Europa League
Thursday 21st February 2013
Anfield
We're two goals down and I'm smiling. There's every chance we'll go out of Europe tonight and because of our league form may not get back there for a while, yet I cannot hide my delight. It's peculiar this enjoyment, for there is no real logic behind it. All I know is that nights like this are to be savoured. Cherished for all they're worth. I intend to do just that.
Games like this rise above. Whether it's the sheer gravitas of continental football or this never-ending cycle that we've been programmed to think that way, a game in Europe just feels better than one in the league. Having said that, we're coming into this one with the perfect domestic preparation having battered Swansea on Sunday. Daniel Sturridge's absence provides a curious puzzle for Brendan Rodgers to solve but this won't be about personnel but rather attitude. Our mentality has been questioned as of late and as far as the "great nights at Anfield" go there are an ever decreasing number of players in the squad that know what one truly feels like. The manager does though. He was there that night when the sheer power of the Kop and all those at Anfield that night blew Chelsea away. It can be done. It will be done.
In the history of football there have been countless more goalless draws and drab encounters than all out excitement but therein lies the reason why they're that much more enjoyable. With such little room for error and every fibre of common sense in my being suggesting that there is too much work to do, it wouldn't exactly be the first time we've scoffed in the face of fate.
All the confidence, all the bluster and sheer defiance that I feel right now, that's not to say that the executioners blade does hang painfully close. A single Zenit goal scored at any point requires that we need four in reply to progress. Defensively we've been at odds this season, with the goals fluctuating between zero and two. If one would be catastrophic, even contemplating a second will mean the end. At home things haven't been that bad (four clean sheets out of the last five) but with our ever increasing desperation that will continue to rise through the game there's every chance we could be done on the counter. Goals may be the order of the day, but the cornerstone to this victory will be a clean sheet. This could also lead to the only foreseeable result which would see extra time. I can certainly see this happening. Pepe Reina may even need to be called upon for some penalty heroics.
It's easy to be cynical. To sneer at the sheer fact that we're in this position in the first place. This isn't about any long term plan. We could win the whole thing and there would still be some that would dismiss it. That's entirely the point. This is about US. About having another night to reminisce about when we're older. About the chance to rekindle some old memories. About right here and right now. This is our moment. Seize it.
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