PSV Eindhoven 1 Liverpool 3

Liverpool top Group D! Liverpool have done it with their so-called "fringe" players. With the second leg at Anfield, it sure is an advantage. However, there's sure to be no easy opponents here on. Who I want next? I just hope Liverpool win till the end. Deep down, I feel Liverpool will meet Lyon, which was my hope when Houllier was still Lyon's manager. For interest sake, I hope Liverpool face Inter, which is now under Mourinho! If Liverpool win against them, the confidence and mood at Anfield will go sky high again.

"Select me in place for El Nino!!!"

It was not a spectacular game but football doesn't always happen that way. With seven changes made to the squad, Liverpool still looked a very strong team. Riera, Babel, Keane, Mascherano and Carragher were in the line up. For the first half, nothing much happened. Liverpool controlled the game and were on top of PSV. However, the first goal came against the run of play when Lazovic scored for PSV in the 36th minute. Thankfully, Babel snatched the equaliser just in time before the end of the first half. Lucas Leiva took a well taken free kick which was met by the unchallenged Babel.

"Riera scored a screamer!"

In the second half, the same continued as Liverpool were the better side. Still, there were not many goal mouth actions. However without warning, Reira took a shot at goal from 30 yards out to put Liverpool ahead when 20 minutes were left. It was a beautiful shot. The goal spurred the others to score as well. Ngog was taking shots at goal. Keane were constantly yelling for the ball just to be annoyed by Babel. With Keane looking absolutely angry with Babel, I did not like it at all. He was calling for the ball even when he was in a bad position. He made some good runs but nothing near Torres' standard.

"Ngog got his goal!"

Soon, he got frustrated and start running the midfield more. Instead of waiting for an assist, he turned to making an assist himself to show the others what kind of ball should be sent to him. His first great pass went to Ngog beautifully and Ngog made no mistake to secure the win. Then moments later, Keane tried again and found Lucas but he failed to control the ball. Throughout the match, I thought Keane was only good after Reira scored. Before that, I didn't see him contributing a lot.

Thanks to Marseille who drew with Atletico Madrid, Liverpool topped the group with 14 points and will now await their next opponent. Their next Champions League game will be three months from now. Liverpool topped the Champions League group and the Premier League table. Now, that's an indication to me that Rafa is doing things right although may not be doing things the most convincing of ways. I can't remember when was the last time Liverpool were in this position. Now that they can fully concentrate on domestic football, I hope Liverpool see through Christmas unscratched. They say January will be the time to see if Liverpool will still stay top as an indicator that they are real contenders this season. To me if they stay in contention by then, they stand a great chance to win the title as they always performed better than the rests in the second half of the season!


"You'll Never Walk Alone"