One night in Europe...From Anfield with Love

The Sky at Night - Perfect Evening at Anfield

Last night, was truly special for this birdie. After travelling north from my midlands abode to see many a 
Liverpool match, I finally saw my very first European game at Anfield. And wasn't it just marvellous? Coming to watch us play Sparta Praha (Prague) in the second leg of our Europa League campaign I sat in the Kop end, only the 9th row back which was mind frazzlingly close to the grass itself (so close i could smell the manly mustiness of Reina's sweaty body), and among some completely fantastic but insane fans. Just the way I like it! I just knew I would be in for one of the craziest nights at Anfield I could possibly witness, and to think it only gets better when it's a Champions League night....

Justice For The 96 - Always in our Hearts

The weather had been just fantastic all day and as I sat down, the sky turned a beautiful mix of blue, purple and pink over the stadium. The fans, the floodlights, the Liverpool badge above the stands of Anfield, the scores of children coming to see their favourite team play whilst on half term, the players we admire warming up, the banner that reminded us never to forget the 96, and most of all, hearing the sound of thousands of fans singing 'Anfield Road', I couldn't help but get goosebumps while i sung along, watching the famous flags unravel in front of me, ready to wave. I must have remembered I'm a woman in there somewhere, because, as ever, my eyes welled up.

Perfect view - How could i not photograph this moment?

After I had stemmed the flow of tears with yet another kleenex, I duly reapplied some mascara, not just because i looked like my neighbour had given me a black eye for being such a typical woman, but so my lashes were at the ready to flutter at number 25, and after convincing a cute little scouse boy behind me to shout his name while they warmed up, I did indeed flutter and almost pass out as my Spanish heart throb turned and seemingly looked right at me (I think it was a generic look into the crowd but i felt the connection with my eyes; he wanted me).

Repka's Posse - Sparta Praha fans

Once the stadium filled slowly, I couldn't help but notice how many away fans were actually there. Granted it was hard to see from the opposite end but I have that eagle vision which reads hallmarks on jewellery without a magnifying glass, so I could see that nearly every seat was occupied by a fan. Every game I have attended, even the opener of the season against Arsenal, I haven't seen that many away fans before. But as one of my Kop neighbours explained 'it's the beauty of European games, you get to see the real passionate fans of the opposing team come all the way here to support their men, and hopefully go home crying'. Heartwarming. And those Spartans were passionate indeed! They tried to compete with the Kops singing, but in the end we out sung them, although they kept as much faith all the way through the game.
 

As the match kicked off, and Reina was in goal at the Kop end, I started to think about what the outcome should be to this game, and not just the obvious such as Repka's head meeting a goalpost and splitting open or Reina celebrating a first half goal by ripping his shirt off because he was standing twiddling his thumbs so close by (seriously he had nothing to do as all the action was at the other end, just how we like it). So because I was sitting right by the right hand corner flag,

Perfect Corner = Goal!

I hoped that all the corners would be taken by Meireles and that all the goals we scored would be in the second half, so they could be scored right in front of me. 


When i first mentioned the idea to my neighbour he thought i needed psychiatric help for not wanting Liverpool to score in the first half...

...But talk about a dream come true! 

After a dismal first half which saw Ngog in some absolutely sexually perfect positions but still not managing to score, there came, in the second half, the first and only corner for Liverpool, rightfully taken by Meireles, who once again, was a mere 3 metres away from me as he took it from my neighbourly flag, and as the crowd chanted his name, a swift kick into the penalty area saw Kuyt heading the ball into the back of the net, right in front of us goal crazy Kopites!


And whats more, I caught it all on camera, although the actual ball-in-net moment is lost amidst the crazy jumping. Not that I cared in the slightest about that; I saw Reina's eyes meet mine before kick off, Meireles take the corner right by me, Kuyt score in front of me and we won the game, so for me all was not lost. King Kenny made it happen for us, his presence in Anfield only elevated that thrill of a win. And as my neighbour said to me once upon a time before kick off, the visitors indeed went home crying.

The Holy Trinity - SHOCK HORROR! Top 3 players in Europe this week and not one is Spanish!

This one is for the dedicated fans of football and twitter, so a huge thank you to those who got in touch and suggested their favourites of the week! After going through many names, I whittled it down to the three who cropped up the most. Now, with a week of football which saw some absolutely dreadful behavior from players (Milans Gennaro Gattuso, AS Roma's Jeremy Menez, Tomas Repka of Sparta Prague - clearly all these never got the loving they thought they were due for Valentines), these three Twitter faves were the ones who shone for all the right reasons.

Andrei Arshavin - Arsenal

Arshavin - Image courtesy of Telegraph.co.uk

With a much needed equaliser from Robin Van Persie going down a real treat against Barcelona, it took less than 5 minutes for 29 year old Arshavin to score the winner in an absolutely stunning performance from the moment he skipped onto the pitch in exchange for Alex Song. And boy did he keep himself composed for the remaining seven minutes before the final whistle. 
There was something undeniably cool about our favourite Russian, he carried on playing as though he hadn't scored yet, still pushing himself further, his feet were articulate and he kept focused. He didnt carry himself like the messiah who saved the day for Arsenal, instead he kept his eyes on the prize. And there's nothing we like better than a superb finisher who's feet are firmly on ground.

Jack Wilshere - Arsenal

Keeping composed - Wishere v Xavi courtesy of Telegraph.co.uk

Jack, at an enviable age of 19, is one of those guys who along with a handful of teenage upcoming stars, reignites the hope that England really can win the world cup in years to come. The younger players in England are fast becoming better than we thought possible at their age, and for Wilshere his performance is never hampered by his youth and vulnerability, which echoed throughout his 90 minutes against Barcelona. Even when Arsenal were not up to scratch in the first half, he most certainly was, and as one lovely blonde tweeter put it, he didn't look at all out of place against the likes of superstars Iniesta and Xavi. In fact he seemed to have dazzled them with his cool head and fresh skill. And they have won the world cup. Need I say more?

Christian Eriksen - Ajax

Great Dane - Erikson scores v Anderlecht Image courtesy of Varzesh90.com

Having only turned 19 on valentines, the Danish youngster stunned the world over with his peformance two days ago against the Belgian Pro League leaders Anderlecht. Ajax are notorious for bringing out some truly talented stars over the years within their ranks, (Van der Sar, Marco Van Basten, Wesley Sneijder and legend Johan Cruyff ) and Eriksen is already set to follow in those footsteps. In his full 90 minutes of play, he not only scored one goal, he set up two more scored by teammates Alderweireld and El Hamdaoui. His energy made the Energizer bunny turn green with envy with the amount of times he outran his opponents. Nothing could have annoyed them more. To think only a week earlier he was also man of the match for Denmark in their friendly against England. Who knows, this youngster may well become the one who changes Cruyff's mind about the treasured number 14 shirt...Eriksen might just be the one who get's the legendary shirt reinstated into Ajax, just for himself.

God I love football!

With extra thanks to the following tweeters, this ones for you!

Love4LFC, DummyBlonde, Liam_LFC, Rowles_43, rafa23, tmamoojee, Waynelittlewood and hurricane_h and my 2 brothers :-)

Kiss My Arselona...

Who would have thought it? Barcelona losing to Arsenal? Oh but it happened in the most unlikely fashion! To those who didn't watch, (hermit crabs, junkies, politicians), Arsenal hosted the first leg of their Champions League last 16 showdown against Barcelona last night. And a good 90% of the population knew the home side wouldn't cut the mustard against Barcelona. A quick look around the bookies, (ironically full of hermit crabs, junkies and politicians), odds were pretty much reflective of that, as it was 3/1 for Arsenal to win. Well done to those who kept faith in the British side and bet on them winning because, after letting in a goal in the first half, they came back with 2 simply wonderful displays of footballing poetry.

Up until  the second half and 2 much needed substitutions, Arsenal were showing us how not to play football. Some passes were ok-ish, some passes were so off the mark you would think they were passing to the fans or an invisible buddy, others were the equivalent of picking up the ball and neatly placing it at the feet of a Catalan player. Walcott was the clumsiest child of them all. The away side showed us how to play skillful football, with speedy, neat touches, ballet like footwork and an annoying amount of perfectly executed back-passes. I mean seriously, one of these days they'll play a whole match kicking backwards. So odds at half time of Arsenal winning were a justified 16/1 with Barcelona leading with one goal from David Villa. Anyhoo, a minute after said clumsy shoes Walcott left, Van Persie scored a beauty that he shot from so close to the by-line that even the keeper didn't see it coming and. And Arshavin scored the winner a few minutes later and the gooners went crazy, for once upon a time Barcelona  took home a Champions League trophy with a 2-1 win over Arsenal in the gunner's first and only time in a CL final.

Arsene - the biggest daddy of them all

Best moment for me was seeing Van Persie celebrate by running over to Arsene Wenger and giving him a big old hug. Heartwarming.  Why was this my favourite moment? No, it's not because I'm a girl and we get emotional over these things. It's because that one act of appreciation shows just why Arsenal can, and should, topple the giants of European football, for they possess something those teams don't. And it's not just the ability to put your arms around another human being.

In football, to obtain success there is a die hard level of managers believing in their players, and telling those players to believe in themselves, to believe they are the next Pele. Which, if it works, will most of the time turn them into really great, talented players but with a slight tendency to become totally self absorbed and think they are bigger and better than the club. Not so much the case with Arsenal. Wenger doesn't just believe in his players. They believe in him. And maybe that can only come from years and years of experience. And if there is one thing young managers like Guardiola should learn from him, it is that you need to know how to fall and to fail before you can learn how to get up and succeed. And Wenger has been there through it all for 15 years.

Granted, since he took the helm in 1996 Arsenal haven't finished below 4th in the league but they have finished in some dismal places in Europe. And it's extra painful when the historical first and only time he took them to a Champions League final, they lost. Wenger has nurtured most of his players from the day they could crawl, so he isn't just a manager, he's a father figure. If seen through the eyes of a player, Arsene is a man who has managed you since you were still a boy, harnessed your talent, watched you and helped you become a world class player, and even built the stadium you call home. So of course they feel like they owe it to him above all else. Everytime they have done badly in a game, whether that be just the first half or the whole 90 minutes, they never want to turn it around for themselves; they turn it around for him. And this united feeling amongst the team will always keep their team united. (Though that was not the case for serial footballing whore Adebayor once upon a time).

Ok so it's not like Guardiola manages a bunch of Diva's, and he's been there a couple of years, but the player-manager relationship is completely different. Barcelona players are simply the god's of football. Guardiola is a very clever manager. Yes he inherited a great team, but so did Benitez with Internazionale and that balloon deflated instantly. So Guardiola is a young man with intelligence. The player-manager understanding and commitment is flawless. But the relationship isn't personable. And when the going gets tough, they will lose out to a team like Arsenal who have almost as amazing players, but have the one thing Barcelona do not have; the drive to want it even more for the man who made them the elite class they are today. They should really have played like that from the very first minute but passion doesn't flare up from just wanting something, sometimes you'll only see what you want when it's is being ripped from your very hands on your own turf. In the same sense, Arsenal can achieve anything if they played every single game for their manager. Basic instinct has determined that you will always fight harder for someone else than you will for yourself. 

Similarly, in the case of Liverpool, Dalglish may have only become manager in the last month, but the relationship between him and the players is so personal. He is the king of Anfield. The father those players never met, but still the father nonetheless. They want that personal relationship that they haven't experienced and Dalglish is only more than willing in his true home. He is Liverpool. The players know the real daddy is back. And it is not themselves, it is Dalglish they now play for.

Once, twice, three times a lady...? I mean lucky....

Liverpool supporters all over had the last laugh, including myself, for as Valentines day drew to a close, well, so did Chelsea. In what was Fernand'oh Torres' second game for his glittering new club, he put on a performance that was once again below average. Granted of course it was a slight better attempt than when a week earlier in his first game he came face to face with his 'old' club Liverpool, who lets face it, still managed to tear Chelsea's confidence to shreds even though they were still nursing a broken heart, in which he came across as exciting as a sandwich that's been left out in the rain. For a week. 

So he was hauled off once again midway through the second half, away against Fulham, and his aging replacement in the form of Drogba did a much better job of playing really well but not scoring, resulting in a lucky draw, which could have easily been three points for Fulham to have partied through the night with had they scored a late penalty. Torres' shots were few and failures and most of the time he looked like a lost lamb among wolves. Ok so Torres did show a little spark today, but since Chelsea so kindly paid £50m for him, he should bloody well have been a walking inferno. I mean the blues supporters wanted to see the smoke coming off his boots at the least.

Will he be third time lucky? We'll have to just wait and see, and laugh in the meantime.

Chelsea, a team who were pretty much perfect, with their unbeaten run affected as usual once Mr Billionaire resurfaced from his yacht in late autumn, seemed to perform better without him. Liverpool let Torres get away with his underperforming for months, I have a feeling that won't be the case with Chelsea. They are a great team, there's no doubt about it, but there is a very bitter taste left in the mouth nowadays; it's as though this deal was a sales scam, paying ridiculous money for something that doesn't seem to work, something you could only see the likes of old DelBoy Trotter setting up.

In the end, Torres will soon realise that his new club and new wage will reflect that ALL that glitters IS gold, because it certainly won't be silverware that he'll be seeing this year.

Liverpool number 9....Na Na Na Na....(you get the drift)

Ok, so this has nothing to do with the infamous song Liverpool fans once chanted for El Nino, or as I call 'El No No'  Torres, nor is it to do with the very same song now Chelsea fans chant for the same individual, minus the Liverpool bit of course, but it has a lot to do with a very impressive 9-0 win for the Liverpool U18's against Southend United on a nippy but clear Valentines evening. A heartwarming start that lead to a full blown lustful win which has led them not just a step closer, but literally a hop, skip and jump to clutching the FA Youth Cup, now that they find themselves oh so comfortably in the quarter finals.

 

 

Image of Sterling is property of Liverpoolfc.tv

'Nine-Nil?' I hear you say. Well, let's put it this way, had there been a few extra minutes of play, the young reds could have bagged several more, for their performance was more than just impressive. It was, quite simply,  phenomenal.

Rising star Raheem Sterling netted not one, not two,not even three (he wasn't happy with a now clearly unfashionable hat-trick, which incidentally, he completed in 35 mins) but an impressive five times during the match which even saw him surface as a trending topic on Twitter almost immediately.

I could go on in detail about the match but I won't, instead I will begin tweaking his birth certificate and passport, in order to make him old enough to put on the first team for Liverpool FC....

No bias here of course....tee hee!

Welcome warmup!

Hello there ladies (and gents..), and welcome to my wonderfully weird blog which is simply about Football (thats Soccer to the American folk out there) and, well, nails! I am a 24 year old girl with a huge obsession with the great sport, and I fully support women in football...while all along, having perfectly manicured pretty nails!

This blog is designed for the both the male and female of the species who love football but sometimes have the urge to stamp on tabloids repeatedly, or throw a glass of Merlot over yet another deluded pundits head, and, especially in the case of the female football lovers,  just wanna hear it from a real woman with a real insight and lifelong know-how of the sport who doesn't necessarily own a football club. At the same time you get to see me review some pretty tasty varnishes so we don't feel too emasculated with our passion for football! Men, do not run just yet, it's more about the game than the beauty for now!

I support Liverpool FC, but I won't be overly opinionated if you support my rivals, and I am also a HUGE fan of AS Roma, as well as having a liking for Juventus, Barcelona, Ajax, West Ham, Athletico Madrid, FC Dacia (Moldova) and Steaua Bucuresti. Having two older brothers and no sisters meant I've grown up with some amazing football knowledge and a huge love for it since the age of  4....

And finally, I wouldn't be a woman if I didnt admit that there is some top totty in the world of football would I? I am currently engaged to (in my most vivid of dreams of course) my longest standing crush ever, Fabio Cannavaro. I'm sure I will dedicate a post to him sometime....until then, there will be lots of photo's of the other mind-numbingly beautiful men that make football droolworthy.

Lots of love and appreciation...