This article is a re-post and merge of my now defunct OurFootballBlog football writing blog from 2010 – 2011.
This week could be the biggest of Liverpool’s season so far, they play Benfica on Thursday night and Fulham at Anfield on Sunday afternoon. European ‘success’ this year and their place amongst Europe’s elite next season hang in the balance. Depending on how this week goes their only role this year may be in helping decide where this year’s Premier League title goes in their penultimate game of the season.
Benfica
Last week the Portuguese side showed they aren’t a team to be underestimated and when you look at some of the players amongst the ranks it’s easy to see why. Creative players like Aimar complement an impressive strike force comprising of Saviola and Cardozo, the two Argentinians somewhat underperformed when playing in La Liga but have talent in abundance and have settled very nicely into Portuguese football, whilst the young Paraguayan striker has most of the worlds top clubs showing more than a passing interest. I wouldn’t be surprised to see all three (along with Di Mariá) making summer moves to England, Spain and Italy after the World Cup. As far as Liverpool are concerned Thursday is a game they must win, in many respects winning the Europa League will still be considered a failure, not even reaching the final will heap even more pressure on the Sunday game against Fulham.
Fulham
On domestic duty Liverpool face their most testing opponent of the final few games excluding title chasing Chelsea, their season may well be over at this stage, defeat at Fulham or even just a point will most likely see them miss out on Champions League football next year. In all fairness to Fulham this is probably not a bad time to be playing them, they have their own European ambitions along with a tough schedule this year having to produce several hard working displays to get past much better opposition. Tiredness will be a factor and Roy Hodgson alluded to a downturn in form, or a slip of some kind just around the corner this weekend. If luck balances itself then Sunday may be the day this happens and Liverpool may get the result they require, however if you believe you make your own luck, then it may be another bitter weekend for Liverpool fans. I’m not sure on this one myself, Fulham have been in superb form this year under the guidance of a very underrated manager and their ability to beat better teams than Liverpool this year doesn’t bode well for Rafa.
When Monday Comes
Where will the dust settle come Monday morning, Liverpool should be still in Europe and still fighting for the final Champions League spot, but then again Liverpool shouldn’t be in the position they are now, so when Monday finally does come I’m not so sure it’ll be as rosy at it should be. Benfica can beat them on Thursday and I think this is a tougher game than the weekend match with Fulham, Fulham have beat much better teams than Liverpool this year so it could well be the end of this season for Liverpool and the end of next season before it has even started!
My gut feeling is that one of the results will go their way, this weekend Liverpool will either be out of the Europa League and be deemed failures, or out of the Champions League next season and deemed failures. The latter is a scenario no-one at Liverpool wants to face, so I suspect we’ll see Torres for the whole 90 minutes on Sunday, how novel.
