Marseille vs Liverpool Champions League LiveBlog

Olympique Marseille vs Liverpool
Stade Velodrome
Kickoff is 8:45 pm CET, 19:45 pm GMT, 2:45 pm US Eastern

Marseille 1-2 Liverpool

Cana 24′ – Gerrard 27′ 31′

Thanks to all who read and commented, and we’ll be back tomorrow with more Champions League LiveBlogs. Same time, same low low price.

FULL TIME And there it is. OM 1-2 Liverpool. Or is that OM 1-2 Steve Gerrard. Really good game and impressive performance by OM, but Liverpool came to Marseille and got the job done. Rafa Benitez knows how to handle this Champions League business.

90+2 Niang races on to a nod down and draws an instinctive foot save from Reina. So unlucky for Niang who deserves a goal.

Three minutes of added time.

90′ Cheyrou with some great skills in midfield, flicking it over his head from behind and setting Niang away. Then we had two balls on the pitch as a cross found Cheyrou at the far post. His header is caught by Reina but had it gone in Liverpool could have appealed against the goal. Probably.

88′ Niang gets his head to an excellent Ziani cross. He heads over but makes a big claim for a penalty. Ref ignores it, but replay shows Arbeloa gave Niang a nudge in the back.

86′ Benayoun gets the ball out wide and looked for all the world like he should square it. But he headed for the corner instead. Is that smart or too cautious? I say too cautious as it’s a bit early for holding the ball in the corner yet.

85′ Liverpool sub: Dirk Kuyt coming off, Robbie Keane coming on. Definitely worst subs to have than Robbie Keane, and this is his proper Champions League debut. All five minutes of it.

82′ Taiwo charges into the area looking to unleash one of his left footed rockets. Runs into Arbeloa and tries to claim a penalty, but that was never happening.

- Seems the last ten minutes will consist of Marseille attacking and Liverpool countering.

78′ Babel hits the post from a wide angle on the left. Great effort, just not great enough.

76′ That could have been it. Rierra squared and Babel had just the keeper to beat from about four yards. But Mandanda made himself big and blocked Babel’s powerful close range strike.

75′ Final OM substitution. Kone off (the guy hasn’t stopped running) for Samassa.

74′ Cana with a viscous looking low strike but Reina gets down to catch. Replay shows kit was going just wide.

- Got to be said, half number two has been mostly Marseille, but the Ligue 1 team has nothing to show for it yet.

68′ Liverpool sub: Gerrard off, Benayoun on. Good 68 minutes work from Gerrard, especially that equalizer.

67′ Valbuena with a good opportunity from the free kick, but he hits the Liverpool wall. Looked like he was aiming at them.

65′ Great chance for OM. Kone with a sweet backheel for Ziani who blazes over.

64′ Liverpool sub: Torres coming off for Rierra. Torres didn’t really set things alight, but no ill effects on his comeback from injury. Robbei Keane still waiting for his proper Champions League debut.

62′ Hilton gets a header at goal from a corner, but straight at Reina.

60′ Kone miscontrols the ball with his shin and the falls over. He can definitely do better than that.

58′ Mandanda just – but only just – beats Babel to a through ball.

57′ Second OM sub: Ben Arfa off (he wasn’t fully fit, but did OK) and Ziani on.

55′ Liverpool catch Ben Arfa offside. So at least now we know that Liverpool’s defenders know how the offside trap works.

52′ Cheyrou opens the Liverpool defence again with a beaut of a pass. Maybe he really was the new Zidane after all. Reina was out Fabien Barthez style to take the ball with his feet.

It’s all happening in the Roma vs Cluj LiveBlog. Roma are 2-1 down to the Romanian, with Emmanuel Culio is apparently causing the Italian team all kinds of problems.

49′ Niang gets a half head-half back to a corner but no danger for Liverpool. Gerrard looks threatening for a moment, lifting it over a defender’s head but blocked. What are the odds of him getting a hat trick tonight?

47′ Valbuena tripped by Lucas and does the splits in the air. Very acrobatic and Lucas gets a yellow.

45′ Second half is underway. No halftime changes from Gerets or Benitez.

Other Half-Time Champions League scores:

Chelsea 2-0 Bordeaux
Roma 1-1 CFR Cluj
Panathanaikos 0-1 Inter
Bremen 0-0 Anorthosis
Basel 0-2 Shakhtar
Barcelona 1-0 Sporting CP
PSV 0-2 Atletico Madrid

HALF-TIME Liverpool lead 2-1 in Marseille after a really entertaining 45 minutes of footy.
In our other LiveBlogs it’s Roma 1-1 CFR Cluj and Chelsea 2-0 Bordeaux

44′ Valbuena seems lively too. It’s like all the OM striker have had two cans of Red Bull each. Either that or they’re determined to level the score. Maybe both.

41′ OM substitution: M’Bami off for Valbuena.

39′ Ben Arfa with a nice bit of skill. Unable to get past two Liverpool defenders he rolled the ball back and backheeled it into space for an OM forward to run onto. Lucas cleaned up though.

38′ Mascherano brings down Niang out wide. Niang makes rather a lot of it. But it’s all OM pressure these last few minutes.

37′ Carragher nearly caught out by Kone, but Reina and Skrtel clear up the trouble. No doubt Kone would destroy Carragher in a 100m sprint.

It’s now Chelsea 2-0 Bordeaux thanks to Joe Cole. Visit Rob’s LiveBlog for more details.

33′ Niang goes past Arbeloa and nutmegs Lucas before Arbeloa tackles him second time around. Niang a definite threat to this Liverpool defence.

32′ Taiwo puts a great ball across the face of goal and Niang stretches to meet it, but can only knock it wide. OM chasing an equalizer now.

31′ Gerrard from the spot… SCORES! off the post, but whistle went. Retake. Not sure why. GOAL! 2-1 to Liverpool, Gerrard put it in the exact same place on the retake. Wow. Remember when OM were winning? That was seven minutes ago.

30′ PENALTY! Babel brought down by Zubar in the area after doing a few lollipops.

- There’s definitely a switch somewhere in Gerrard’s right leg that only comes on when Liverpool are in trouble.

27′ 1-1 And there it is! Gerrard received the ball on the edge of the box and hit a curling shot into the top left corner. Mandanda had no chance. Short lived lead for Marseille.

- Uphill battle for Liverpool now, but plenty of time to go,

24′ 1-0 to Marseille Cana!

-Bruno Cheyrou simply flicked the ball over Liverpool’s back four, and Cana ran on to slip it past Reina. Replay shows it was Jamie Carragher who was too slow to catch Cana offside.

- In the other Prem vs Ligue 1 game, Chelsea lead Bordeaux 1-0 through a Frank Lampard header.

20′ Rubbish cross from Kuyt, sails far too high and out for a throw. That’s why I nearly didn’t have him in my fantasy team.

- Pretty evenly matched game so far.

18′ Cana gets brought down in the corner and does the old lifting the crowd hand motion.

16′ Gerrard with a sharp low shot that Mandana gets down to tip around the post.

15′ Kuyt finds Babel in the box, Babel takes a quick touch to turn the defender and shoots just over. I picked Kuyt in my fantasy team for moments like that (plus he’s listed as a mid)

13′ Niang slips through the offside trap and gets a one on one with Reina from a narrow angle, but shoots high and wide. He had a good shout for a free kick a few second earlier. Niang definitely looking dangerous.

11′ Gerrard with a long pass forward that went straight to the keeper. I love Gerrard’s all action style and think he’s a great player, but he tries way too many long range passes that don’t always come off.

- Still waiting for Lorik Cana’s first monster tackle. Don’t worry, it’s coming.

10′ Ben Arfa gets it right with the tackling of Babel this time. The kid looks lively.

8′ Kuyt just sprinted back to make a (maybe unnecessary) slide tackle in midfield. He might look like a farmer, but he works like one too.

6′ Torres gets a header at goal from a Gerrard corner, but Mandanda tips it just over the bar.

4′ Well, we know Ben Arfa can’t tackle properly. Horrible collision with Babel.

Will be interested to see how Ben Arfa does for OM tonight.

0′ We’re off

Teams are out. I’m liking Liverpool’s sponsor-less look. Not such a big fan of the Champions League anthem though. Full of it’s own importance.

Things to look out for: Taiwo’s left foot, that thing can go bang. Gerrard and/or Torres pulling up (re)injured, Lorik Cana’s tackles.

Big team news is that Gerrard and Torres are starting for Liverpool.

Marseille: 4-2-3-1: Mandanda; Bonnart, Taiwo, Hilton, Zubar; Cheyrou, Kana; Kone, M’Bami, Ben Arfa; Niang

Liverpool: 4-3-3: Reina; Arbeloa, Dossena, Carragher, Skrtel; Gerrard, Mascherano, Lucas; Kuyt, Torres, Babel

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Category: Champions League