Accepting Defeat

Wow.

I was ectastic when Liverpool got the opener so early, and the play was exquisite, but they never stamped authority from there on. Andy Gray was caught out of breath in the first half, and he was a neutral. It was even more so for me, worse since I am definitely not a neutral. Chelsea got have easily gone 3-1 up in the first half alone.

Liverpool have always been described as 'not enabling their opponents to play their football', but this time Chelsea are doing it on Liverpool. I'm always a fan of Guus Hiddink, I immediately supported Russia when I saw them annihilated the Dutch in Euro 08, but I also think with such short time span he's given, Chelsea is not really like Russia, rather, they're playing effective football but boring, chalking up 1-0 wins along the way.

Well, they certainly were not boring tonight. And I noticed two things that they countered Liverpool; the obvious one was mentioned by Andy Gray time and time again, about zonal marking. Zonal marking is good if not better than man marking and I believe that there are statistics to show that. I believe Liverpool concedes far less from corners and free kicks than other teams. But Chelsea used it (their opponent's zonal marking) so well to make it an advantage to them.

But the other point that Gray did not mention was the closing down from their forwards to capitalize on Liverpool's frequent backpasses. In the first half, Kalou anticipated a backpass from Aurelio, and Aurelio anticipated that Kalou is anticipating, so he hesitated, which could have led to Drogba's goal, which he wasted.

Liverpool are all about comebacks (so much so that Terry did not want Liverpool to play the second half attacking the Kop End) but I just can't see it happening tonight. It has always been a pleasure watching Liverpool play, and all the time I just can't wait for to watch Liverpool play, and when they play, I hoped it will never end, but tonight is definitely not one of them. If I'm not mistaken, Liverpool have dominated processions in all of the matches this season (including the defeat to Harry Redknapp's Spurs - which reminds me, wow, how amazed I am now that he won against Chelsea) except this one, Liverpool never got a grip on this one. No shots on target in the second half until Alonso's, 3 seconds from time.

I really hate to concede it, but it might be a little too hard to score 3 at Stamford Bridge. I have no idea what is on Rafa's mind now, he might want to concentrate on the Premier League, but at professionalism says he needs to give all out in the second leg.

Hats off to Chelsea. They've played really well, and they've just did what Liverpool did to United a few weeks ago.