Oh dear…what a shit goal to concede. So many defenders around the box but Gerrard still manages to slot a pass to Dirk Kuyt. For me, we only really had target in the game and that was to not concede and we did with a sloppy goal.

Other than that I thought we were very good. We played the team I expected and they started the game well, after 2 minutes Adebayor had caught out the Liverpool defence and Reina had to come out of him box. Ade rounded the ‘keeper but he recovered well and the danger was cleared.

Both sides were getting decent amounts of possession and were getting forward too. I think we were producing more attacks though, no dead certain chances but some decent opportunities.

About midway through the first half we started piling the pressure on and there a sense that we might score. In the 25th minute we won a corner when van Persie’s shot was saved. Fabregas and van Persie played a little one-two from the corner flag and a great ball was whipped in. Adebayor leapt above everyone else and connected with the ball 6 yards out to head it home with ease.

A perfect corner and a vital goal. 2 goals in 2 Champions League games for Adebayor who previously had never scored in the competition for us. Ashburton Grove was a happy place, but not for long. 3 minutes later Gerrard picked up the ball on the right and despite there being about 6 players back (2 of which stopping Gerrard from crossing and about 4 of them in the box to intercept) he managed to skip into some space and put a low ball in for Kuyt who was coming in at the far post.

I couldn’t believe it. Watching the replays back the next day it looks even worse, we should’ve cut that out, no way should they have been allowed to score there. Did they catch us out? Were will still not focused after scoring so shortly before? One thing is for sure though, what Gerrard did took some skill and accuracy so I suppose you have to give some credit to him.

The place was a bit less so happy now. Liverpool had got that vital away goal making Adebayor’s goal meaningless. We now needed to score at least two more to make this a successful night’s work. Parts of the crowd were understandably down but we had to just accept it and move on, fine they scored, now lets try get a goal back.

The away side had a couple more chances before the break. The best was probably Babel’s long-range effort, which was heading right into the bottom corner, but Almunia managed to get down to it. I think Manuel had a decent game and he’s just signed a new contract for us which is good news. He’s done well this season and I’m sure that next term, he’ll be considered the out and out no.1 ‘keeper.

At half time, I was just coming down the stairs to my seat when I heard, “And replacing no.11 Robin Persie is no.32 Theo Walcott.” What? Oh for fucks sake he’s injured again isn’t he. I thought that he was at least going to make it until the end of the season after being out so long but it seems he’s just as injury prone as Rosicky. He’s only going to be out for a week or so though. He has a 20% chance of playing this Saturday but I guess his target will be Tuesday night at Anfield.

So Walcott went out wide on the left and Hleb came more central. I thought it’d be nice to see Walcott with Adebayor but Arsene didn’t want to experiment in this game. Theo made the impact once again and about 10 minutes into the second half he let out a shot from range that caused Reina some concern. I said to my mate, “It’s so weird to see someone just pick up the ball and have a shot.” Quite untypical of Theo but it as a decent shot and would’ve been a brilliant goal.

We were stepping up a gear now and were really looking for a goal. Walcott looked dangerous again and was vital in so many of our attacks. We really went for it, and for the third European match in a row Eboue was gifted a chance in the box and for the third time in a row he was fucking useless. It was Walcott’s good work down the left that started it, he forced Reina to the near post and then squared it into the box. Eboue was there but he completely scuffed it and that attack was over.

A few moments later we were attacking again. Hleb was in space in the box and was just about to have a shot pass it when Kuyt dragged him over. At the time you couldn’t really tell for certain where I was sitting but it looked a decent shout for a penalty. The referee game nothing but from what I saw after the game it looks like a clear penalty, he’s definitely dragging him down. Wenger was not happy with the decision after the game, how things might’ve changed if we won that penalty.

The worst was yet to come though in, in the 70th minute Adebayor had the ball down the right and put in a dangerous cross the ball dropped to the back post where Fabregas managed to slide in to direct it into the corner. However Bendtner was on the line and couldn’t get his lanky legs out of the way and Fabregas’ shot was fumbled away. I couldn’t believe it! I just sank to the floor. Bendtner just cleared our goal off the line!

The replays are worse though, at the game it’s always hard to keep up with goalmouth scrambles but this is awful. It looked like Bendtner was trying to get the final touch on it and claim the goal but you can tell he’s trying really hard to get out of the way in the split second he had but it was agonisingly stopped on the line. So unlucky.

We played out the rest of the game giving it everything we had but it just wasn’t enough, it didn’t look like it was going to be our night. The whistle finally blew and it finished 1-1. Liverpool will be the favourites to go through now but we’re by no means out of it. We’re going to need to score at Anfield but that’s perfectly possible. We’ll need another great performance though and it’s sure to be a great game.

Build up to the second leg to come next week. Thanks for reading.