Another pointless preview from me....
Sit down. Make yourself comfortable. It could be a long night.
There’s never usually much to separate these two teams and I don’t think tonight’s game will be any different.
John Arne Riise’s injury-time own goal put a completely different complexion on this leg when he headed a Chelsea equaliser at Anfield last week. Instead of having to defend a one goal advantage, Liverpool now have to score their first goal at Stamford Bridge under Rafa Benitez’s tenure just to stay in the tie.
Chelsea’s confidence will be sky-high after a deserved 2-1 win over champions Manchester United to keep the title race alive but how much will Saturday’s game have taken out of the Blues squad. Avram Grant didn’t have the luxury of resting any of his regulars, whilst several first team players sat out Liverpool’s 2-2 draw at Birmingham. And a rest at this stage of the season can be crucial.
Bookies have Chelsea as clear favourites to qualify - the best odds are from
Skybet at 4/7. If you fancy Liverpool it’s 17/10 at
Sportingbet.
Last week I highlighted that you would be best advised to back Under 2.5 goals in the game. And that 1-1 draw now makes it 8 games in a row that have finished under the 2.5 goals marker. In fact those 8 games have provided just 11 goals - that’s less than 1.5 per game. Unsurprisingly, unders is very short at 1/2 (BetDirect, Blue Sq,
Stan James) but it does look the way to go.
Whilst I don’t think there’ll be too many goals in this one I do think it could be an epic. Tactically I think Benitez has the measure of Grant but I suspect that both managers will be keen to keep things tight early doors. A goal for either side would swing the tie either way but if it happens to be level going into the last 15-20 minutes I can see both bosses being content to go for extra time.
Whoever scores the first goal will no doubt sit in and try to defend their lead, this will lead to an onslaught from the other side and if they can level things up it’s easy to envisage a 1-1 scoreline being played out in the 90 mins. If, like me, you fancy the teams to be tied it’s available at 11/5 at
Paddy Power. The 1-1 draw to take it to extra-time is best priced at 11/2 (bet365,
Boylesports) and I’ll be having some of that.
So what of extra-time? For me it would be a cagey 30 minutes. I think that the managers will feel there is no shame in going out on penalties and with Cech and Reina between the sticks they will both fancy their chances.
At 18/1 (Paddy Power) for each side to win on penalties (so effectively 17/1 for the game to go that far - by putting a £1 on each team) I think it’s got to be worth a punt. And if pressed I’d go for Liverpool who just seem to have an affinity with this trophy to take it on spot kicks.
A Liverpool v Man Utd final would be something else.