Cisse drive steers stuttering Liverpool home
Last updated : 16 October 2005 By Sunday Times
“We have,” said Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez, “done the job.” They had, but no more.
Perhaps such a disjointed performance was to be expected. Kicking off their seventh Premiership game with just one victory to their name was scarcely the record of mid-table makeweights, let alone European champions.
Certainly the stuttering start had concentrated Benitez’s mind and changes were rung. A shin injury collected on international duty excluded Steven Gerrard, but of those who started in the humbling by Chelsea two Sundays ago, John Arne Riise, Luis Garcia and Dietmar Hamann were exiled to the bench and Sami Hyypia to the stands.
Peter Crouch and Cisse led the line for the third time. As Benitez noted afterwards, their time will surely come. They have a nascent understanding and they exuded loose-limbed menace until Crouch was swapped for Fernando Morientes, who promptly missed three straightforward chances.
Without the injured Craig Bellamy but with Robbie Savage returning from another suspension, Rovers arrived buoyed by a swashbuckling victory at Manchester United, which suggested there might just be more to them than stereotypical over-zealousness.
While Blackburn manager Mark Hughes’s claim that his side “were excellent all day” stretched credulity, they had their moments, only to be undone by the sloppiness that led to Khizanishvili’s exit and then by their childish tendency to niggle, which brought the free kick from which Cisse scored.
Rovers began brightly, peppering Jose Reina’s six-yard box with high crosses in the hope the Spaniard would spill one. In the event, Reina claimed everything and with Xabi Alonso imperious in midfield, Liverpool began to settle.
Ten minutes in, had Cisse not attempted a faintly ridiculous bicycle kick from the first of many Alonso corners, the better-placed Crouch would have headed home. The afternoon turned on Bolo Zenden’s 32nd-minute through-ball after Blackburn surrendered midfield possession.
Cisse collected and was far too quick for Khizanishvili, who felled the forward on the edge of the penalty area. After consulting his assistant, Mark Halsey dismissed the Georgian centre-half, much to Hughes’s ire. “It wasn’t a sending-off, it wasn’t a goalscoring opportunity. We’ll appeal,” he said.
Zenden curled the free kick on to Brad Friedel’s bar and before half-time, two bullet headers by Cisse and a dipping volley from Crouch had almost put Liverpool ahead.
Yet Rovers did not hide. The first half came and went without Friedel making a significant save. Shefki Kuqi was a lone target man, willingly supported by the hard-running Savage and David Bentley.
In contrast, Liverpool almost squandered their numerical advantage. On the hour, Benitez tinkered, replacing the unsteady Josemi with Garcia. Nothing, though, could halt the hosts’ descent into raggedness and even Alonso’s impeccable touch briefly deserted him.
Liverpool trundled on as Blackburn’s 10 men tried to waste time. Cisse’s looping header brought a fine 65th-minute save from Friedel, but seconds later the Frenchman dragged horribly wide from Garcia’s cross. With Crouch replaced, stalemate beckoned until the 75th minute when Savage gave away the most crucial in a series of unnecessary free kicks 20 yards out. Alonso tapped it to Cisse, whose thunderous low drive sped past Friedel’s outstretched right hand. It was as simple as it looked and the complications of the previous 74 minutes had suddenly evaporated.
There was still time for Morientes’s prodigal finishing and for Rovers to lose their composure and embark upon a gory spree of late tackles. Justice had been done, but this was justice at its most ragged. “I thought we were excellent all day, we had to be determined and resolute and as the game went on I felt the only way we would concede was a set-piece,” said Hughes.
“Liverpool didn’t create anything in open play. You fear when they get a free kick on the edge of the box that something will happen but I can’t fault my players.”
Cisse, who has indicated he may leave Anfield if he does not get more first-team football, made a point of shaking hands with his manager. “We shook hands, we are both professionals. He worked hard, scored the goal and got us the win,” said Benitez. “For him, after he broke his leg at Blackburn last season, this was a better outcome.”
