The snow was falling thick at Villa Park today, but that wasn’t going to stop Fernando Torres from once again writing his name into LFC folklore. Not only was his tremendous goal his 5oth in the league, making him the fastest EVER Red to hit that mark, but it was a goal that means a great deal in our club’s direction. Had he not scored it, we would be looking at a much more dire outlook on the race to qualify for the Champions League. Now we are only four points off of 4th place Spurs, and 12 behind league leaders Chelsea… not that I think we could finish as champions. But at least those figures are not seven points off Spurs and 15 behind Chelsea! It could have been like that with some of the chances Villa had, but Reina was a colossus in goal and we got lucky at times, as well… particularly with our goal.
Reina, who was man-of-the-match for us, hugs our match winner Torres.The first half of the match was fiercely contested, with both sides showing great hunger to get the three points… though the conditions were never going to produce a classic. Villa had some of the more clear cut chances, which brought the best out of the fantastic Reina, but Steven Gerrard gave Friedel a few scares, including a fabulous chip that was just tipped over. With the snow falling even harder in the second half, both Villa and Liverpool appeared to be playing more “not to lose” than to win during the second interval. By about the 70th minute, though, it became nail-chewing time for Liverpool supporters. I practically chewed one down to the knuckle in one stretch where Agbonlahor and Carew were within inches of snagging the points.
By the 90th minute, the match had a destiny of 0-0 etched all over it. Misplaced passes, crunching tackles, and fantastic defending from both sides seemed to giving a point-a-piece to the two teams, but sometimes football produces those special moments that come out of nowhere… which is exactly what happened. In the 92nd minute, the unlucky former Red Stephen Warnock slipped, allowing Kuyt to get possession of the ball. Had he not slipped, he would have cleared it. Intead, Kuyt slipped the ball to the top of the box, where Gerrard/Benayoun pinballed it around, and a strange deflection found Torres completely unmarked and onside in the box, with just Friedel to beat. With a finish that was a copy of his against Manchester United at Old Trafford last season, Torres slid it under the reach of the keeper and into the far corner, missing the post by only an inch or two. Cue wild celebrations from both Liverpool and yours truly. I embarrassed myself in front of my wife with them, but hey… I was excited! We have now won three of our last four matches and are back on track. We aren’t looking excellent by any means, but we are now grinding out results when the chips are down.
TORRES!!!This season is still not acceptable, even with this victory, but it does give us hope. The hope that we can be down and out, yet grab the three points. Last season was the epitome of this ability to fight back and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The one tonight was extra special, though, because we have not shown signs of such fight this season until now. Perhaps, like I said after the Wolves victory, we are on the road to a splendid second half of the season.
Perhaps.
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