Make or break: Reds look to Gerrard for another European miracle

Liverpool host Basel needing a win to qualify for the knockouts .


Afp December 08, 2014

LONDON:


Ten years on from a dramatic strike in the final Champions League group match, Liverpool will again look to Steven Gerrard for inspiration when they face Basel in a must-win match today.


On December 8, 2004, Liverpool welcomed Greek side Olympiakos to Anfield needing to win by at least two goals to reach the last 16.

They were leading 2-1 with four minutes remaining when the ball fell to Gerrard on the edge of the penalty area and he bludgeoned a ferocious shot past Antonis Nikopolidis to send Liverpool through.

Captain Gerrard, then 24, ended the season by lifting the European Cup into the Istanbul night after a famous comeback against AC Milan in the final.

Given Liverpool’s poor recent form, the chances of a similar conclusion to the current campaign appear remote, but that 2004
encounter with Olympiakos provides a positive omen.

Gerrard had spent the transfer window before 2004 mulling over an offer from Chelsea, but if the sporting contexts surrounding Basel’s visit are familiar, Gerrard’s personal circumstances are very different.

He is yet to accept the offer of a new, short-term contract from Liverpool and has found himself moved in and out of Brendan Rodgers’s starting line-up amid concerns about his waning powers of endurance.

Rodgers will be hoping to get one over the man who he replaced at Swansea in 2010 but has urged fans not to pin their hopes on another Olympiakos moment from his captain, saying, “We can’t always rely on Stevie”.

Liverpool were pegged back by an 88th-minute goal in their last Group B outing, which saw them draw 2-2 at Ludogorets Razgrad and must now beat second-placed Basel to overtake them and make it into the knockout stages for the first time since 2009.

“We are still very much alive and we can’t wait for the game against Basel at home, which will be another very special European night for sure,” said Gerrard’s midfielder partner Lucas Leiva. “If we win, we get through, so if you look at the positives, we have it in our hands.”

Basel won 1-0 when the teams met in Switzerland in October and with a two-point advantage and a superior head-to-head record over both Liverpool and Ludogorets, a point is all they need.

“If we can make it through, we will be delighted,” said Basel coach Paulo Sousa. “That was the target for us in the first place, and we knew how difficult that would be, but we are just one game from making it a reality”.

Marchisio calls for flawless display

Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio has called for a flawless display against last season’s runners-up Atletico Madrid in a match that he considers their  ‘most important game of the season’.

“We’ve worked hard for the past few months to get where we are now, so tomorrow we can’t put a foot wrong,” Marchisio told reporters at the club’s Vinovo training ground.

A draw at the Juventus Stadium will be enough to see the Serie A champions safely through to the last 16 of the competition for the first time since 2012 but Juventus are aiming higher.

Coach Massimialiano Allegri believes the Italian giants can win with the two-goal margin that would clinch top spot for them. “We lost against them in Madrid and we didn’t really deserve to,” he said. “Tomorrow, we’re playing at home and will have the fans behind us.”

On the other hand, defeat and an Olympiakos win at home to Malmo would end Juve’s run in the competition.

Olympiakos, who sit three points behind in third, would secure second spot because of their better head-to-head record, having scored twice in a 3-2 defeat in Turin, while winning 1-0 in Athens. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th,  2014.

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