2 to Tango. 2 more to join in today.

By: Adam | April 9th, 2008

Have you guys seen Marlon Brando’s Last Tango in Paris? It was about passionate love story on 2 oddly matched lovers. One was 50 years old guy where as other was 18 year old petite young girl. Both came from totally different background, culture etc. Chelsea and Liverpool are analogous to those lovers in that movie. Chelsea is like 18 year old girl who is young (in terms of experience in Europe) and Liverpool is like that old man with loads of experience. Both are mutually exclusive to one another, one is rich club from London where as other is “community” club from culture capital Liverpool. But both are those desperate lovers who take every single opportunity to meet one another. Upcoming 2 ties will mark 20 meetings between these 2 in the last 4 years. And they could have met each other more than that only if they had played pre season friendlies. Unfortunately all their similarities to the lovers of Last Tango In Paris, their love making style is completely different. In the movie its elegant, beautiful, bold and passionate. But in football its dull, insipid, boring and quite simply can be summarized in one word i.e. “sh*t”.

Lets not get on to the Chelsea vs Liverpool so early. Lets just talk about more beautiful things in yesterday’s matches.

LIVERPOOL VS ARSENAL: 4-2 (5-3)
Everyone here expected this match to be cagey and nervy affair. But it turned out to be quite opposite. It was not only nail biting but also enthralling. Who would have thought Arsenal would take early lead at Anfield in front of ravenous Kop. As expected Rafa changed the tried and tested 4-2-3-1 formation to 4-4-2. Crouch as one more man forward along with the El Nino to unravel the mysteries of perilous defender in the name of Senderos who didn’t let his reputation down being the worst defender in Big 4 of English clubs. Arsenal started the the match with more ease by spraying the ball all over park. And unthinkable happened when Diaby scored an opener. Advantage Arsenal. I thought Liverpool will strike back with dogged determination to level the things but once again I was proved wrong. Arsenal simply played the best football I have seen in recent times. It was delightful one touch football (synonymous with Brazil and Argentina) with short passes exchanging between those mobile white shirts. Even if Liverpool got the chance to get the ball, their players duly obliged to return it back to nearest white shirt. Just when I thought things were moving down to Arsenal’s way, Liverpool scored an equaliser with Big Sami heading one thru the corner taken by Gerrard. Senderos (who was Sami’s marker) forgot that football is all about that round white ball and he failed to take his eyes off the Big Sami. His concentration on Sami reminded me of teenage boys who experience first peek-a-boo moment of a life which is luckily off the sexiest girl in the class. This was a real confidence booster for Scousers. They dominated the rest of the half which ended up 1-1. Wenger was hit by big blow in terms of injury to Flamini. Hence he had to bring in Gilberto in place of Flamini. Liverpool started the 2nd half brightly and had their chances. Kuyt was working his socks off by covering every grass on the pitch. Then came one more astonishing moment of the match. Torres got one long ball in the box and within moment it was classic goal. Replays showed it was Senderos again who forgot his man somewhere. Now it was a advantage Liverpool. After that Arsenal started attacking with more fervor. Adebyor was reminding everyone about some wonderful memories of his old team mate Baptista when he messed up every single chance in front of goal. Then came the “breathtaking” moment of the match. Walcott collected the ball deep down in his half and ran thru Liverpool midfield to the Liverpool box to set top class goal for Adebayor when latter had to put simple tap in. He tore 4 Liverpool players with a pace only synonymous to athletes who are preparing for 100M sprint in Olympics. Pure class and Joga Bonito. Arsenal should have shut the shop then and there since they were leading on away goals. Once again I was proved wrong when Kolo Toure decided to make himself known when he tugged Babel in the box just to gift penalty to Liverpool. I thought (and still think) it was a soft penalty down to Liverpool’s luck. Gerrard took the penalty to slot the ball in. That was in the last 5 minutes of the game. And then I thought its over for Arsenal which was the case in reality. Arsenal committed all their men to forward in the attack for one set piece and Babel took the advantage of that to countrstrike on clearance which resulted into 4th goal. Finally just like all the good things match came to an end. Liverpool thru to last 4.
Turning Point: Ref awarding soft penalty to Liverpool.
Man of the Match: I would have chosen Kuyt but Babel stands out to me since he has done the maximum damage.

CHELSEA vs. FENERBAHCE: 2-0 (3-2)
It was anticipated to be cakewalk for Chelsea but it turned out to be difficult than Mt. Everest expedition for Chelsea. Chelsea started brightly with 4th minute goal from Ballack on Lampard’s pinpoint freekick. I for one thought it would be all over for Fenerbahce since they were playing at Stamford Bridge. But Fenerbahce started to fight with dour determination. And then disaster struck when Carlo Cudicini picked up hamstring injury. Cech is already out for 2 weeks and now Cudicini was on his way back to injury ward. I don’t understand whether there is any black magic or anything similar with Chelsea’s goalkeepers. Murphy’s laws should be modified with a new entry on Cech and Cudicini. “Whenever Cech is injured for longer periods, Cudicini should accompany him in injury ward for exactly the same amount of period”. So in came Hilario who is always introduced on big European matches. Both Chelsea and Fenerbahce had an equal amount of chances before ref blew his whistle for times up in 1st half. In second half Fenerbahce started with more attacking approach. They had their chances but lacked the cutting edge. Kezman was pretty ineffective in front of his old team (and pretty the same defense). Drogba had few chances on the other side of the pitch but nothing fruitful. Then came the some bottom twitching moments for Chelsea supporters when Hilario had two world class saves (by his standards) including one excellent shot from Kazim-Richards. Unfortunately second half was full of long indolent spells when nothing significant happened. On the 87th minute Lampard popped up to score the second goal of the match which sealed the semi final place for Chelsea. 4th in 5 years.
Turning Point:4th minute goal. Chelsea killed the game after that (Arsene are you reading? Watch yesterday’s match to learn “how to shut the shop and kill the game”).
Man of the match: Essien. Bison was back to his best of marauding display.

So we have Liverpool vs Chelsea semi on cards. I’m sure you must be thinking ohh…no not again. Tony Glover of ChelseaBlog sums it pretty well on how it feels to be drawn with Liverpool once again.

“I use the words ‘entertained’ and ‘entertaining’ in the very loosest sense here. I foresee a 1-0 win over the two legs with the winning goal coming in the 6th minute of extra time at the Bridge, via the first shot of the entire two games hitting the post, bouncing off Didier Drogba’s hand, onto Pepe Reina’s arse, and bouncing over Stevie Me’s outstretched leg with him whining at a pitch that has every bat in the locale flocking into the arena.”

Bring on semis.