Monday, July 18, 2011

Liverpool teaches Malaysia a football lesson. Liverpool 6-3 Malaysia, Saturday 16 July 2011









On Saturday 16th July 2011, Liverpool, the 5 times European Champion and 18 times English Premier League champions, trashed the Malaysian national side, 6-3 in a friendly match at the national Stadium, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur.

The Malaysians were hammered 0-4 by Arsenal a few days earlier.

The Malaysians who have never qualified into the world cup final were handed a sound beating by the Reds, The 2005 King of Europe and the Pride of Merseyside.

Mind you, the scoreline will be much bigger had Liverpool's manager Sir Kenny Dalglish and top striker Luis Suarez joined the Reds in that match.

Dalglish was away in England finalising the signing of Stuart Downing while Suarez, the Uruguyan international striker was involved in the 2011 Copa America in Agentina.

Coincidently, the match was held at the same time when Malaysia's Prime Minister, Najib Razak was away in London. Najib is an avid Manchester United fan.

Charlie Adam, who joined from Blackpool early July 2011, made his starting debut for Liverpool and was at the heart of the team's first-half attacking moments. He scored with a twice-taken penalty in the 24th minute.

Malaysian captain and dead ball specialist, Shafiq Rahim equalized near halftime with a superb free kick.

The half time ended 1-1.

Liverpool assistant manager Steve Clark made 11 substitutions at the break.

7 goals were scored in an astonishing final 28 minutes of the game.

Liverpool's duo David Ngog and Maxi Rodriguez both scored twice with Dutch international Dirk Kuyt adding the other goal for the visitors in the 93rd minute.

Ngog who came on for Carroll put Liverpool ahead in the 67th minute, taking advantage of a defensive lapse to knock the ball home from close range beating Malaysia's top goalkeeper Khairul Fahmi Che Mat.

If his first goal had an element of luck, the second was a beauty — Ngog blasting the ball into the net while on the run two minutes later.

Maxi Rodriguez, the Argentine international made it four for the Reds in the 74th, coming in from the right to convert a cross from Emiliano Insua.

Malaysia's top striker, Mohamad Safee Mohamad Sali, was a reserve as he was carrying an injury.

But he came on in the last 20 minutes of the game to make it 4-2 in the 79th minute after added another goal two minutes later.

Rodriguez, however, nodded the ball into the net in the 90th minute from close range off a cross by Kuyt.

In the 93rd minute, Kyut final burst through the defense in injury time scored the last and 6th goal for the five-time European champions.

Liverpool defeated China's Guanghong Sunray Cave 4-3 earlier on Wednesday 13 July 2011.

Meanwhile Malaysia earlier lost 0-4 to another English giant, Arsenal at the Bukit Jalil stadium.

So in 2 matches in Asia, Liverpool scored an impressive 10 goals but the Reds' leaky defence conceded 6 goals.

This kind of mistakes must not happen in the top flight of British football if Liverpool wants to be champions of England and Europe again.

"We still have a lot of work to do. It's early in the preseason and the players are not quite sharp yet," Liverpool assistant coach Steve Clarke said. "It was a great game and the Malaysian boys were very aggressive but fair.

"We let in another three goals today but it's not just the defense we have to work on. I'm sure the boys will be up to the mark in four weeks' time when we kick off the season."

Malaysia was thrashed 4-0 by Arsenal earlier this week, and its coach K.Rajagobal said his team had learned a lot from both games in preparation for a two-legged World Cup qualifier against Singapore on July 23 and July 28.

"I told the players we had to be aggressive and we worked real hard," he said. "There will be some players who will be elated that we scored three times against a top club, but others will be sad we conceded six times. There were sloppy goals and I'm not too happy about that."

Long live the Reds... You will never walk alone...

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