Champions League 2007 - 2008 - Euro Red Diary 28

by Joel Rookwood

Besiktas v Liverpool: UEFA Champions Group Stage 24 October 2007

In a season that is supposed to be all about bringing the championship back to its Merseyside home, Liverpool all but completed the capitulation of a truly horrific Champions League campaign on a cold evening in Istanbul. Last season our title challenge had been extinguished by mid October, but this year it is the quest for continental honours which seems to have all but disintegrated at this early stage of the season.

Liverpool were given a lesson at the BJK Inonu stadium both on and off the pitch, as a passionate home support urged a determined home side to victory, a victory that was well deserved. In truth though, this was as much to do with Liverpool's complete lack of desire, as it was about the appetite and ability of Besiktas.

The contemporary and historical pedigree of the Merseysiders in this competition can be matched only by the might of Madrid and Milan. It is this pedigree that has seen the brand of football and fanaticism of Liverpool come to be revered around the continent. On current evidence, you could be forgiven for thinking that this reputation is ill-deserved.

Liverpool were sterile as they secured a 1-1 draw in Porto on match day one, a game where only half of the away support bothered to actually turn up for a game they had bought tickets for. For too many, the priority lies in featuring on the ‘loyalty list' that would guarantee a ticket for the more glamorous fixtures later in the competition. Actually turning up to support their team's quest to get there, it seems is of little importance for some. And now, thanks to some pitiful football, and some non-existent support, merely reaching the Super Sixteen round that precedes the quarter-final represents something of a pipe-dream.

Liverpool were beaten at home on match day two, by a side two places and four points off the bottom of the most average of continental domestic leagues – Le Championnat. A Marseille side boasting the hapless Bolo Zenden and the ridiculous Djibril Cisse in its squad, somehow managed to secure the most unlikely of victories at Anfield. To make matters worse, few could argue that they did not deserve the three points. Suddenly the group stage was for Liverpool transformed from a formality to an emergency. This state of desperation was reinforced on match day three, as Benitez's side succumbed to a 2-1 defeat by lowly Besiktas. The Turkish outfit had not won a Champions League game in their own back yard in four years, and yet no other outcome than a Besiktas victory ever looked likely on a sorry night for last season's beaten finalists.

After overcoming Toulouse in the qualifying round, Liverpool were placed in undoubtedly the least challenging of groups. But with the group phase only half completed, such an elementary test is threatening to expose the inadequacies of the Benitez regime. Put simply, the equation goes something like this: good players + bad football = poor management. Thirty-eight months of mediocre league performances would not detract from such an assessment either. Yet Liverpool remain unbeaten in the league, which is the trophy we really crave, and I am determined not to jump on the back of a man who has achieved so much for Liverpool in so little time. It can't be denied though, whether or not Benitez's list of achievements at the club will ever be added to, is currently the most hotly debated topic of conversations in Liverpool. To see if that objective was to become a step closer or a step further away, 700 Scousers made the journey to Turkey to witness what the Liverpool manager himself labelled in the build up to the match as a 'must win game'.

There was a predictable pre-match attack on the bar where Liverpool fans were drinking by a sizeable minority of home fans, just a few yards from where two Leeds fans were fatally wounded by Galatasaray hooligans at the turn of the century. But on this occasion at least, the actions of the few should not be allowed to deflect from the passion of the majority of home fans, who were in electric voice for the entirety of the game. In the opinion of this observer, Besiktas now join Liverpool, Celtic, Basle, and ominously, Marseille (the team who host Liverpool next) as the noisiest home supporters in Europe.

With the events on the pitch almost too unbearable to watch, it was the Turkish show of support that captured the imagination of the away end. An own goal from Hyypia a little more than ten minutes into the game, and a second from Deivson Bobo a little less than ten minutes from the end of the game earned Besiktas the victory. The out-of-favour Peter Crouch was introduced late on, and managed to set-up a goal for Liverpool captain Ste Gerrard, although even the most optimistic of Liverpool fans knew this effort was merely consolatory.

Having secured the victory, the Turks sportingly chanted the name of 'Liverpool', and it must be added, with far greater volume than we had managed all evening. I'm sure however, that the consumption of disproportionate volumes of Efes before the game inevitably contributed to the discrepancy in vocal support.

With this being our third trip to Istanbul in four seasons, we didn't bother with any of the more cultural or adventurous activities that I'm sure would have rendered the trip more memorable. Instead, after the game, we were keen to not get caught up in the celebrations, which, particularly in this part of the world, can easily turn nasty.

So we let the Besiktas fans have their victory, as we quietly and slowly headed back to the bar of the Hilton Park Hotel which towers over the stadium. As we walked, conversation turned to the various factors contributing to our disastrous form in the competition that has been kindest to us in recent years.

It was a discussion that the former Liverpool Echo football correspondent Chris Bascombe (now employed by an unnameable national) and former Liverpool centre half Mark Lawrenson were virtually dragged into when we got to the bar and realised we were staying in the same hotel.

For the record, both were of the opinion that Benitez remains the right man for Liverpool and that a push for the title, and this season, is still a realistic possibility. As I shook hands with the pair before crawling off to bed, I couldn't help but wonder if they were right on either count. But time will tell.

Joel Rookwood

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