First Goal for Liverpool by Torres 72 Click Here for Video Third Goal for Aston Villa by Young 75 Click Here for Video
And it's final! 3-1 Villa @ Anfield! What a way to get the first win of the season. Wow. I DEIFNITELY didn't see this result coming, I was honestly hoping for a point at best. But wow, I'll take this ANY day. What a great win. Major props go out to the middle 5, they were for the most part excellent. The back 4 held their ground when it counted, and Freidel stopped anything that he possibly could. Great work by everybody involved, they frustrated Liverpool from the first goal on, and had them resigned to defeat minutes after the 3rd Villa goal went in. Wow, I am impressed, there's hope for the season yet!
Shocking and awesome result. Got fortunate, took their chances and played excellent defense with a stifling midfield. Friedel and Petrov especially had great matches. Only negative I will say is that Ashley Young still does not look himself. He seems to be trying to do too much taking players on at every opportunity and frequently loses it. I hope he sees a return to form soon and grats to him on a calmly taken penalty.
Honestly, the penalty was the only thing that Young did with excellence today, you're right, he was a bit off today. Also, Gabby was decent but not great. Basically, it was one of those games where Villa wasn't going to score during the run of play. They needed the set pieces to score, and fortunately that's exactly what they did. The more I look at the statistical breakdown of the game, the more I find it hard to believe. I can't remember the last time that I saw a team basically dominate the overall run of play through the game, dominate in the number of corners and set pieces, and yet not only lose, but lose by 2 goals. But that's what happened to Liverpool tonight, and fortunately they were playing against the Villans.
Line-up for Rapid Vienna Guzan Beye - Cuéllar - Davies - Shorey Milner - Petrov - Delph - A Young Carew - Heskey Subs: Friedel, Lowry, Gardner, Sidwell, Albrighton, Reo-Coker, Agbonlahor.
More of a good news bad news thing. Good news #1: If you're like me and still can't believe it, yes, it's true, the Villans did go into Anfield on Monday night and win. Good news #2: Carew's back! After a foot injury sidelined him for the Wigan game and a virus put him on the bench for the others, Carew is going to be back in action tonight. Bad news #2: 4-4-2, Carew & Heskey up top, and a personal bad news, no NRC It's good to see Carew is back though, maybe he'll actually do something up top and bring some decent finishing to our offense, compared to us having little-to-none with Gabby & Heskey up there. That said, this may be the best formation to run in this situation. We need to score, compared to Rapid who's probably going to try and bunker their way to an aggregate victory, and run a 4-5-1 themselves. As long as we don't make dumb mistakes with possession, and don't let Rapid score, this is a manageable deficit. Hopefully at full time, we can look forward to seeing who we're going to draw in the group stages, instead of just having the boring ol' EPL, FA Cup, & Carling Cup to look forward to.
Young gets a PK in the 32nd minute, and it was saved. Unbelievable. Very bad attempt on Young's part.
Milner takes it this time, wastes no time, and drops a bomb right in the back of the net. 1-1, Villa controls its own destiny now.
1-0 @ to Villa @ the half, 1-1 aggregate. Like I said, Villa controls its own destiny now, and I like our chances. Still a bit concerned with the fact that we have yet to score during the natural run of play all season, but hey, at this point I'll take the goals however the Villans can get em. As long as we're on top at the end, I'll be happy.
Rapid coming out firing (pun intended), with Cuellar making the best play he's made in claret and blue so far with that save off the line. -phew-
The game has opened up considerably. I'm guessing that both teams figure that the next goal in this game could be the one that sends them to the group stages.
CAREW SCORES! 2-0 Villa in this one! 2-1 on aggregate! I'm honestly in a bit of shock here. First goal all season that didn't come off of a set piece. Carew, we missed you!