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Wednesday, November 07, 2007 , 10:51 PM

Coverage on Liverpool vs Besiktas (Champions League Group Phase)

Liverpool 8-0 Besiktas

(Crouch 19",89"; Benayoun 32", 53", 56"; Gerrard 69"; Babel 78", 81")

1st Half:

Kicks off
I'm so nervy! Everyone in the stands holding their Liverpool-adorned scarves singing the anthem, there's this bloke amongst the crowd who looked as if he's gonna cry the next second.
Congrats to Hyypia's 100th European appearance!

3" Voronin wide, crouch heads it down to Voronin but it's just wide

5" Free kick to Besiktas after a mid-air challenge
Kinda surprised to see so many Turks in the stands.
They gotta break Turk's short passes (adopt small circle formation and moves slowly forward)/break the flow.

7" Riise crosses, Crouch with a header but he heads wide.

9" Nice manoeuvre by Riise even though he loses the ball with 2 turks on his side

10" Nice ball by Benayoun to Arbeloa, he runs down the flank but loses the ball
Ozkan picks up a yellow. We're going all out today!

12" Nice smooth, short passes in midfield, Mascherano crosses to Arbe, finds Benayoun lurking near penalty box but fails to connect
Confident we're gonna bag goals today! Got my hopes up again. Voronin's a better partner with Stevie.

16" Voronin crosses to Crouch, he's going for goal but is brought down by Turk, nothing from ref
Benayoun's gotta be my MOTM tonight PLUS he's got this Dorian Gray(from the League of the Extraordinary Gentlemen), Johnny Depp kinda charm =D
Nice flick by crouch to Riise but fails to shoot
Voronin gives ball away (riise)
Riise's awesome, he's as persistent as Roberto Carlos, does a nice clearance

19" CROUCH SCORES!!! Voronin squares it to Crouch, defenders running after him, Crouchy shoots but it deflects off the keeper, Crouch picks it up and shoots again, and lands at the bottom right of the net
We're beginning to play like we did in the opening season! Really really happy!
Arbeloa fires a long range shot but it lands on top netting.

20" Corner by Stevie, Riise heads towards goal but deflected off turk's head right in front of goal
Crouch shoots from long range at right flank at an awkward angle, nice attempt but impossible haha but yeah his confidence is definitely assuring

24" Stevie's passing from left to right flank damn zai, is like he's got ultimate control of the ball, passing's immaculate man, and he makes it look so easy.
Free kick's awarded after a foul on Arbeloa

25" We dominate with 66% possession 25 mins into the game
These 3 points are really valuable to us.
We're playing really wide today unlike the previous match against Rovers

27" Benayoun finds Crouch, and he tries to slide it towards goal but keeper keeps it

29" Turks charge towards our side of goal, tries to find Bobo (haha Bobo you reading this?) but defender clears it. Everyone's doing awesome tonight, Benayoun's fantastic, really sharp on the ball.

30" Lol a lousy throw in by a Beskitas player.
Reina kicks away Memet's shot at goal.
Besiktas tend to do nice short passes like playing chapteh among themselves.

32" Riise's throw in reaches Voronin and he picks out Benayoun and scores!!! Ben makes it 2-0! Big Ben's awesome! Really sharp and knows where to stand when ball's coming in.

11 mins to HT.
Riise does well tonight after Rovers' match, he'll fight until gets ball outta play when there's a threat.

37" Crouch-Gerrard (one-two) tries to beat GK
My MOTM's so gonna be Benayoun.
Gerrard breaks Besiktas's flow of passing in front of goal (eminent danger)

40" Voronin cuts down the middle and squares it down to Benayoun and shoots but flies off the top of crossbar.
I like Toriman's (Besiktas) haircut! Very funky!
We're so much more oragnised today.
MOTM contenders: Riise, Gerrard, Benayoun, Voronin, Crouch
Defenders are awesome today too but today's game's more on attack so these fellas really stand out.

44" Voronin does well brings it down for Benayoun, he fires a shot but missed,

------------------------------------HALF-TIME-----------------------------------------------

Comments on 1st half performance:
Now that's what we're talking about! =)))))
High tempo, Crouch's the MOTM for ESPN's Shebby Singh. Agree with him that Crouch's got nice movement especially at the 19", knows when to come in for goal, picks up the deflection and shoots again

Liverpool's always got critics saying it's a one-man show. He plays attacking midfield, so he gotta connect and gotta score goals, sorta like bao gah liao. Sounds like massive pressure but Stevie never breaks. Critics gotta eat their words tonight cus' it's a team performance baby!

HT statistics:
Shots: 13 shots (Liverpool) vs 1 shot (Besiktas)
On-target shots: 6 (Liverpool) vs 0 (Besiktas)
Possession: 63% (L) vs 37% (B)
Saw some highlights over on Chelsea's side and the color of their away kit's like highlighter la! Think it's a conspiracy to distract the opponents lor!
HT 0-0 schalke vs chelsea
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2nd Half:
45" Besiktas substitution: Tandogan on for Ozkan
Today's commentators are my favorite! David Platt and Martin Tyler! Booyeah! XD
Hahaha there's player in marseille called Niang.
Crouch contains the ball well.
48" Gerrard crosses in finds benayoun, benayoun shoots but it's deflected by GK
Gerrard slides GK for ball as he goes for goal, medic's called in but he recovers and continues with the game.
Crouch's got this small little touches that makes such a big difference.

53" BENA scores and makes it 3-0!!! Voronin does well, finds Riise he shoots and rebounds, finds Benayoun and he shoots and scores (bottom right net) =DDD
Voronin crosses to Crouch, he's going for goal but he realises he's offside

56" Free kick to Livers (taken by Gerrard) goes for goal but rebounds off GK and Ben scores AGAIN! HAT TRICK FOR BENA! Bottom right netting again. =DDDD
I LOVE BENAYOUN! 4-0 to Liverpool!
Everybody's hungry for a goal tonight, nice to see them charging for goal, we've got a point to prove and we're gonna prove it. Kinds reminds me of that Istanbul 2005 comeback. =)

(Valencia's beaten by Rosenborg (Iversen scored 2-0)
30 mins to FT
61" Besiktas does a switch: Kurtulus off for Hiiguain (nugget of info from commentators: He comes from a football family and his brother's in R.Madrid)

62" Liverpool switch: Babel on for Aurelio
Babel-Gerrard goes forward, Stevie shoots shot rebounds and Babel shoots again but wide
Woah we got shots 20 shots, with 13 on target! Obvious what kinda game we're playing tonight.

64" Free kick to LFC, Gerrard takes it but deflects off a Besiktas player
Bena's hungry for more!!!
(Inzaghi scores for AC Milan 1-0)

69" Mascherano passes to Voronin and he does a nice assist with a lil' diagonal flick to Stevie down the middle, Stevie shoots and scores!!! 5-0! Nice V-G partnership

71" Kewell subs for Voronin
72" Lucas on for Gerrard. Raging applause for both Liver lads.

Riise blasts a looooong range shot abt 25 yards (he's lil' Carlos man!) haha nice one Riise.
(Kaka scored AC MIlan's 2nd goal at 72")

Kewell lobs the ball for goal but goes over the net.
77" Sedef off for Ricardinho.
(Porto 2 Marseille 1)

78" Babel scores!!!! Benayoun squares to Babel, he does a diagonal back flick and into the bottom left netting. Haha I remembered Raul had a goal last time that's kinda similar. Very cool goal! XD And Liverpool makes it 6-0! =DDDDDD

Everyone wants a goal! And we finally look like we're having fun after underperforming for the past few weeks. Really glad and happy for the lads! XD

80" Curly hair man brings down

81" GOAL!!! Babel credited for goal. 7-0!!! But I thought it's an own goal!?! Thought I saw the Besiktas lob the ball (tried to clear it) into the net!?! o_0!
Liverpool fans went berserk in the stands!

83" Bobo attempts to score but Reina keeps it

84" Babel heads but hits the crossbar. Could easily have been a hat trick for him. X)
Riise wants a goal too he keeps blasting long range shots ala Roberto Carlos but it's wiiide.
5 mins to FT

89" And Crouchy scores!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 8-0!!!!! Benayoun crosses to crouch and he heads in through the top left corner.

Quote from commentator "8 truly great!" Indeed! Haha I bet every Liver fan's going crazy right now!
-------------------------------FULL-TIME!!!!---------------------------------------------

Gonna name our comeback (from the Group table in Champions League) "Phoenix rises from the ashes"
Hahaha I know it sounds corny la but it's really befitting of our performance tonight! And our Liverbird mascot looks kinda like a phoenix what! Right right! *smirks*

MOTM: Liverpool FC
Everyone really did great tonight. Team performance. X) YNWA!