespielt. Ein Wunder dass ich noch wach bin.

Sagt ein Fan des italienischen Fussballs.

On topic: Das Spiel war wirklich auf schwachem Niveau - zwar viel Tempo, aber kaum Torszenen.

Für mich ist Chelsea jetzt tendenziell Favorit, weil sie immer für ein Tor gut sind und Auswärtstore zählen bekanntlich doppelt.

[pesce]

Das schlechteste Spiel das ich seit langem gesehen hab. Da war nach 30 Minuten schon klar dass da keine Tore fallen werden. Eine Hundspartie sondergleichen, aber Hauptsache in England wird so toller Fußball gespielt. Ein Wunder dass ich noch wach bin.

und das von einem parma fan

das einzige was heute fehlten waren tore, zweite hälfte ab 75 minute wars schlecht, bzw gaben sich eigentlich beide mannschaften schon mehr oder weniger mit dem x zufrieden.

[AustroLeaf]

Das schlechteste Spiel das ich seit langem gesehen hab. Da war nach 30 Minuten schon klar dass da keine Tore fallen werden. Eine Hundspartie sondergleichen, aber Hauptsache in England wird so toller Fußball gespielt. Ein Wunder dass ich noch wach bin.

Ich dachte, du genießt Taktik in einem 0:0 ebenso wie ein Torfestival (deine eigene Aussage)!?