All even at a goal a piece at the half seems quite fair at this point, though a penalty our way on a handball in the box or if a one-on-one challenge by a Porto player versus Reina had not gone wide, it could very easily be one-up for either side. Either way, we don't appear the better side, but lately a sloppy first half is business as usual.
The goal, a corner from Gerrard to the head of Torres, was a decent set piece, but other than that, our attack has been woeful. In fact, Benayoun seems to be the only player cognizant of what's going on at all times and at the opposite end of the spectrum is Torres, who has either fumbled the first touch or just held on for too long.
Our poor form on attack has well made up for the cheating shenanigans of our opponents. The diving has already become viral and at times, laughable. If they weren't so poor at it and the ref had decided early on not to reward the Portuguese side for their deceptive manners, we could very well looking at a second half sans Mascherano. Hyppiä did collect a card for something, though what I'm not sure.
Porto's pace on attack has been lethal and it worries me to no end that our two centre backs are near geriatric and turtle-like by football standards. If Mascherano hadn't put on such an omnipresent and solid display, we could very easily be down at this point. Lord knows Arbeloa has not been his best. Maybe bringing in Riise for the left, taking off Finnan, who has also put on a disappointing performance, and pushing Arbeloa over to the right would be a good move. The Spaniard just seems to play with more confidence on that side.
For us to win this match, we're going to have to come together as a side and not physically. The clutter in the middle has to stop and though we did a decent job of utilizing most of the pitch, there's definitely room for improvement. If we don't start playing more as a cohesive unit and working off one another's ideas, we can kiss the Champions League goodbye (and don't care what the score in Istanbul is).
Edit: What is with all the non-movement off the ball? There's been an awfully lot of standing around by our side.
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