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LIVERPOOL V BARCELONA: THE FINAL WORD
LIVERPOOL 0 - 1 BARCELONA
Tuesday 06 March 2007 19:45 , Champions League Last 16
Liverpool progressed through to the last eight of the Champions League after a heroic performance against Barcelona. Here's the best of the post-match reaction.
The Liverpool manager
"I am very proud of my players and our supporters. The atmosphere was amazing and that's why I always say we have the best supporters in the world. I am disappointed we conceded a goal and lost the match on the night but we deserved to go through. We deserved to score a lot of goals in the first half and even in the second when Barcelona had more possession we had chances on the break. We weren't finishing the opportunities we were creating but we worked so hard. We managed to hang on and and made sure we qualified."
Rafael Benitez
The opposition manager
"We won this leg but maybe we were lucky considering the amount of chances they created in the first half. We tried everything possible and I am proud of the spirit and effort my players put in. They worked hard and tried everything but Liverpool are a difficult team to play against. They are strong and mentally tough. That is the way it goes. Sometimes it is like that in football however hard you try. I can only congratulate Liverpool, they are a vigorous side and for the neutral it must have been a game full of good attacking football. From Liverpool it was a great performance. Their style is very difficult to play against. We tried everything, although we were not at our best. We fought to the very last seconds but Liverpool were highly motivated and they defended in such a way to stop us getting close to their goal. Anfield is such a difficult place to play in, so we are out, but I was very impressed with the spirit and fight we showed. I now expect to see that for the rest of the season."
Frank Rijkaard
The Liverpool player
"The club's got a great history in Europe but besides winning finals this is probably the biggest result in Europe we've ever had. Barcelona are the best club side in the world, even though we've knocked them out. We were hanging on - with 10-12 minutes to go we were just praying for the whistle. We didn't realise until a few seconds after the blew it that he had - we got there in the end."
Jamie Carragher
The Liverpool player
"We were unlucky not to go in at half-time ahead. Barcelona are so good going forward, they play such nice football, but we stuck in there and are in the last eight now. We've got great spirit, grit and determination - people were throwing bodies about and that's one of the reasons we're through. It gives us great confidence, going through against the best side in Europe over two legs."
Steven Gerrard
The local newspaper
"Liverpool deserve the plaudits for deservedly dumping out the continent's finest team, while their victory in the Nou Camp a fortnight ago can rightly be praised as perhaps their best away result in Europe. Almost inevitably, it was Eidur Gudjohnsen - who memorably missed in injury time of the Anfield semi-final for Chelsea in 2005 - that stepped off the Barca bench to give the visitors hope with a well-taken strike. Had they snatched a qualification-clinching second goal during the remaining 15 minutes, it would have been a travesty after Liverpool had, their finishing apart, produced arguably their best performance of the season."
"Never before, even in the crazy history of this most famous of old stadiums, can a defeat have been greeted with such deafening acclaim. The sight of grown men in a rabid Anfield crowd standing on seats, singing their hearts out with tears streaming down their cheeks will be burned in the memories of all those who witnessed a remarkable evening of European football. At the end, it was Liverpool who were left standing. Just. Somehow, brilliantly, bravely, magically, they withstood the might of the Champions League holders at their thrilling attacking best, to scrape through. Liverpool are nothing if not resilient, and in the form of towering centre-half Jamie Carragher, indomitable. They gritted their teeth, and in the words of their skipper Steven Gerrard "put their bodies on the line". They lost on the night but really, they should have won at a canter, such were the chances they created as they outfought and outthought their illustrious opponents."
David Maddock, The Mirror
The broadsheet newspaper
"Anfield last night staged football at its quixotic, compelling best. The watching pair of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, swept up in the emotion of another epic Anfield occasion, really need look only at the sweat-stained figure of Jamie Carragher to find the reason why England's third-best team could defeat the champions of Europe. Guts and glory are Carragher's mottos. Liverpool's captain, Steven Gerrard, enthused afterwards of the side's "spirit, grit and determination," and such qualities particularly suffused Carragher, the rock on which so many Catalan attacks foundered. Carragher kept throwing himself in front of Barcelona shots, kept nicking the ball off the lacklustre Ronaldinho, kept leaping high to repel any aerial threats. Liverpool reached Friday's quarter-final draw because Carragher would settle for nothing else. From first minute to last, Liverpool's defensive kingpin cajoled his colleagues, demanding endless concentration and defiance."
Henry Winter, The Telegraph
The Liverpool supporter
"I thought Stevie and Carra were awesome tonight and led the rest of the team by example and how proud they must feel now. This is their team and what a pair to have in the trenches with you. Magnificent lads and but for a bit of luck we'd have won the game, but we're through and on the road to Athens good and proper now!"
Pinky, LFC.TV Message Boards
LIVERPOOL 0 - 1 BARCELONA
Tuesday 06 March 2007 19:45 , Champions League Last 16
Liverpool progressed through to the last eight of the Champions League after a heroic performance against Barcelona. Here's the best of the post-match reaction.
The Liverpool manager
"I am very proud of my players and our supporters. The atmosphere was amazing and that's why I always say we have the best supporters in the world. I am disappointed we conceded a goal and lost the match on the night but we deserved to go through. We deserved to score a lot of goals in the first half and even in the second when Barcelona had more possession we had chances on the break. We weren't finishing the opportunities we were creating but we worked so hard. We managed to hang on and and made sure we qualified."
Rafael Benitez
The opposition manager
"We won this leg but maybe we were lucky considering the amount of chances they created in the first half. We tried everything possible and I am proud of the spirit and effort my players put in. They worked hard and tried everything but Liverpool are a difficult team to play against. They are strong and mentally tough. That is the way it goes. Sometimes it is like that in football however hard you try. I can only congratulate Liverpool, they are a vigorous side and for the neutral it must have been a game full of good attacking football. From Liverpool it was a great performance. Their style is very difficult to play against. We tried everything, although we were not at our best. We fought to the very last seconds but Liverpool were highly motivated and they defended in such a way to stop us getting close to their goal. Anfield is such a difficult place to play in, so we are out, but I was very impressed with the spirit and fight we showed. I now expect to see that for the rest of the season."
Frank Rijkaard
The Liverpool player
"The club's got a great history in Europe but besides winning finals this is probably the biggest result in Europe we've ever had. Barcelona are the best club side in the world, even though we've knocked them out. We were hanging on - with 10-12 minutes to go we were just praying for the whistle. We didn't realise until a few seconds after the blew it that he had - we got there in the end."
Jamie Carragher
The Liverpool player
"We were unlucky not to go in at half-time ahead. Barcelona are so good going forward, they play such nice football, but we stuck in there and are in the last eight now. We've got great spirit, grit and determination - people were throwing bodies about and that's one of the reasons we're through. It gives us great confidence, going through against the best side in Europe over two legs."
Steven Gerrard
The local newspaper
"Liverpool deserve the plaudits for deservedly dumping out the continent's finest team, while their victory in the Nou Camp a fortnight ago can rightly be praised as perhaps their best away result in Europe. Almost inevitably, it was Eidur Gudjohnsen - who memorably missed in injury time of the Anfield semi-final for Chelsea in 2005 - that stepped off the Barca bench to give the visitors hope with a well-taken strike. Had they snatched a qualification-clinching second goal during the remaining 15 minutes, it would have been a travesty after Liverpool had, their finishing apart, produced arguably their best performance of the season."
"Never before, even in the crazy history of this most famous of old stadiums, can a defeat have been greeted with such deafening acclaim. The sight of grown men in a rabid Anfield crowd standing on seats, singing their hearts out with tears streaming down their cheeks will be burned in the memories of all those who witnessed a remarkable evening of European football. At the end, it was Liverpool who were left standing. Just. Somehow, brilliantly, bravely, magically, they withstood the might of the Champions League holders at their thrilling attacking best, to scrape through. Liverpool are nothing if not resilient, and in the form of towering centre-half Jamie Carragher, indomitable. They gritted their teeth, and in the words of their skipper Steven Gerrard "put their bodies on the line". They lost on the night but really, they should have won at a canter, such were the chances they created as they outfought and outthought their illustrious opponents."
David Maddock, The Mirror
The broadsheet newspaper
"Anfield last night staged football at its quixotic, compelling best. The watching pair of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, swept up in the emotion of another epic Anfield occasion, really need look only at the sweat-stained figure of Jamie Carragher to find the reason why England's third-best team could defeat the champions of Europe. Guts and glory are Carragher's mottos. Liverpool's captain, Steven Gerrard, enthused afterwards of the side's "spirit, grit and determination," and such qualities particularly suffused Carragher, the rock on which so many Catalan attacks foundered. Carragher kept throwing himself in front of Barcelona shots, kept nicking the ball off the lacklustre Ronaldinho, kept leaping high to repel any aerial threats. Liverpool reached Friday's quarter-final draw because Carragher would settle for nothing else. From first minute to last, Liverpool's defensive kingpin cajoled his colleagues, demanding endless concentration and defiance."
Henry Winter, The Telegraph
The Liverpool supporter
"I thought Stevie and Carra were awesome tonight and led the rest of the team by example and how proud they must feel now. This is their team and what a pair to have in the trenches with you. Magnificent lads and but for a bit of luck we'd have won the game, but we're through and on the road to Athens good and proper now!"
Pinky, LFC.TV Message Boards
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Liverpool Football Club are an English football club, and one of the most famous football clubs in the world. Based in Liverpool, Merseyside, they play at Anfield and will soon start work on a new 61,000-seater stadium approximately 200 metres away in neighbouring Stanley Park, following the takeover of the club by American businessmen Tom Hicks and George Gillett.
They play in the FA Premier League and in terms of trophies won are the most successful club in the history of English football. Liverpool have won eighteen First Division titles, seven FA Cups, seven League Cups, five European Cups and three UEFA Cups. Liverpool are also a member of the G-14 group of leading European football clubs.
There have been two tragedies that have had an impact on the club. They were at Heysel in 1985 when thirty-nine Juventus fans died, and at Hillsborough in 1989 where ninety-six of their own fans lost their lives. After the Heysel disaster, English clubs were banned from European competition for a period of five years, with Liverpool being excluded for six years. The Hillsborough tragedy led to a review of ground safety at all top English league clubs, and paved the way for legislation necessitating all-seater stadiums in the top-flight
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