Liverpool down, but not out in Europa League
For a match dominated by talk of planes, trains and automobiles in the build-up, things never quite got motoring between Atlético Madrid and Liverpool and the Vicente Calderón Stadium last night, but there’s no reason for the Reds to feel railroaded.
A 1-0 defeat courtesy of some slack defending, the scrappiest of scrappy Diego Forlán goals and a wrongly disallowed Yossi Benayoun effort has left Liverpool with a mountain to climb ahead of the second leg, but it’s no steeper or intimidating a precipice as several they’ve climbed before, even this season.
Liverpool lost the first leg in Lille 1-0 in the round of 16 and hit back to win the return at Anfield 3-0, they went down 2-1 at Benfica – comfortably a better side than Atlético – but beat the Portuguese champions-elect 4-1 in the last round. It can be done, it’s just inconvenient.
The Reds’ road and rail journey provided a ready-made excuse for any potential failure last night, but they haven’t used it. Jamie Carragher even admitted he enjoyed the trip, stating that the fact that the Reds had to play West Ham on Monday night – a live televised fixture that could have been moved by the Premier League – was more of a hindrance to the players.
“I’m not tired,” said a tired-looking Javier Mascherano in the pre-match press conference, and in truth Liverpool weren’t to begin with. They pressed the home side back for the majority of the first half, unable to convert possession into goals, other than when Benayoun latched onto Dirk Kuyt’s mis-hit shot and clipped into the net. He was at least half a yard onside, but the French officials disagreed.
The Reds were 1-0 down at that point after an unmarked Forlán, given the freedom of the six-yard box, achieved the impressive feat of heading the ball into his own chest before bundling it past Pepe Reina and into the net.
Liverpool were later indebted to a truly world-class save from their Spanish goalkeeper to deny Simão Sabrosa and keep the deficit at just one, a common theme running through their Europa League campaign, and while it’s not ideal, it seems to be the way that Liverpool are conducting their attempts to win the trophy. Every tie has two legs after all, it would just be nice if the Reds could play well in both of them. This was their fourth defeat in seven away European ties this season.
But, like road, rail and air trips to Madrid, it’s not over until it’s over.
The second leg at Anfield will be typically raucous, but there is domestic business to take care of first, and a trip to Turf Moor to face Burnley on Sunday.
The 38-mile journey will never have seemed so short.
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