Ricardo's report v Liverpool

[ricardo 7,347]

Perhaps it was the excitement of being back or maybe just the relief of coming safely through a dark place but when I climbed the stairs behind the River End goal and gazed down upon a resplendant Carrow Road, I didn't think that I was alone in feeling a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye. All around me, people were renewing old aquaintances but it was sad to learn that one or two old faces had fallen by the wayside. Happily for the great majority of us life goes on and face another season of trials and tribulations in the one love that unites all who share the faith of the Yellow and Green.

Here in Norwich it had been a fine sunny morning but it clouded over about midday and by kick off time it was heavily overcast though still quite warm. The team was pretty much as expected with Hanley returning to the centre of defence and the new boys Raschica, Lees-Melou and Gilmour getting the nod. When City kicked off towards the Barclay End the crowd was as loud as I have ever heard it since the '59 cup run days when there were 38k giving it the full treatment.

The early moments were encouraging with City confidently knocking the ball about and retaining possession for a long period but without looking threatening. Liverpool took a while to settle but Mane was looking very lively when getting in behind Max Aarons. By the tenth minute the visitors began to assert a measure of control in midfield and City conceeded a couple of corners as they gave ground. From the second, the ball was worked back in and Krul had to react quickly to palm Jota's header over the bar.

City eventually clicked into gear when Rashica raced away on the left but his cross could find niether Pukki nor Cantwell. Play moved from end to end with neat interpassing from both sides although it was always obvious that the Reds carried the greater threat as Salah volleyed one a yard wide. Not to be outdone, Aarons slipped Pukki through in the righthand channel and his fierce shot was parried away for a corner by Alison. City kept the pressure on for a while but things came to nothing when the Liverpool keeper cut out Raschica's cross.

It was now mainly Liverpool in the ascendancy as Salah again tested Krul with a stinging drive but again City came back when Cantwell pounced on a mistake and tried to catch Alison out withan outrageous lob from the right wing. The first goal was obviously going to be important and when it came there was more than a touch of good fortune about it. A ball in from the Liverpool right appeared to bounce off Salah and fall nicely between Hanley and Gibson for Jota to stroke the ball under Krul's despairing dive. It was a touch unlucky but Liverpool had certainly looked the more likely and for the next few minutes it was all hands to the pump to prevent the rampant visitors from extending the lead. Lees-Melou cleared from near the line as Van Djyk poked the ball goalwards and one or two last ditch tackles from Aarons and Hanley saved the day.

City got through to the break without further damage but you could already see that getting anything out of this game was a fairly long shot.

When we resumed, things continued in much the same vein with Liverpool bossing the centre of the pitch and Aarons had to be sharp to clear away Mane's effort with Krul beaten. Gilmour impressed with some good long range passes but despite periods of neat play the home attacks carried little in the way of a sharp edge. Just after the hour mark Firmino came on for Jota and as another City attack broke down a lovely flowing move stretched the home reaguard to breaking point as Salah set up Firmino for a tap in. It was all over bar the shouting when ten minutes later, Salah wrapped up the scoring with a rasping drive when City failed to clear.

To their credit the home side refused to wilt and when Pukki and Raschica made way for Sargent and Idah, there were a couple of close things. Sargents late cross shot was only just wide of the far post and with four minutes left in an almighty scramble on the Liverpool six yard line neither Sargent nor Idah could force the ball past Alison before the big Liverpool keeper managed to claw it away.

A disappointing result but make no mistake this is a top class Liverpool side and with Van Djyk back they are a force to be reckoned with. All the City new boys looked decent but will take time to bed in and will find much easier games than this as the season progresses. A nice range of passing from Gilmour and touches of exciting pace from Rashica give hope for the future and Josh Sargent showed enough in his short cameo to see that he has something about him. All things considered it was wonderful to be back at a full CR and I am not going to get too depressed at this result, there's still a long long way to go.

Grant Hanley my MOM, played a real captains game.

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2021 by ricardo

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

I think that echoes my thoughts as well Ricardo. Looking forward to us playing mortal teams😀

[ricardo 7,347]

1 minute ago, keelansgrandad said:

I think that echoes my thoughts as well Ricardo. Looking forward to us playing mortal teams😀

Yes, they did look good,  I had a bloke near me moaning, oh deary me.

[Capt. Pants 4,198]

Great to see a lot of familiar faces and the green and yellow flags were fantastic and the rip roaring rendition of OTBC brought a lump to the throat.

Not sure they did it at all grounds but had at Old Trafford they had a minutes applause for the 'fallen'. I think we should have done likewise.

[Faded Jaded Semi Plastic SOB 1,019]

Great post Ricardo and spot on as usual. I was in my seat at 16:30 and i will happily admit that I sat there and shed a little tear, I was surprised at how emotional I was at returning to Carrow Road. Onwards and upwards, OTBC!!..........

[Barbe bleu 815]

14 minutes ago, ricardo said:

Yes, they did look good,  I had a bloke near me moaning, oh deary me.

So back to normal then! 

[Sideshow Tim 110]

Great report Ricardo as always.

How weird was it to reacquaint with these people that we know almost nothing about and be relieved that they too had made it through the past 18 months? 

I'm going for Giannoulis as my man of the match. Thought he was awesome on that left side, and better than his fellow countryman on their left, as Aarons had him in his pocket. 

 

Shame about the result but much to be positive about. Not sure why Farke didn't take off Rupp instead of Cantwell at the end though?! 

[Billyboybunters 26]

26 minutes ago, Faded Jaded Semi Plastic SOB said:

Great post Ricardo and spot on as usual. I was in my seat at 16:30 and i will happily admit that I sat there and shed a little tear, I was surprised at how emotional I was at returning to Carrow Road. Onwards and upwards, OTBC!!..........

I watched at home as am getting married next weekend and didn’t want to chance it (having had to postpone 3 times already due to COVID!). But even sat at home I shed a few tears seeing the stadium back full, my other half didn’t quite understand! 😂 first game back for me is Watford at home, and I can’t wait!!

Edited August 14, 2021 by Billyboybunters

[Midlands Yellow 3,941]

Wonderful to have your match reports back. 

[Canary Wundaboy 1,358]

1 hour ago, Sideshow Tim said:

Shame about the result but much to be positive about. Not sure why Farke didn't take off Rupp instead of Cantwell at the end though?! 

Farke has few faults as a manager but one of them is that he favours players with the right attitude and the engine over the more technical players that actually have the potential to create a clear cut chance for a goal. Rupp showed with his shooting that he’s not going to be a great source of goal efforts, to be honest I don’t feel his performance today has done him any favours. I’d always prefer to see Cantwell on the pitch for us given what he offers in creativity and courage.

[Mario Harpershite 20]

2 hours ago, ricardo said:

Yes, they did look good,  I had a bloke near me moaning, oh deary me.

This is what worries me far more than the score line … staying positive is vital for players and fans if we are going to stay up this year. 

[Steve White 24]

Great to have football and you back Ricardo, being an exile I rekyl on your well balanced reportage. Just one thing strikes me, isn’t our lack of inches going to be a handicap?

[Peanuts 150]

1 minute ago, Steve White said:

Great to have football and you back Ricardo, being an exile I rekyl on your well balanced reportage. Just one thing strikes me, isn’t our lack of inches going to be a handicap?

It's never been a problem so far. At least not according to Mrs Peanuts.

[ABC (A Basingstoke Canary) 26]

2 hours ago, Peanuts said:

It's never been a problem so far. At least not according to Mrs Peanuts.

In the words of Basil Brush - "Boom Boom" 😁

[Helsinki canary 240]

Great to have your reports back Ric, it must of been emotional to be back amongst a full house,  and the odd moaner here and there adds to the normal cocktail of opinions on the terraces we all know!  I think the scramble at the end had Gibbo in the mix, it was his effort which was amazingly saved by the keeper and then the others mentioned both had failed attempts. For me Giannoulis got the MoM, but agree Hanley was great considering no competitive play since injury in the Euros.

[ricardo 7,347]

24 minutes ago, Helsinki canary said:

Great to have your reports back Ric, it must of been emotional to be back amongst a full house,  and the odd moaner here and there adds to the normal cocktail of opinions on the terraces we all know!  I think the scramble at the end had Gibbo in the mix, it was his effort which was amazingly saved by the keeper and then the others mentioned both had failed attempts. For me Giannoulis got the MoM, but agree Hanley was great considering no competitive play since injury in the Euros.

Yes having seen the replay there were quite a few involved in that melee. How the ball stayed out was quite remarkable.

I thought Giannoulis had a good second half but was quite shaky early on. Heading a long cross back into the mix nearly cost a goal on one occasion. 

[Cosmic Twin 185]

Thanks Ricardo! It’s great to have your reports to read once again. 
Thoughts on Lees-Melou?

[MORDENCANARY 71]

I'm not optimistic, having seen the physicality of Brenford and the way they bullied Arsenal ,compare that to City I just see us as a soft touch sadly. Norwich are no stronger now than two seasons ago ,the two reasons promotion was achieved, Buendia (sold) and Skipp (back at Spurs) has left a huge void. 

Edited August 15, 2021 by MORDENCANARY
Punctuation

[Badger 2,405]

Thanks Ricardo. As ever a great account of the game. 👍

Liverpool were clearly the better team and for us to have gained anything from the match, we needed the luck to be on our side which it wasn't. 

One thing that disappointed me a bit was that to accommodate Rashica, he seemed to spend most of the time on the right, which I have never felt is his strength. With the Greek winger as well I wonder if he will spend far less time on the left this season and I'm not sure that we are going to play with a number 10.

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

1 hour ago, ricardo said:

Yes having seen the replay there were quite a few involved in that melee. How the ball stayed out was quite remarkable.

I thought Giannoulis had a good second half but was quite shaky early on. Heading a long cross back into the mix nearly cost a goal on one occasion. 

Watching it on the replays, Allison did remarkably well. Top keeper who is able to respond  quickly. It isn't always the flying keeper tipping it around the post for show.

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

43 minutes ago, MORDENCANARY said:

I'm not optimistic, having seen the physicality of Brenford and the way they bullied Arsenal ,compare that to City I just see us as a soft touch sadly. Norwich are no stronger now than two seasons ago ,the two reasons promotion was achieved Buendia (sold) and Skipp (back at Spurs) has left a huge void. 

I must say I didn't see Brentford bully Arsenal. I think they just played their game, they have two big lads  who can play, and Arsenal were weak.

[Alex Moss 2,165]

3 hours ago, MORDENCANARY said:

I'm not optimistic, having seen the physicality of Brenford and the way they bullied Arsenal ,compare that to City I just see us as a soft touch sadly. Norwich are no stronger now than two seasons ago ,the two reasons promotion was achieved, Buendia (sold) and Skipp (back at Spurs) has left a huge void. 

I’m quite confident that when Brentford play Liverpool they certainly won’t get to ‘bully’ them like they did Arsenal - you simply can’t compare the Liverpool and Arsenal squads, Liverpool are absolute light years ahead in quality. Liverpool will beat plenty of (established) teams this season by a 3 goal margin and possibly more as 1-0’s are not their thing, don’t think we’ll be seeing that from Arsenal much this season unless they make a huge amount of quality signings in these last 2 weeks or so which looks very unlikely to me.

Don't usually read match reports as I’ve already seen the game myself, but always make an exception for Ricardo’s down to the feel of the match day experience rather than just a minute by minute account of the game, it’s good to see them back!