Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Liverpool 2 - 0 Newcastle


Botch of the Game ; Owen Dejected

What a game!

The pre-match talk was about Owen's return to Anfield since his transfer to Real Madrid & how he would be receiving a rousing reception when he comes back to Anfield. That was not to be. The Kop booed, chanted "Where were you in Istanbul?" taunting the Anfield legend that once won trophies for the club.

Overall, it was a great game for Liverpool. They controlled most of the match & ran all over Newcastle in the midfield. The space Kewell had on the left was incredible, he might have scored 1 goal himself; if not for the fantastic goalkeeping by Shay Given. I must mention this, Kewell seems to improving alot since he came back from injury. I never liked him before, but his recent performances are slowing changing my mind. He made the cross that resulted in the second goal, headed in by Crouch; not forgetting that he made a few good crosses into the box which we didn't finish.

Owen didn't make much of an impact. Not his fault actually, but he wasn't receiving the support & service from the midfield. When he rarely got a chance, Carra was there to stop him.

The only botch of the game was Bowyer's sent-off. I didn't think he deserved the red card for his challenge on Alonso; at most a yellow. Crouch was really lucky to escape with a yellow card, i thought he should have been sent off for his unsporting behaviour towards Bowyer. Gerrard was worse, I have never seen him reacted this way before. I was totally shocked when I saw him pushing & shoving Shearer & he had to be restrained by his calmer team mates.

The match ended in Liverpool's favour. We kept another clean sheet, notched up another win & another 3 points; keeping the momentum we left off before we went to Japan for the World Club Championships.

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