The last four days for Liverpool have been one of their poorest of all season. They lost their second English Premier League match of the season when Manchester United outmuscled them 1-0 at Anfield on Sunday and now their 2-0 defeat to Chelsea in the Carling Cup quarter-final has put them out of contention for one cup triumph.
The 2-0 shoreline in favor of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday evening might have been a trifle harsh on Liverpool who clearly weren’t poor in spite of playing with several youth team players. The Reds’ backline was of course breached several times in the match and even the midfield didn’t look solid or creative in the absence of Captain Fantastic Steven Gerrard but Rafael Benitez’s men weren’t poor at all.
They were basically outclassed by a stronger Chelsea side that appears to have taken this competition seriously. Manager Avram Grant decided to play Frank Lampard, Michael Essein, Andriy Shevchenko, John Obi Mikel and Petr Cech in the starting line-up and that was telling throughout the match.
While the first half was pretty much entertaining, the second half was even more so. 15 minutes into the second half and Frank Lampard scored with the aid of a huge deflection off Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher and then Liverpool striker Peter Crouch got himself sent off stupidly. He lunged at Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel and sent him crashing to the advertsing boards and Liverpool were down to ten men. Crouch was shown a direct red.
Liverpool didn’t exactly crumble down after that goal but they couldn’t find the energy or the motivation to equalize. Andriy Shevchenko was rewarded for his hard work throughout the match when he scored in the last minute of stoppage time.
Image Credit: Football
Source: The Daily Mail
