Pre Season Friendly
Sun 2nd August 2009 8pm, Estadio Cornella-El Prat Stadium, Spain.
Espanyol produced a solid all-round display to ensure that their first game at their new ground was to be a success, prevailing 3-0 overnight. Two goals from former Chelsea striker, Ben Sahar, and a solitary goal for Luis Garcia helping the Periquitos clinch victory.
The much anticipated match was set at the new Espanyol home ground in front of a backdrop of 40, 000 mad fans who raised the roof throughout the night. It was also a special moment for Albert Riera who spent two full seasons at Espanyol before making the move to the red half of Merseyside.
With Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel, young San Jose was seelcted to start alongside Jamie Carragher in defence, while Fernando Torres made his first start in pre-season and midfielder Lucas paired Javier Mascherano in the middle amongst constant speculation regarding Xabi Alonso’s future.
Right from kick off, the game was electric, with constant ball movement and swift counter attacking play. With both teams attacking with intent, Liverpool almost struck the first blow in the 19th minute from a 30 yard effort from Steven Gerrard which had goalkeeper, Carlos Kameni, beaten but struck the cross bar.
Just one minute later though, Espanyol were ahead through Luis Garcia’s goal. A lapse in concentration at the back from San Jose saw Luis Garcia turn straight past him after a through ball from Shunsuke Nakamura and slot past Pepe Reina.
Liverpool’s response was almost immediate when a one-two between Gerrard and Torres saw the Spaniard released into open space before being pulled down by the last man on the edge of the area.
The resulting free kick saw Gerrard step up and strike the right hand post once again from a shot that bent wickedly.
Raul Tamudo seemingly got Espanyol’s second when he turned and skipped past an unaware San Jose, proceeding to beat Pepe Reina, but it was brought back for a marginal offside call.
In general, Liverpool looked behind the 8 ball and it was the lively Lucas and Benayoun who provided most of Liverpool’s ammo. Yossi wreaked havoc down the left hand side and Lucas was instrumental in the middle, chasing and creating.
The second half started where the first left off, with Verdu testing Reina from distance but had his shot tipped over.
The creativity in midfield that Espanyol pose was once again the difference as former Chelsea striker, Ben Sahar, sprinted past Degen to meet a through ball, in the end beating Reina one on one with a perfectly timed run and shot that Degen failed to anticipate.
In the 84th minute of the match, Xabi Alonso made a surprise cameo appearance off the bench which has fueled more speculation regarding his proposed move to Real Madrid.
2-0 up and cruising, Espanyol weren’t finished and Ben Sahar was there again to slot home into an empty net after Martinez weaved through a leaky defence before his shot fell to Sahar.
It could have been a hat trick for Sahar with one minute left but after again seizing on a misread in defence from Degen, the angle was too tight and failed to convert.
In the end, the passing quality and the intent to please the home fans was enough for Espanyol as they went away resounding winners, while for Liverpool, its back to the training paddock.
Goals
Luis Garcia (19′), Sahar (64′, 87′).
Team News
LFC starting XI: Reina, Insua, Carragher, San Jose, Johnson, Benayoun, Leiva, Mascherano, Kuyt, Gerrard, Torres.
Espanyol starting XI: Kameni, Garcia, Gonzalez, Pareja, Pillud, Garcia, De La Pena, Hurtado Perez, Nakamura, Alonso Vallejo, Tamudu.
Bye Bye Alonso, see you in Champs League next season, when you will have tears the size of October cabbages in your eyes,remember how me destroyed Real this year,, no one person is bigger than L.F.C. YOU INCLUDED, all you have now you should thank Liverpoll F.C. for it We may miss you for a while but you are not unplacable,,
The Real team we destroyed didn’t include Ronaldo,Benzema,Kaka and of course Alonso…Nistelrooy was also injured from what i remember.Having said that i’m glad the Alonso saga is over because it was confusing everyone.Players will always contnue to move on so we’ve got to look forward,
Alex Ferguson has proved that the departure of a key player has certain advantages like a team taking a new approach and direction.He took great critisism when selling the likes of Ince,Kanchelskis,Cantona and Becks yet the club continued to be successful so Xabi’s departure isn’t the end of the world either.It may be a crises to some supporters but as the Chinese proverb reads that “every crises is an opportunity”.
Oh i must comment on Riena. He made little effort to try to save the first 2 goals. He gave up on them before the shot was even made.
Our good defensive record is not down to him.
Every shot a winner get in there our keeper Riena is easily beaten.????
Prove me wrong
We were rubbish again
Our performance didnt live up to our opponents expectations.
They thought they were in for a hard game and it ended up easy for them.They wanted to win the game wheras we treated it like a pre season game!
Cummon red men our name and pride is at stake.!!!
If that is the best we can do then i’m greatly concerned of what the new season will bring.Still feel we carry too much deadwood but no one else rightly wants Lucas,Voronin,Degen etc so we’re stuck with them.
I hate to say it but still feel we depend too much on Gerrard and Torres,we’re in massive trouble if either gets injured so Rafa seriously needs to think about this otherwise it could be a repeat of last season.The Alonso thing keeps dragging on which doesn’t help us in knowing where we stand but i’ll try to remain positive.
The heart wants to believe that things are okay but the objective mind says we’re still not good enough to become champions still Rafa’s doing well considering he’s always fighting against the odds.In the current financial set-up no one could do a better job…
I don’t get it. Is it just pre-season jitters or is this the way it’s going to be?
bbc are saying that spanish paper marca have reported that liverpool have signed aquilani from roma for £15.3 million. marca have made some stuff up in the past, and some are saying that real madrid have just made it up so liverpool fans will give up hope on alonso staying. i think this would be a good deal but i also think with the money we should either try and sign david villa (even though the valencia coach has said he wont be leaving) or david silva and bojan/mata. david villa would provide a great strike partnership as everyone knows its the best in the world. david silva would provide great width with an option of a CF position. bojan would be the same as silva except he is a great young talent and also the same with mata
mata bojan and silva are all pretty similar and villa would provide a great partner for torres. make your mind up on which you would have.
i think we would only get villa if real offered £35mil for alonso and we used it all. silva and mata/bojan would cost only around £30mil. make up your own mind.
i think liverpool played rubbish and if they play like that in the upcoming season then we are definitely not going to win the title.
i thought glen johnson played rubbish but i still think hes gonna be good for us.
i think rafa needs to get aquilani from roma because he is decent replacement for alonso. i also think that what rafa should do is do the 20-24m swap deal for alonso and have negredo or huntlaar coming the other way for a backup to torres, then with the 20-24m rafa shuld then buy silva from valencia because he can play just behind torres or left wing and also man utd are interested in him so if we get him then they cant because if they got him then i tink most liverpool fans would be angry because silva was a liverpool target for like 2 years now and its man utd and i dnt tink any liverpool fan would like to see them get a player that liverpool wanted.