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 :-)