If anybody is going to catch Manchester United atop the English Premier League standings it will the winner of today's Chelsea-Liverpool showdown.
The Blues travel to Anfield knowing that a loss would put a major dent in their title hopes, while Liverpool is desperate for three points after their recent struggles.
Chelsea-Liverpool is the best match of the day, but not the only quality match on TV today. Marquee games from Italy, France and Argentina are on the menu. Here is today's slate of games:
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11am- FSC- Chelsea at Liverpool
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11am- GolTV- Barcelona at Racing Santander
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1pm- GolTV- Almeria at Valencia
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2:30pm- FSC- AC Milan at Lazio
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2:55am- Setanta- St. Etienne at Lyon
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3pm- GolTV- Sevilla at Sportin Gijon
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7pm- FSC- River Plate at Boca Juniors
If you will be watching today's action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action.
Perfect ball from Aurielo to Torres, who just manages to get in front of Alex to head the ball past Cech.
89th minute- Goal Liverpool!!!!
This is where Liverpool could really use Keane…except he was completely left out of the squad
85th minute- Chelsea’s last substitution was Miroslav Stoch coming on for Kalou, a couple of minutes before.
83rd minute- Mascherano comes off for Babel. Apparently Benitez feels safe in making a positive substitution in the 83rd minute while up a man, which I suppose is something.
81st minute- Another poor touch from Kuyt ruins an attacking sequence for Liverpool.
80th minute- Benayoun runs onto a pass and smashes a shot that Cech puts out for a corner!! Good shot but a better effort from the keeper.
Lampard deserved a red and more for the challenge. It’s plays like that which resulted in Eduardo’s broken leg last year. I’m glad to see the refs are cracking down on this sort of thing. Lampard will be lucky if he gets away without a ban.
79th minute- Torres pops the ball into the area and bicycles the ball at Cech who collects the ball well with Kuyt lurking in the vicinity.
Would much rather have seen Benayoun for Kuyt
73rd minute- Benayoun coming on for Riera.
72nd minute- Chelsea turn a nothing ball hoofed into a corner as two defenders collide. The corner was cleared out twice for corners, until a foul was called on Torres.
70th minute- Gerrard earns a yellow for diving.
68th minute- Alex blocks a shot from Alonso, which hits the cross bar and is out for a corner!!
69th minute- Deco and Drogba are coming out for Anelka and Malouda.
Don’t think I agree with that red card.
As for the penalty, Lampard slid into a challenge on Alonso, and his foot was a bit high in order to win the ball. The fact that Alonso was jumping in the air made the challenge look much worse than it was, in my opinion.
I thought the ref could have easily given a yellow.
64th minute- Mikel is called for a handball, a free kick is given in a good position for a free kick, just left of center, but the kick is blasted into the wall.
Terrible call from the ref.
FSC is a disgrace. Cutting off a compelling match to show one that has not even begun is an insult. I’m never buying anything that is advertised on that channel. I’ll even write letters to FSC advertisers.
60th minute- Lampart is Sent Off with a Red Card!!!
59th minute- Chelsea cannot put anything together offensively right now. They are having trouble putting together four consecutive passes, much less getting shots on goal.
52nd minute- Mikel earns a yellow for taking down Arbeloa after losing the ball.
53rd minute- Torres takes a shot in the penalty area, but it was blocked by Alex. Torres got the ball from a really good ball flicked on by the head of Gerrard.
51st minute- Another horrible cross from Kuyt on the right (which he had loads of room to take), but it was chested out for a corner by Bosingwa.
46th minute- Alonso earns a yellow card, which is the 3rd of the match (including Cole getting one in the 22nd that I forgot to mention).
Much more entertaining Liverpool-Chelsea match than in the recent past. Starting to worry about the Reds becoming to much like Arsenal…lots of possession with nothing to show for it.
Much more entertaining Liverpool-Chelsea match than in the recent past. Starting to worry about the Reds becoming to much like Arsenal…lots of possession with nothing to show for it.
celtic played crap today
45+1 minute- Riera tries to backheel a ball in the penalty area after being fed in a brilliant ball by Gerrard, and makes a complete mess of it.
Half time.
Liverpool controlled the play for the half, but it was really by default. I thought before the match it was a certain 1-1 draw, but it looks like that was wishful thinking.
See if you fooolllllooooow the ball you can tap it in. Seriously gonna implode.
42nd minute- Cech spills a rebound into the center of the penalty area, and Ashley Cole nearly puts it into his own net, but the ball going only just wide left and out for a corner. Cech has spilled a couple of rebounds in this match.
39th minute- Carragher misjudges the bounce of a ball, Anelka nearly misses taking it down, and moments later he blasts a shot into a Liverpool defender. Appeals for handball are made, but there wasn’t one.
Riera is killin us! Awful first touches and bad crossing.
anyone know where i can find the north east derby online
33rd minute- Chelsea earn their first corner of the match, which was headed wide by Terry. It was in the vague direction of goal, so that was an improvement from the majority of the game so far.
31st minute- Cech found himself with the ball at his feet and under a little pressure, but took a terrible first touch that left him scrambling to sweep the ball away before a Liverpool player ended up with an open net.
28th minute- Kuyt was free on the wing with Gerrard and Torres running in, but Kuyt makes a mess of the cross.
20th minute- Mascherano gets the 1st yellow of the match for persistant infringement.
Ugh! Why didn’t any pool player follow that ball in! Stupid plays like that are why we have so many draws.
19th minute- Another long range shot, this time by Mascherano. Cech stops it, but spills a rebound well away from him. Fortunately for Chelsea, there was not a single Liverpool player within 10 yards of it.
Love the snow sprinkles. Fitting for super sunday.. Go Liverpool
15th minute- Dirk Kuyt pressures Terry on a clearance from the back, deflects it, but puts a terrible cross in from the right. It tells you everything you need to know about Kuyt in one bit of play.
If Liverpool don’t win today I do believe I will implode all over myself. Jes.
Dang. Alonso with a nice kick. Corner amounts to nothing.
14th minute- Alonso takes a shot from long distance that Cech parries out for a corner. No one closed down Alonso.
Cutting away from Inter – Torino in the 88th min to go to Chelsea – Liverpool? Weak. You don’t cut away from the end of a match that’s already going on (though I’m sure I’m in the minority hear because probably most people reading the Blog only care about EPL matches).
Liverpool
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25 Pepe Reina, 37 Martin Skrtel, 23 Jamie Carragher, 12 Fabio Aurelio, 17 Ãlvaro Arbeloa, 14 Xabi Alonso, 20 Javier Mascherano, 11 Alberto Riera, 18 Dirk Kuyt, 8 Steven Gerrard, 9 Fernando Torres
Chelsea
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Petr Cech 1, John Terry 26, Alex 33, Ashley Cole 3, José Bosingwa 17, John Mikel Obi 12, Frank Lampard 8, Michael Ballack 13, Florent Malouda 15, Nicolas Anelka 39, Salomon Kalou 21
Fox Soccer Channel needs to rename themselves to Fox English Premier League Channel. Cutting away from an end-to-end, dramatic finish just as stoppage time begins in order to show pre-game for another match? What a fscking joke of a sports channel.
FSC ends coverage of Inter-Torino at 1-1 in minute 88 to switch to Liverpool-Chelsea. I could have waited for the English game for a few more minutes, especially since nothing has happened in the first 5 minutes.
Any chance Altidore makes his debut for Xerez today?
I AM SO PISSED!!! Why leave Keane off AGAIN?? I cannot believe this crap. Okay got to breathe….
Ives, what is with the rumor all over Britain this morning that Fulham is trying to get McBride back on loan?