February 2012 and Champions League Thriller

Hello readers, sorry for the slightly longer than usual delay with the posting. However today is the day for this post, and I am pleased to say we have gone more games unbeaten. Take a look at our latest results. We got a good draw against Arsenal, which means we are all but guaranteed the title.
I am saying this because look how many points clear we are. A whopping 12 points, with only 8 games left! Another few wins will wrap up the league and we should almost definitely win it in the next 5 games. This is a good thing because I want to win it as early as possibly, so players can be rested for the crucial knockout Champions League games.

In the first Knockout round, as I said in a previous post, we were drawn against Lyon, a decent team, but a side I expected us to beat. The two legs were thrilling ties, although I am disappointed that we conceded so may goals after going in front.

You can see, we did that in the first game, conceding two very disappointing goals after we had taken a two goal lead. You can see from the match stats, that Lyon had more possession, but we had more attempts on goal, and looked more dangerous throughout the game. I was particularly pleased with the performance of Yossi Benayoun, who sliced open the Lyon defence a number of times and claimed both assists, and Fernando Torres, who terrorised their defence, with his pace, skill and great finish for his goal.

Despite conceding from a winning position, I still felt this was a decent result, because we had scored 2 very important away goals, and probably deserved to win the game. I felt with a strong defensive display, we should easily qualify for the next round.

Unfortunately, we didn't play well at the back in the 2nd leg, although I thought we were cruising through when Carragher scored from a corner, to double our lead, after Gerrard's penalty had given us the advantage. Then, as in the 1st game, Lopez scored to give Lyon some hope, and our defence couldn't cope, allowing Lopez to score again, and level the match and the tie.

As you can see from the match stats, Lyon had more of the ball, but again we had more shots, both on target and off target.

Lopez's two goals meant the tie was level and after that the game went very flat, with no chances at all, even in Extra Time. This meant the game went to penalties. As I chose my penalty takers I was confident we had better takers than them. I looked through their team before the shootout, and their highest attribute penalty taker was Lopez with 12 as his rating. I felt this was very poor, although Lyon surprised me by scoring 4 out of 5 penalties taken. The only miss was from Kim Kallstrom, who's weak penalty was saved by Reina. For us I was delighted that every penalty was scored, and I never had any doubt, that my players would miss. Obviously I was delighted we had come through, but I am slightly worried that we became so complacent after going ahead.

It means, though that we can still achieve our goal of Champions League glory, but we have drawn Real Madrid in the quarter final. This match will be very tight, I am sure, but the competition is definitely getting tougher.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!