spacemonkey

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Doesn't look unlike this chap.

If he originally retired so that he could prolong his Liverpool career, well international football is now possibly the greater opportunity to test himself against the top world talent and it's not like it'll do too much harm to his position in the Liverpool starting eleven until we can actually afford to strengthen the squad.

Pacheco injured?

The capacity is about 51,500. There's talk here that especially if Liverpool makes the final they're going to have to create some sort of public viewing area as they do during the World Cup. Would probably be next to the St. Pauli stadium at the end of the Reeperbahn.

Sylvie seems to have continued with her career in Germany throughout so not sure what difference it makes whether he's in Madrid or Liverpool. Suspect the rumours are likely to be Madrid trying to stoke up interest rather than him having any desire to leave though. He's made it pretty clear on various occasions that he has no intention whatsoever of leaving and he's done pretty well this year to fight his way back into the team given where he was at the beginning of the season.

Don't see why new owners would scrap the existing plans, assuming they can afford them. Coming up with something that the fans like isn't that easy and you'd hope that the new owners aren't so vain as to need to have their own stamp on the design.

Pretty much expected at this point though. Hopefully Kuyt can continue to come up with the goals in Europe. Fortunately Atleti will be missing Aguero in Madrid and if we can get past them neither Fulham nor Hamburg are exactly blessed with a huge squad of (fit) players either. Still have a very solid chance at the cup but yeah, the outlook for the league isn't looking any more rosy.

Boateng to City is a done deal for eur 12.5m according to the local press. Wouldn't say Elia has burned bridges (just criticised the medical department, whatever that means for our rumoured interest!) but he's not had a particularly consistent season and there are question marks over his mentality. Similarities to Babel, definitely potential rather than the finished article. Guerrero is out of contract, not transfer listed. Won't leave Germany and is still expecting to be offered an extension. Trochowski has been great for the national team, largely ineffective for Hamburg. Not just with the current rubbish coach but with the ones before that too. Ze Roberto and Pitroipa also want to leave apparently.

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The odd decent cross but no, he's not great there either. So predictable which foot he's going to use (again, we've had that problem before...) and yeah, his lack of pace hurts in both directions of course. That said, don't want to crucify the kid. Not his fault we can't afford anybody better.

Decent result really. They're a good side and we have the away goal. Personally thought the officials did ok today. Maybe the poor decisions in earlier games are causing players and fans alike to see bent officials at every turn or maybe complaining about officials is just what being a footy fan is all about. As far as I can see, we've got Torres out there doing his level best to win debatable free-kicks game in game out. Didn't get many today but there were a couple of right soft ones that he did get too. I'd rather the players just keep their focus on playing football and if they do that at Anfield I'm pretty confident we'll go through. Shame about Insua. He continues our long line of left-backs who can't quite cut it defensively. Still young so there's time for him yet but he's not at the level to be playing every game as he has been. Either the doc needs to sort out Aurelio or we need to rummage around the bargain bin for a stronger defender.

Quotes from Jovanovic in today's paper in Hamburg ahead of the Liege game - link Basically says he spoke to Hamburg about joining them and they were close to an agreement but then he waited. Then Liverpool came in - "the best of the best". Also says he wants to win the Europa League.

Things get interesting about 2 mins in. Apparently seven of the Genus players along with their manager have since resigned in protest at what they feel was an over the top reaction to Robson's reluctance to leave the pitch following his, seemingly quite harsh, red card. Masch can count himself lucky.

Hamburg were hosting Schalke earlier with Schalke needing a win to go top of the table and Hamburg needing the points in their hunt for fourth. After Ruud had put Hamburg ahead, Schalke came back to lead 2-1 thanks to a penalty and a goal from a poorly defended cross. With Hamburg reeling, Schalke sought to kill off the game and after Rincon had played Schalke's Edu onside, a goal seemed inevitable. Ok so Rincon was at fault in the first place but brilliant effort to then stop the ball crossing the line.

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Rafa assures Aquilani he's not been forgotten

Longest range own goal in history? Link Some saying it should have been a corner but funny either way.

Mikel San Jose has also scored in the Anderlecht vs. Bilbao game. Wrong end though.

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Not the highest profile in the European context, certainly, but they have quite a history with Dutch players recently (Hoogma, Van der Vaart, Bouhlarouz, de Jong, Mathijsen, Castelen, Elia) so I imagine the Dutch manager has a season ticket by now. The media here (I'm in Hamburg) also seem to see it as a transfer that will put the club on the map internationally (bit like when they signed that bloke from Liverpool a few years back - no, not Erik Meijer, the other one). In terms of how they're doing at the moment, they fairly consistently qualify for the UEFA cup/Europa League and got to the semis last year (next up this year is PSV) and they pull in 57,000 to pretty much every game despite the highest ticket prices in the league. They were topping the table earlier in the season until serious injuries up front to Petric and Guerrero saw them having to rely on Marcus Berg and youth players with rather mixed results. Bit like us but for Petric read Torres and for Berg read Ngog The player himself has said that the opportunity to play in European competition was one of the reasons for choosing Hamburg over some of the other options he had.

Reina Kuyt Carra

Is it? I put in on mute after about 5 seconds. Abysmal.

Nah, Rodolfo prefers sitting in the away end chanting "Who are ya, who are ya...". Keeps the players feet on the ground.