Gerrard was played following his little run-in with the law and produced yet another composed display.

Keane wasted another hatfull of chances as usual and was replaced by Torres after 73 minutes. Nando showed Keane how it’s done here in Anfield after linking up with Gerrard in injury time after Riera put The Reds up after 24 minutes.

Preston put up a good fight but in the end, Liverpool managed to secure passage into the next round, where we will meet our Mersyside rivals, Everton on the weekend of January 24/25 at Anfield. This match comes a week after a similar fixture in the League.

Personally, I’m wondering if Rafa will put as much emphasis on the FA Cup as he does in the League. Would that be spreading our team too thin? What do you think?

Running riot in St James’ Park, Stevie G bagged a couple and created a couple more to turn in an exemplary performance by the 71st minute. Final score: Newcastle 1, Liverpool 5

In the starting line-up, Bolton match heroes Keane & Riera were rested. Skrtel was given a run-out in place of Kuyt in the 79th minute, Hyypia & DAgger in center of defence and Carra in right-back.

The opening exchange was fast and furious with Given making a few fine saves. If not for him, we’d be 20 up by half time, I reckon. His opposite number, Pepe “Butterfingers” Reina, fumbled a couple and nearly caused the pub’s sleek LCD TV to be smashed by my beer glass.

Old-man Hyypia was threatening in a few of our corners and was unlucky not to grab a goal in the 16th minute. Lucas had a good run and had at least 2 great chances on goal. Given saving the Toon arse as usual.

We finally broke through at the half-hour mark and never looked back. Anyone noticed Babel’s goal celebration? He seemed like he ran half the pitch, dribbling past 2 defenders, sidestepped past another 2, flicked the ball up over the ‘keeper and finished off with a 360-degree, double-flip bicycle kick. Lucas has to be kicking himself for having all his nice efforts saved and then up comes Babel with a goal-mouth melee, I-just-happened-to-be-there goal.

I must give special mention to Lucas for his sweet pass that led to Stevie G’s second. That was world-class! Also for an outstanding match all-round. Kudos to Benayoun for being a total pest to Newcastle down our right. Very nice cut-back for Stevie’s 1st goal of the match.

Going into 2009, here’s a message from Nadia & myself:
WE’RE STILL NUMBER 1, BITCHES!!!!

Check out Gerrard’s Top 10 Liverpool moments according to the Telegraph.

Mediocre: Seems like this is the best the German captain can do with his Predators.

More

Rafa finally learns how to pronounce ‘dilemma’, some Marseille fans are morons and clearly, we have a goal-scoring crisis

CSD was spot-on when he predicted a narrow score-line for Wednesday’s Matchday 5 encounter with French side, Olympique de Marseille. Nevertheless, this “scary” win qualifies the Reds to the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League tournament for the 5th successive year – a perfect record for Benitez. Back from groin injury, Captain Fantastic showed us why he hearts scoring against Marseille with a 23rd minute emphatic header from a Xabi Alonso cross, making him joint top scorer with Barca’s Lionel Messi. Though seriously we should all give thanks to Bakari Koné for hesitating to man-mark Steven Gerrard in the penalty area.

Erik Gerets’ men won at Anfield the last time they visited, so they were probably confident of stealing a victory at our fortress again. Niang, Zubar, Taiwo and pink-lovin’ Ben Arfa came close, but all failed to beat the awesomeness, that is, Pepe Reina.

2nd half was a one-sided affair with the Ligue 1 team surging forward, hoping to level the game to at least guarantee them a UEFA cup placing, ahead of PSV Eindhoven. The introduction of Andrea Dossena to replace injured Fabio Aurelio, exposed the left flank, and the Italian proved he lacks the pace to keep up with feisty Ben Arfa, and was even guilty of making foolish tackles, that could have resulted in a penalty, if not for Portugese ref’s leniency.

Milestones

This game was Benitez’s 66th European game in charge of Liverpool and the win marks his 39th victory, equaling Bob Paisley’s record. Steven Gerrard’s cracker was his 30th goal in Europe.

Marseille fans

So some charitable Marseille fan decided to throw a lighter at Stevie G, while he was about to take a corner kick during the 1st half. That’s not cool. I don’t think Stevie was going for a smoke break either, but anyways, unlike Drogba, MBE was professional about it and chose not to retaliate.

And what’s with that poof holding up an Everton scarf?!?

Again?

News has it that Torres might be suffering from a relapse of the hamstring injury that has been plaguing him. Just when the Gernando partnership was about to take off…*sigh

Other news:
Inter lost to Panathinaikos (imagines puppet Jose going “shuttup Panathinaikos”)
Chelsea’s latest achievement: Frank Lampard sent off for 2 bookable offence. Keep it up people!

It was business as usual for our men in Red, as they wrapped up this late-kickoff match with a 3-nil victory over newly-promoted, West Brom Albion. Now unlike Stoke, West Brom actually took the game to Liverpool, and looked like the more promising side in the first 20 minutes.

However they lost confidence after Robbie Keane broke his league duck when he drove home a slick through-ball from Captain Fantastic in the 34th minute. The last time the Irishman scored in the Premier League was against Reading last season.

And the Liverpool no 7 didn’t just stop there. 3 minutes from half-time, Fabio Aurelio sends a long pass to Keane who smashes it past former Liverpool goalkeeper Scott Carson.

While the 1st half was a one-sided affair, West Brom managed to stifle the Reds in the 2nd half, and we were unable to convert, even after the introduction of Fernando Torres (yay he’s back). It almost looked like a boring end to the 2nd half, until the most unlikeliest person added the icing on the cake in the 90th minute with a top-corner goal. Kudos to Alvaro Arbeloa…he deserves to score after all his hard work as a full-back.

This marks Rafael Benitez’s 150th triumph as a Liverpool boss, (and coincidentally Rafa is being offered a new contract). Because Pepe Reina kept a cleansheet, West Brom has not been able to score against us for the past 23 years, and additionally, they have not yet won at Anfield in 41 years.

MOTM: Keano! He actually looked like he’s enjoying himself. It’ll only be a matter of time before he starts becoming a goal scoring machine. Loved that no-look backpass in the 24th minute.

If we hadn’t scored, I would probably started off by saying Liverpool was shite. Nando’s former club outplayed us, and though we had most of the possessions in the 2nd half, we were not able to find the net. And this, despite 2nd-choice goalkeeper, Leo Franco, spilling the ball on several occasions.

Robbie Keane proved once again he is pretty much ineffective as a lone striker and has not yet tuned in to the same frequency as the rest of the squad. Even the commentator mentioned that he “tries too hard”.

The 1st half was mostly played in the midfield, both teams giving away the ball recklessly. We had several close calls, as early as the 1st minute into the game, and on the 15th, when Xabi Alonso’s long cross to Keane was met by a volley which then miss the back of the net.

Atletico had their chances too in the 1st half, when Simao was unmarked in front of Reina, but ballooned the ball way off the post. It was captain Maxi Rodriquez who converted for the Spanish team in the 37th minute, after a sublime pass from Antonio Lopez on the right wing.

There was a couple of hand ball claims in the 2nd half. Ref Hansson just couldn’t give 2.5 shites about them. Dejected Rafa Benitez seemed to be running out of options when he surprisingly called upon the services of David N’gog, whom I might add, looked more at ease in his striker role, than the Irishman.

Man of the match for me would have to be Steven Gerrard, if not Daniel Agger. Despite losing steam in the later part of the 2nd half, he kept pressing on and had several good shots on goal, notably one on the 70th minute after a link-up with Keane. Captain Fantastic once again saved the game for us : ))

Interestingly enough, Liverpool has not won against a Spanish club from their past 5 encounters in Anfield, so this is kinda, sorta a good draw for the Reds. LFC just needs one more victory to qualify into the knockout rounds.

1. I do have a crystal ball =X
2. Daniel Agger would make a good winger or midfielder.
3. Our opponents should be careful the next time they score against us first.
4. Once again, we have won the hard way, but we have what it takes to be serious title contender.
5. Keane has yet to find the back of the net in the league. In fact, he was frustrating to watch today, always out of positions, had less goal attempts than Kuyt and did not convert the chances he had in front of goal.
6. Can’t quite discount CSD’s “favorite player”; he saved our arses today.
7. Stevie G did not have a good game. Jermaine Pennant and Nabil El Zhar should start more often.
8. Tackling our no 14, might get you a red card. (Valencia, Zabaleta Cahill, Vidic…and maybe Terry next week?)
9. Amr Zaki is a badass and he proved that he alone can get the job done up front. Says a lot about how unimportant Heskey can be…so please Rafa, don’t even think about it!
10. Yay I have 2 free lunches *hint hint

Man of the match: Fernando Torres for turning up to watch the game Yes he actually scores and is the inspiration behind today’s comeback, Dirk Kuyt *clap clap clap
This is the first time he has scored in three successive games for the Reds, and yay Riera scored too!

To my mate, Idz, hope you didn’t have a heart attack watching another 3-2 game. Peace

The current MBE is now also an honorary fellow at the John Moores University — yes, the same Moores family that used to own our beloved club — for his achievements and contributions (and domination of Everton) to the sport.

The service occured today at the city’s Anglican Cathedral, and from the looks of that outfit, Steven is prepared to set sail with Christopher Columbus on a week long voyage to find some lost treasure.

So let’s see here: Captain Fantastic is now the proud owner of an two FA Cup’s, a Champions League trophy, as well as a fellow title, and an MBE. I wonder what could be missing? Oh yeah, how about the Premier League title!

One can only hope he’ll be adding that major honour to his resume this season!

I’m not going to be able to comment much on the league games remaining in the season as I have canceled my Setanta subscription. If you happen to catch them, feel free to chatter on these posts about how they went. There’s a video in that big empty space that eventually loads. The site is being slow today for some reason. Would write more put my allergies have me feeling drugged up. Blah.