With time and space to select his shot, Baros sliced the ball over the top.Blackburn, though scarcely enhancing the spectacle with their safety-first approach, demonstrated commendable discipline. They were particularly well served by their centre-backs, Andy Todd and Ryan Nelsen. Liverpool appeared bereft of ideas as to how to break them down, providing food for thought for Everton's spies in the standLiverpool (4-4-2): Dudek; Finnan, Carragher, Pellegrino, Warnock (Biscan, 82); Luis Garcia, Gerrard, Hamann, Smicer (Riise, h-t); Morientes, Baros (Nu? 70). Substitutes not used: Carson (gk), Hyypia.Blackburn Rovers (4-5-1): Friedel; Neill, Todd, Nelsen, Johansson (Matteo, 62); Emerton, Flitcroft, Mokoena, Reid, Pedersen; Stead (Gallagher, 75). Substitutes not used: Enckelman (gk), Tugay, Johnson.Referee: B Knight (Kent).. The Middlesbrough manager, Steve McClaren, believes his side are capable of reaching the quarter-finals of the Uefa Cup despite being 3-2 down as they go into tonight's second leg of their last-16 tie against Sporting Lisbon at the Estadio Jose Alavalde.
McClaren also has to cope with nine players missing through injury. But McClaren has some reason to hope his side can overcome a deficit which would have been worse if goals from Joseph-Desire Job and Chris Riggott had not reduced the deficit in the closing 11 minutes of last Thursday's first leg at the Riverside."Things happen for a reason in life and in football, and at 3-0 down and with Sporting playing so well, we looked down and out," McClaren said. Steven Reid was so surprised that he volleyed high over the bar. Hyypia's understudy, Mauricio Pellegrino, then wastefully emulated Reid when a corner reached him.The introduction of Riise for Valdimir Smicer gave Liverpool much-needed impetus after the interval. When the visitors did launch a counter-attack, on the half-hour, Steven Gerrard pulled down Steven Reid and was shown a yellow card.The low level of excitement transmitted itself to an untypically becalmed crowd - or perhaps it was vice-versa - and it took a miskick by Jerzy Dudek to enliven matters in the 39th minute. The Norwegian announced his arrival with a jarring challenge on Lucas Neill and promptly left the same defender trailing before cutting the ball back to Milan Baros.
By the midway point in the first half, they had restricted Liverpool to one cross by Stephen Warnock, the ball flashing across goal with no one prepared to attack it.With the South Africa captain, Aaron Mokoena, playing between a well-drilled back line and a heavily staffed midfield, Blackburn often stifled with ease Liverpool's attempts to play the ball into their forwards' feet. Blackburn, themselves embarking on a sequence that also pits them against Arsenal and Manchester United, are now eight points clear of the relegation zone. It is a measure of their improvement under Mark Hughes that they have kept five clean sheets in six games without defeat.The presence of Everton's managerial duo, David Moyes and Alan Irvine, was a reminder, if any were needed, of the impending collision of the red and the blue. So, too, was Rafael Benitez's team selection, which saw two fixtures in the Liverpool side, John Arne Riise and Sami Hyypia, start on the bench, doubtless with a view to having them fresh for Sunday.Blackburn, who beat Moyes' side 1-0 at Goodison Park in their previous League game, were without Robbie Savage and Paul Dickov, yet they soon showed their now trademark obduracy.
