Liverpool 4, Porto 1: Rafa's belief in our side pays off

The second half began no promising then the first. We were out of sync on attack and failed to gain control of the match, but as the clock wore down, two things became evident. First, we were wearing down the Porto side and second, though our attempts appeared futile, we weren't giving up on pushing forward. Rafa has done this many times before, wear down an opponent then start bringing in re-enforcements on attack, and though it doesn't work every time, tonight Porto were expending an awful lot of energy doing a whole lot of nothing on attack and trying to stifle us on their end.

In the 63rd minute when Kewell came on, things really got going as the Aussie appeared a step ahead of everyone else on the pitch and was clearly on top of his game. He dribbled past Porto players like they weren't even there and then 14 minutes into his introduction, put a cheeky no-look pass through to Torres in the box. Up until this point, the Spaniard had been dreadful with his touches, either holding the ball too long or not reacting quick enough, but this time everything fell into place and with one touch to ready himself, he slammed the ball into the opposite netting of the goal.

From that point on, our attack was relentless. Even when we weren't in possession of the ball, we somehow kept it in their half of the field. About six minutes after the second goal, Fernando Torres earned a free kick about thirty-yards out from goal on a yellow card-earning foul by Milan Stepanov. On the ensuing kick, Steven Gerrard put it right in the middle of the box where Hyppiä and Stepanov waiting to make a play on the ball. Both leaped in the air and though there certainly was a lot of contact, it's not as if Sami helped him put his arm in the way of the ball. For a team that dove as often as Greg Louganis, Porto certainly had a lot of nerve to accuse anyone on our side of cheating. Anyhow, a handball was called, the penalty was awarded, and Gerrard stepped up and calmly sent the Porto keeper the other way, 3-1.

Before Torres got his brace by scoring what was essentially the game-winning goal, Crouch came on for Benayoun. I thought it was an odd substitution since Benayoun appeared to be one of our better players at that point and Crouch is usually useless as a second-half sub, but the England International ended up putting on a superb performance for the short time he was on the pitch. I'm no Crouch fan and in fact, no matter what he does positively for our side, I rarely give him rave reviews, but today he earned it. His passing and dribbling were spot on and to boot, he even got the final goal on a header from a Gerrard cross. If only he could play this well every match.

Ultimately, Rafa saw that our side was good enough to weather even the harshest storm brought about by Porto. Though we were lucky on at least one occasion, for the most part our defense was able to harbor and absorb their pace and trickery. For how sloppily we played all-round, it was quite the result. Let's just hope Rafa is around to lead us to more like it.

By the way, with Beşiktaş beating Marseille we only need a draw in France from our final group stage match to advance. If we win though and the Turks could somehow get a draw in Porto, we'll win the group and have a chance at a much easier draw for the first knockout round. I was wrong, we need to win or draw and pray Besitkas wins in Porto. Thanks to everyone who commented or emailed me about it. Cheers.