The major team news before the match was the exclusion of Fernando Torres, not just from the starting eleven but from the sqaud as a whole. The reason was that he has gone to see a specialist to treat his knee problem. David Ngog filled his boots in the lone striker role.
Before the match both teams paid their respects to the 96 who died at the Hillsborough Disaster with a minutes silence that was impeccably observed by all inside Anfield. Black armbands were also worn in anticipation of the 21st Anniversary of the disaster on Thursday.
Liverpool started off looking for a crucial early goal, that would have forced Fulham to come out of their defensive shell, creating space for the Reds to exploit.
Gerrard demonstrated his passing range with a beautiful 40 yard pass from the left hand side, that found David Ngog in the area. The young Frenchmen had to stretch to reach the pass, but managed to connect with his right foot. Unfortunately Ngog's decent effort looped just wide of the far post as Schwarzer was beaten.
Following that, some patient build up play from Liverpool led to the ball being transferred from the right to the left. Babel collected the ball on the left, then ran purposely into the centre. He slipped a pass through to Johnson, who whipped in a cross to the back post. The ball had travelled past the goal, but Gerrard did not give up as he ran to head the ball back to Aquilani. Aquilani controlled the ball before audaciously attempting an overhead kick. His acrobatic effort was comfortably saved by the keeper.
Aquilani was starting to show his attacking prowess, and soon after he displayed his passing ability with a wonderful long pass from the centre of the pitch finding Maxi Rodriguez in the penalty area. It was a fantastic pass that echoed of Xabi Alonso, however Maxi failed to beat Schwarzer when well placed.
Liverpool were completely dominating the game by this stage, and showed no sign of fatiuge after their midweek exploits in the Europa League. Fulham had clearly come to "park the bus" and weren't going to risk ruining their defensive plan in order to try and breach Pepe Reina's net.
It was now a case of the Reds constantly bombarding the Fulham goal in the hope that eventually their defensive wall would break.
Mid-way through the first half, Babel, who started on the left wing, stepped inside his marker before placing an inviting centre into the box. Aquilani raced onto the ball and headed just over the bar from 10 yards out.
On the half hour Mascherano went close to scoring his third goal for the Reds, as he smashed a fierce strike goalwards from 30 yards out. It was a fantastic effort, and Schwarzer had to be on top form to stop the shot.
Minutes before half time Greening barged into Johnson as the right back was just about to make yet another marauding run down the right. Greening had already been booked, and his foul was clearly a bookable offence and yet somehow the referee didn't send him off.
It was an unbelieveable decision. If Fulham had been reduced to 10 men at that point then the game would have changed completely. The extra man would allow us more space to exploit, making it more likely that Liverpool would score. Just look at the Wolves match earlier this season. Wolves were defending resolutely (and admittedly threatening our goal as well) until Stephen Ward was sent off and the Reds took charge.
The second half served up the same action as the first half. Put simply, Fulham put eleven men behind the ball and Liverpool were struggling to break them down and score the all important first goal.
Minutes after the restart Aquilani, who had been at the heart of most of our attacks, went close twice. Firstly, Johnson played a pass down the right wing to David Ngog. Ngog controlled the ball then skilfully travelled to the by-line, performing many step-overs in the process. He then pulled the ball back to Maxi, who laid the ball into the path of Aquilani. The Italian tested Schwarzer with a strike from the edge of the box that the keeper did well to turn over.
From the resulatant corner Aquilani went close again. The corner was played short to Mascherano. The Argentina captain squared the ball to Aquilani, who's fiery left footed shot went just wide of the post.
After this Ryan Babel, who put in another promising performance yesterday, skipped past the challenge of Greening before firing in an effort that the keeper had to beat away at the near post. It was a fantastic, inventive run from Babel, and his shot nearly sneaked in at the near post.
On 65 minutes Rafa made a substituion that did not make sense to me. He brought Dirk Kuyt on in place of Alberto Aquilani. Whilst I can understand the change to a 4-4-2 formation, I cannot fathom why the Spaniard took off Aquilani, who had been our main attacking threat for most of the match. Aquilani was at the heart of everything positive that we did, yet he was substitued with 25 minutes left to play.
Kyrgiakos was inches away from giving us a critical lead with 13 minutes left to play, as some good work from Kuyt set him up perfectly. Benayoun, who had also been brought on by the manager, played a short corner to the feet of Kuyt. The Dutchman saw that Kyrgiakos was in space at the back post, and intelligently floated a wonderful cross in the Greek's direction. Unbelievably, Kyrgiakos, who was starting his third game in a row, headed over the bar from 6 yards out.
At that point most Reds knew it just wasn't going to be our day, and that proved to be the case as Liverpool failed to fashion any more note-worthy opportunites in the final ten minutes.
In the 92nd minute Fulham achieved their first shot on target, which demonstrated the extent of their attacking intentions. The ball was thrown to the feet of Okaka, who played the ball into the path of Damien Duff. The Irishman's effort was well stopped by Reina, who demonstrated his fantastic goalkeeping ability as yet again he was inactive for the majority of the game yet retained 100% concentration to make a vital save during injury time.
This game brings to mind a famous quote from the great Bill Shankly. "We murdered them 0-0." That could not be more true, as Liverpool completely dominated this game, and probably created as many chances against Fulham as we did against Sunderland, however against Sunderland we managed to get an early goal, which sealed the victory for the Reds.
Rafa's "guarantee" of a top four finish now appears futile as our hopes of qualifying for the Champions League lie in tatters. Liverpool lie in 6th position two points behind Spurs, who have two games in hand, and a whopping six points behind Manchester City, who have one game in hand.
Where do we go from here?
JFT96
YNWA
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