Cod Almighty | Article
by Martin Handsley
30 September 2002
I'd had an inkling that Liverpool vs FC Basel was going to be one of 'those' games. Liverpool were far from being on top of their form and Basel certainly were on top of theirs. The Reds can either be very good or pretty average, and with Michael Owen being out of form, I'd realised the FCB would have a chance.
I hadn't planned to travel back to the UK for the match, but a couple of LFC supporting colleagues did. Due to problems getting tickets for any of the Champions League matches, these colleages had to support their team from within the boundaries of the FC Basel supporters. We'd arranged to contact each other via mobile while the game was going so that they could give me their feeling on how the game was going.
On my side, I was going to watch the match live courtesy of Swiss TV, then later watch the highlights via satellite on ITV.
The game pretty much panned out as I thought it would: Liverpool seemed to be on top, and FCB were content to counterattack when possible. The signs were not that good for FCB when after half an hour or so Baros volleyed home an excellent goal to make it 1-0 to the home team.
Straight away my mobile rang as my jubilant colleague ranted and raved about Liverpool and the goal, though with him being sat amongst the FCB supporters he had to put up with even louder chants of FCB! FCB! (Note to Town supporters: when your team goes a goal down, it's then when you need to support your team even more!)
The game went on and 10 minutes later FCB managed to score! Rossi somehow managed to get on the end of a cross that avoided Carragher, cut inside and shot between Dudek's legs - a brilliantly taken goal.
Well, the local fans went wild. I was watching the telly with a group of Swiss fans and the place went mad!
I then tried to call Liverpool and suddenly my mate wasn't connectable! Funny things these mobiles, one minute they work perfectly, the next you struggle to make a connection (or, more likely, you're trying to connect to a switched-off mobile).
The second half saw a galvanised FCB and they quickly suffocated Liverpool's midfield. Steven Gerrard had a couple of long-range efforts easily gathered by Zuberbühler and FCB had a couple of not too clear-cut chances, although in the last few minutes Liverpool almost lost the game after Danny Murphy dithered on the ball and Mario Cantaluppi broke free on the right flank, Henchoz's timely intervention kept Liverpool in the game.
FCB gained a point, and made a point! Everyone thought that they would be the whipping boys of the group. Christian Gross will feel vindicated, and would have loved meeting up with the English press after the game.
All in all it wasn't a bad performance from the Swiss team. Liverpool were a little out of sorts and you could say that FCB (like Grimsby last season) made the best out of a Liverpool side not playing at its best. A fit and confident Michael Owen would have ripped FCB apart in the first half. I also felt that the Swiss players need to get more used to playing in Europe... and European referees.
Over here the refs are turning the game into a non-contact sport! You could see this as the Liverpool players easily won tackles and pressured FCB players on and off the ball. I was chatting with a Swiss guy and we thought that the team are still not quite used to the robust refereeing in Europe. Over here if you touch a player the ref will blow up, so players have more time on the ball and normally don't have the ball nicked off them.
Last night LFC hustled and bustled, and on several occasions FCB lost the ball because they weren't expecting the challenge.
I also found the TV coverage differs slightly between countries. Swiss TV showed the same pictures that everyone in Europe sees, but the sound engineering is really different. You could only hear chants of FCB, FCB, FCB etc on Swiss tv but on the later coverage on ITV, you could barely hear the away fans.
So... the next game for me is away at Valencia next Wednesday! I'll let you know my thoughts after the game.