Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez will be praying skipper
Steven Gerrard can be fit in time if his side are to have any
chance of making an unlikely Champions League comeback at Stamford
Bridge
When it comes to delivering his final address
to
Liverpool's players at
Stamford Bridge on Tuesday
evening, Rafa Benitez is unlikely to be struggling for inspiration.
His team might need to score at least three goals in the second leg
of this Champions League quarter-final but he could point to the
three Bolton scored in a 10th of the time last weekend. If Gary
Megson's lesser beings can do it in nine minutes, why can't
Liverpool in 90?
The Anfield manager could also point to the three goals they
needed to score in the second half of that extraordinary 2005
Champions League final against AC Milan in Istanbul, or the fact
that John Terry will be missing from the Chelsea side tonight.
Then there are the four goals Liverpool scored at Blackburn or
Benitez might wish to remind his team of their 1-0 victory at
Stamford Bridge this season, which ended Chelsea's 86-game unbeaten
run in the Barclays Premier League.
Benitez might also argue that not only does the referee appear
to be on their side but he would also seem to have it in for Guus
Hiddink and some of his players.
For the purpose of his team talk, Benitez could ignore Luis
Medina Cantalejo's fine record and refer instead to his Spanish
passport, the red card he once gave Deco and the penalty he awarded
to Italy against Hiddink's Australia in the last World Cup.
Never mind how terrific the referee was when Manchester United
played Inter Milan at the San Siro in February, the Liverpool
manager could introduce him to his players tonight as their 12th
man.
But Benitez might need to come up with something better than
that, even if a 12th man could come in handy given the manner of
their defeat by Chelsea last week.
The key to this evening for the visitors is coming up with
answers to the problems Chelsea posed them last week - in
particular the number they did on Steven Gerrard, the main supply
line to Torres.
So effective was Michael Essien last week that Liverpool's
captain passed to the Spain striker only twice. Benitez last night
pointed to the goals Gerrard scored against Aston Villa and Everton
when they man-marked him and said: 'It's not the system, it's about
doing things properly.'
Fernando Torres will need to carry on his recent
goalscoring form into Tuesday's clash if Liverpool are to have a
chance of clinching a semi-final berth
But the system Hiddink employed at Anfield last week did
work, and not only because Gerrard, looking sprightly in training
at Stamford Bridge, was hit by 'The Train'. It was also the way in
which Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack dominated midfield;
Liverpool's failure to defend at set-pieces and the difficulties
they experienced - Martin Skrtel in particular - dealing with
Didier Drogba.
This is a tough one for Benitez, not least because Chelsea did
to Liverpool what they themselves had been doing to the likes of
Real Madrid, Manchester United and Villa prior to the
quarter-final.
The return of Javier Mascherano could be significant when it
comes to the influence Lampard and Ballack, as well as Florent
Malouda and Salomon Kalou, can exert. Mascherano can be a
destructive, ubiquitous presence and a player who can thrive in
such contests when he stays on the right side of the referee.
But, even if he does prove effective in nullifying the threat of
Chelsea's front line, Liverpool still have to score goals and
Benitez was not terribly convincing last night. 'If any team can do
it, we can,' he said after listening to Pepe Reina describe it as
an 'almost impossible task'.
The pressure essentially off, Benitez did seem relaxed. He spoke
of how important it was for Liverpool to score the first goal, and
so put some pressure on Chelsea, and he cracked a joke as well as a
smile when someone dared mention 'Sir Alex'. 'Which Alex?' he
asked.
Two hours earlier, it had been a calm, confident Hiddink who
appeared before the media. The Chelsea manager has been here so
many times before. This, after all, is the guy who guided South
Korea to the last four of a World Cup and Holland to the same stage
four years prior to that; a guy who not only won the European Cup
but reached the semi-finals on his return to PSV Eindhoven almost
two decades later.
History is on Hiddink's side, and not just his own. Of the 25
teams who have won away in the first leg of a Champions League tie,
24 have progressed to the next round. But Hiddink has something
else - the respect of a Chelsea dressing room who do not seem to
mind he is with them for only a few months.
After Drogba put Chelsea three up on the night at
Anfield Liverpool know whatever way they look at it they have a
mountain to climb to stay in the competition.
Last night Hiddink played down the importance of his role. 'I'm
the intermediate person who tries to make plans and challenge them
to get there,' he said. 'Knowing that I'm leaving, it must not be a
negative motivation to do what they'd like to do. Even though I'm
not here next year, they have to respond.'
At Anfield they most certainly did, and now it is down to
Benitez to respond to that.
