Pooling their resources

IN my hotel in Bootle the morning after Liverpool had knocked Barcelona out of the Champions League at Anfield, a large group of Asian supporters, resplendent in red, were happily chatting away over breakfast.

Nothing strange about such a scene, you might think, since all the big Premiership clubs command a worldwide fan-base. But it is wasn’t until I bought the Liverpool Echo later that I learned there was something a little different about this travelling red army.

All 12 of them, it turned out, had made a 13,643-mile round trip from Singapore to Liverpool — just to watch the match on the telly in the hotel bar. Then they departed for home again the next morning. Said Park Hotel manager Mike Dewey: “I can’t get over how happy they were to be here — I thought, that’s true support.”

Or maybe just a case of more money than sense. What’s certain is they missed out on the best part of a footie trip to Liverpool — which is to actually be inside Anfield on a big European night.

Your correspondent was fortunate enough to have been in attendance two years ago when Liverpool knocked out Chelsea to set up that unforgettable final in Istanbul. Even the most hardened denizens of the press box agreed the atmosphere in Anfield for the Chelsea game was exceptional. Perhaps it was the prospect of putting one over on the nouveau riche of the Premiership which lent an added edge to proceedings, but from the traditional pre-match rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone through to the joy unconfined at the final whistle, there was a passionate intensity swirling around the old ground which left no-one there unmoved.

Tuesday night came close enough and certainly impressed the club’s new American owners on their first visit to Anfield. Said Tom Hicks: “I’d heard so much about the fans here and they were spectacular, the Kop especially. Will I always have this much fun when I come to Anfield?”

To which the honest answer must be: er, no, actually. Whatever about the trek made by those voyagers from Singapore, nothing quite compares with the circuitous route which, in recent years, Liverpool have taken in their quest for European honours.

Coming back from the dead in Istanbul was just a distillated version of their back-to-front way of doing things. And they are still at it. At the beginning of the year who could have predicted Liverpool would eliminate Barcelona and qualify for the quarter-finals by winning in the Nou Camp and losing at Anfield.

Next up it’s PSV Eindhoven and, despite the fact that Liverpool have already had the best of it against them in the group phase, it’s a brave person who would try to predict which way the tie might go.

With Liverpool, you just never know. In the absence of a reliable striker in the great tradition of Keegan, Dalglish, Rush, Aldridge and Owen, the overcame Barcelona by something closer to sheer force of will. Dirk Kuyt may have had only one meaningful effort on goal all evening, but his workrate was immense. Ditto, Jamie Carragher at the back, a Boolte boy who epitomises the collective do-or-die spirit Liverpool bring to the big occasion these days.

And then there’s the frankly surreal figure of Mohamed Sissoko. On a night when the game largely passed by Liverpool’s most accomplished midfielder, Xabi Alonso, the leggy Sissoko provided the destructive in place of the creative, making life such a misery for Deco and his colleagues that the Liverpool man was only ever one clunky challenge away from a red card.

There were odd glimpses of Barca’s lovely one-touch fluency but, on the night, it was no match for Liverpool’s relentless application, even if they did have to walk through the storm for the final 20 minutes. But, overall, anything less than victory across the two legs would have been grossly unfair on Rafael Benitez’s men.

And therein lies the paradox of English football’s domination of the final eight of this year’s Champions’ League. Arsenal, the team beloved of the purists, are gone, while still in the frame are two clubs, Liverpool and Chelsea, who pride effort over elan and one, Manchester United, who have made winning without fanfare a feature of their most recent outings.

In truth, none of the remaining English clubs could be accused of having an air of invincibility about them but, with no red-hot favourites lying in wait in Germany, Holland or Italy, the odds must now favour a side from the Premiership lifting the trophy in Athens in May.

At the start of the season, I backed Chelsea to go all the way. But, after yesterday’s draw, Liverpool could again stand in their way in the semi-finals. And, the Lord knows, if Djimi Traore can pick up a Champions’ League medal, so can Momo Sissoko.