The Times 12 March 2008
Records are records for a reason, so let nobody downplay the achievement of the Barclays Premier League in providing 50 per cent of the field in this season’s Champions League quarter-finals.
Nor of Liverpool in adding an away win against the runaway leaders of Serie A to a remarkable canon of European results under Rafael Benítez.
This was an historic performance on an historic night. The supporters sensed it, too. Parochial songs and declarations of devotion to all things Scouse and red were crowned with a defiant chorus rarely heard from the throats of this nation’s cosmopolitan elite. “England,” the Liverpool fans cried. “England.”
For the second time in a week, the San Siro echoed to applause for what English football had achieved and what is has become. A young Arsenal side passed AC Milan to death last week and now it was Inter’s turn to experience the mighty potential of our domestic game, its uncanny ability to combine the finest elements of technique and fighting spirit.
English passport-holders may be in the minority in the four Premier League teams that will enter Uefa’s draw on Friday, but that does not mean there is no English influence. We have learnt from them, and they from us. Liverpool’s winning goal may have been fashioned in Spain, but the determination that underpinned this victory came from players such as Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, who have pulled the club through on so many occasions and who showed how to come to places such as the San Siro and play without fear.
Liverpool may have led by two goals from the first leg, but this was no procession. Just as jumping off the roof of the garden shed does not look daunting until you get up there, so defending a 2-0 lead is a piece of cake on paper and horribly intimidating when a striker with the class of Julio Cruz is one goal away from turning the next hour into a recreation of Rorke’s Drift.
In the circumstances, Liverpool’s stroke of good fortune came not with Fernando Torres’s goal, which was well deserved and beautifully worked, but with the dismissal of Nicolás Burdisso, the Inter central defender, in the 50th minute. From that moment, the Italian side were scaling a mountain and it was no surprise that they tired of the task soon after.
Liverpool claim to have been undone by a referee here in 1965, when Inter Milan overturned a 3-1 first-leg deficit with a 3-0 win in dubious circumstances, but, if so, football’s karmic forces got to work on a handsome payback. If Marco Materazzi’s sending-off at Anfield was deserved for the cynical nature of his early fouls, Burdisso appeared to be at best a victim of overenthusiasm and at worst of Tom Henning Ovrebo, the Norwegian referee, who gave out a ridiculous number of yellow cards — nine in all, including two to Burdisso — in a game that was entirely harmless.
Burdisso was booked for a foul on Dirk Kuyt and sent off for going for a 50-50 ball with Lucas Leiva in what was perceived as reckless fashion. From there, though, Inter appeared to presume that the fates would overwhelm them and so it proved. With Burdisso removed from the heart of the defence, Cristian Chivu stepped in and was promptly turned by Torres for the winner. Thankfully, it was a goal that deserved to settle any tie.
The arrival of Torres in the summer now looks to be Benítez’s masterstroke. The striker has kept Liverpool’s season alive, dragging them back into the battle for a Champions League place next season and striking in Europe to keep them on course for a remarkable third final in four years. His recent goal tally is eight in five games, almost all of them frame- worthy.
Last night’s was no exception. Fabio Aurélio provided a fine cross from the left, but it was what Torres did with it, the way he brought it under control, turned in a tight arc around Chivu and finished with a powerful low shot that left Júlio César with no chance, that defined the night. At that moment, Liverpool were certain to be the fourth Premier League team in the last eight, a first for any European nation. The red multitude behind the Inter goal could relax.
At least part of the night was spent on tenterhooks, however, and it is to Liverpool’s credit that a team needing to score at least two goals to stand a chance of progressing could not manage one. As at Anfield, Inter disappointed, particularly their star striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who sulked and postured like a spoilt child, having been completely upstaged by the brilliant Torres. But that does not mean there were not anxious moments.
Cruz, in particular, was a danger and the warning signal came within eight minutes when he cut inside on the left and, with scarcely any backlift, struck a low shot that José Manuel Reina was forced to tip round.
Cruz was a handful all game, operating in football’s equivalent of the corridor of uncertainty between Jamie Carragher at right back and Martin Skrtel by his side. In the 29th minute, a cunning angled pass from Ibrahimovic put Cruz beyond Liverpool’s back line, his shot beating Reina only to skip agonisingly the wrong side of the left-hand post. In the 42nd minute, Patrick Vieira found Maicon on the right and his cross was met by Cruz, producing a back-heel from an awkward position that Reina stopped on the line.
The red card and the goal, coming within 13 minutes, killed the tie and by the end Inter were tamed. Like the other English teams, Liverpool made their progress from the first knockout round look easy: but don’t be fooled.
