Liverpool's goalscorers pose with the silverwareCraig Bellamy crossed for new strike partner Peter Crouch to head in the winner as Liverpool beat Chelsea 2-1 to claim the FA Community Shield.
Try telling the hordes from Merseyside that this was not a marker for the season after Crouch's late goal settled the season's curtain raiser.
Managers Rafael Benitez and Jose Mourinho had been quick to claim this was a meaningless fixture when their players were not fully fit.
But Liverpool will consider it a huge psychological blow to beat the champions on the eve of the new season.
John Arne Riise opened the scoring on nine minutes, letting fly from 25 yards with a swerving, dipping effort which Carlo Cudicini failed to get down to.
However on 44 minutes Frank Lampard fed the ball through for £30million Chelsea signing Andriy Shevchenko to equalise past Pepe Reina.
Yet Liverpool's desire and improvement was clear to see in the second half and they got their reward with time running out as Bellamy swung the ball in from the left allowing Crouch to nod home.
Benitez said: "We know it was difficult to play against one of the best teams in the world and we have done a very good job and we have confidence for the rest of the season."
Mourinho tried to put a positive spin on the defeat by claiming it was a good pre-season work-out for his side.
"If I look at the game as a pre-season game, I think it was fantastic for us because we played against a team in much better condition than us," he said.
"Because of that it was very very good. If I look at the game as a minor trophy of course you don't like to lose but if you don't think about the difference of condition of both teams they deserved to win because they were better than us."
0 comments:
Post a Comment