So far, so good. We came out with a vengeance and frankly the first thing I thought was that we were expending too much energy. In fact our attack during the first fifteen minutes or so was highly enthusiastic, but had little organization. Once we stopped pushing everyone forward, especially Hyypia and Carra, and made a couple of simple, possession passes near the midfield, we appeared to gain some composure.
You wouldn't have known of it from the first goal though, which was a succession of Beşiktaş defensive blunders egged on by the determination of Peter Crouch. I was glad to see he didn't just give up for once and kept his cool.
After that, we could sense blood and the onslaught continued, except this time it appeared we had more of a plan and that was to attack down the right. Arbeloa played out of his head and created a couple of chances for himself and Benayoun, as the Spaniard came racing down the flank, noticeably alarming the Turkish side's defense, which had to scatter to mark him. Surprisingly nothing came out of it.
Even more surprising might be that the goal came from the left. Riise, aware of a screeching Voronin, rushed a throw-in to the Ukrainian, who crossed the ball to an awaiting Benayoun. Yossi calmly knocked down the ball and then slammed a cross-shot that found the corner of the net. I've read this week that neither Voronin nor Riise can cross, well, both have proved their critics wrong so far today.
After the second goal, we appeared to sit back and absorb the Kara Kartallar attack. I'm hoping we were just resting and saving up our energy for the second half and aren't becoming tired. Probably the most astounding aspect of our performance so far is that Gerrard has probably been our worst player. It's not that he's played horribly, but he's just made the most noticeable mistakes.
Anyhow, the second half is about to start. I'm hoping we can hold on. Cheers.
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