Warthog At Large

It was a draw kids. The first leg of the Arsenal versus Liverpool match-up for the Champions League quarterfinals posted 1-1 on the scoresheet. With much importance placed on away goals, the Reds have the advantage for now.

The first ten minutes of the game was frustrating for Liverpool; the passing was awful and there was that heart attack-inducing moment when Reina played tag with the ball on the border of the penalty area while an Arsenal player was trying to get a shot in. One good thing going for the Reds was Skrtel, who proved he was worth the six million pounds with a number of good blocks. The Gunner attacks went full force on the 20th minute though, starting with a brilliant pass from Flamini to Van Persie who, fortunately for Liverpool, promptly butchered it with an out of target shot.

Two minutes later, Van Persie was at it again, this time on target, but the ball was successfully tapped out by Reina. This is about the time you start to get the feeling that Arsenal is on the brink of scoring a goal and the next thing you know, Adebayor has placed himself in the defensive gap between Hyppia and Skrtel and has driven the ball straight to the goal with a header.

After a mere three minutes, Liverpool cut the lead with an impressive play from Gerrard. He delivered a cross which I first thought would come to naught since there was a strong line of Arsenal defenders in front of the goal and no Torres in sight but thank you Lord good ol’ Dirk Kuyt was there to give the much needed equalizer.

Despite the comfort of an away goal, it was still painful to watch Liverpool perpetually messing up in midfield and delivering a slew of inaccurate passes that resulted in more possessions for Arsenal. The second half was just pure torture. The Reds were constantly on the defensive as Arsenal went on relentless attacks. Bless you Skrtel and Carragher for holding up the defense. Bless you too Bendtner for that awesome block of Fabregas’ shot. I didn’t know you had ambitions of becoming a Liverpool defender. Wenger may cut your ears off for that idiotic blunder but hey, for me, you sure are a great guy. Oh, and bless you more Mr. Vink the great referee for wrongfully refusing to give a penalty to Arsenal after Kuyt practically wrestled Hleb to the the ground.

In the 76th minute, Benitez decided it was time for clumsy kid Lucas to play. With all those horrible passes the Reds have been doing, it couldn’t really get any worse and who knows, maybe this boy with the Torres hairdo could work up a miracle in midfield. Not so. It was still bad. Things started to look better in the final ten minutes primarily because Arsenal eventually got tired after half an hour of terrorizing Liverpool’s defense. This time at least, the play managed to cross over on the other side of the pitch where Almunia was probably dozing off already.

Voronin (ohmigosh you’re still alive!) replaced Torres in the final minutes of the game but of course that really didn’t make much of a difference because honestly, he’s just not that good. Thankfully, the match ended before Arsenal could score another goal which, given the way the game was going, was probably inevitable. Whew. Oh well, here’s to hoping the Reds will do better on Saturday.

On a side note, Chelsea lost to Fenerbahce 2-1. That must’ve been hilarious, a traumatic defeat reminiscent of the humiliating loss against Barnsley. Can’t wait to watch the replay. Heehee.