Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Match Report 050913 at Real Betis: A nice start

2-1 and we achieved this with ease and Rafa even rested Gerrard, Finnan and Riise. The Crouch impact is obvious, and with 2 goals within 15 minutes, we seems to be slow down and let them control 2H and scored one. Nevertheless this is a fine start to the defense of the title.

Player Rating:
Reina: 7.5 Have many saves to keep the score. A much better performance than the Spurs game.
Josemi: 6.5 An OK performance that let Finnan take a break.
Carragher: 7 A nice assist and as ever commanding at the back.
Hyypia: 6 Responsible for the Betis goal. The need for a cover for him is obvious.
Traore: 7 A very good game, and Djimi need to play like this more.
Sinama-Pongolle: 7 A nice taken goal but his impact faded very quickly. Need better match fitness.
Sissoko: 7.5 Controlled the midfield in 1H, and in 2H mainly doing the defensive works.
Alonso: 6.5 A bit too quiet.
Zenden: 6.5 A nice assist but do nothing other than that.
Luis Garcia: 7 Very comfortable at the man in the hole, and scored a nice goal.
Crouch: 7 His impact is obvious. And his pass to Zenden that let to the 2nd goal is very well taken.

Substitutions:
Cisse: 6 Very quiet as we were mainly doing defensive works in 2H. Need to improve his communication with the teammates.
Riise: 6 Doing a bit of defensive work as Betis was pressuring us in 2H.
Gerrard: 6 We needed his presence for the last quarter of hour to sail through.

Real Betis: 6 The lack of CL experience is very obvious. Let's hope they will recover and beat Chelsea for us.

Rafa: 7 A bold move to rest Gerrard, Riise and Finann and succeeded. We need to trust him more.

Man of the Match: Reina/Sissoko. Both doing well to keep us win.

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