Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Liverpool vs Marseille

In a group match where winner takes all, many did not anticipate for this to happen, not to Liverpool anyways. But lets face the truth. Liverpool have their backs against the wall and are going to do whatever it takes to get through to the group stages of this edition of UCL.

Liverpool did throw away their last league game for this match. Personally I will be very disappointed if that gamble fails today. Very! Throwing a good 3 points in a season where we were supposed to focus on the league and failed to progress to the knock out stages of European's premier competition, there is no consolation.

Liverpool's games means more guessing games for their opponents. Its only certain to bet on having Carragher, Reina, Gerrard and Torres to start in this crucial game. The other 7 is anyone's guess. 2 hours to the game, I can only assume that Crouch will be partnering Torres up front. Wait, Benitez could be playing a ground game with Voronin starting, or giving Kuyt a chance to prove himself again. Its all too possible to predict.

There are 2 ways for Liverpool to progress tonight. One is of course winning the game with any score line.

The other is if Besiktas win in Porto, a Marseille-Liverpool draw would also see the Reds progress, along with Besiktas. Porto, Liverpool and Marseille would all have eight points, Marseille's head to head is better than Liverpool's, but Porto's head to head is better than Marseille's - so goal difference would again come into the equation and Liverpool have the best goal difference in Group A.

Sounds simple but its football. And in football, anything can happen. Anything at all.