Re: You only sing when you are winning

June 2010 brought end to Rafa s 6 year reign at Anfield. He never won a championship that was always expected from him and he was in charge when arch rivals ManU equalised our English record of 18 league crowns. His last season was total disappointment, out of Champions League after group stage, only 7th at the end of the season. Still he will be remembered along Liverpool legendary managers as: Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley or Kenny Daglish. Why? Here is my top ten Rafa s Red Army games:

10
Chelsea - Liverpool 4-4

There were little expectations after CL quarter final first leg 1-3 defeat to Chelsea. All those who thought this duel was dead and burried after first leg were proved wrong in the second. After all we were out of Europe but we didn t go out quietly.

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9
Liverpool - Besiktas 8-0

One of so many magic nights at Anfield. Guys were simply brilliant. We just couldn t stop scoring setting up biggest ever win in CL history.

8
Chelsea - Liverpool 0-1

26th October 2008 was when Chelsea 87 unbeaten home game run ended. For more than 2.5 years they were invincible at their own turf. My Arsenal, West Ham or ManU mates called me after the game just to say how grateful they were to Liverpool for beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge .

7
Liverpool - Real Madrid 4-0

You can t ask for the better CL knock-out rounds opponent than it s 9 time winner from Madrid. On that particular night we made them look as if it was their first game ever in the competiton. We were dominant force on the pitch from the first to the last whistle.

6
Liverpool - Chelsea 1-0

When those two teams clashed in CL semi back in spring 2005 there was 30-something points gap between them in Premiership table. Nevertheless Rafa has outsmarted Jose going through by one of the most controversial CL goal ever. Maybe we scored a goal that never was but who cares as Chelsea were nowhere near scoring on the night.

5
Liverpool - ManU 1-0

5th round of FA Cup against the most time winners is not exactly a draw one would dream for. It proved to be our season all the way and 11 times winners had to kiss the cup goodbye after Peter Crouch only goal of the game.

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4
Liverpool - Arsenal 4-2

Absolute thriller! 1-1 at Emirates wasn t a bad result, all we had to do is win at Anfield. Aftter Theo Walcott s maradonian run and Adebayor s equaliser in 83th minute things didn t look so pretty any more. Babel proved to be our supersub coming from the bench to win a penalty and score in the dying minutes.

3
Liverpool - West Ham 3-3 (pen 3-1)

We were favourites to win the game but Hammers didn t care. Speaker at the stadium was announcing 4 minutes of extra time to be played when Gerrard scored one of the best FA Cup final goals ever.

2
ManU - Liverpool 1-4

Dream came true. Not many teams go to Old Trafford to crash hosts like that. Even though ManU drew the first blood they couldn t stop what was coming at them. Torres made ManU defensive rock Vidic look fragile as Bambi on ice.

1
Liverpool - Olympiakos 3-1 AC Milan - Liverpool 3-3 (pen 2-3)

I will never make up my mind which game I liked better so they both share 1st place. Our miraculous come back from 0-3 in Instanbul CL final is widely known but not as many know that it would never happen if it wasn t for famous Olymiakos game. On the last game of group stage we needed to beat Greek champions by at least 2 goals to go through. As we never do the things easy way we were trailing 0-1 at half time and 1-1 till 80th minute when Neil Mellor scored in front of the Kop to give us another 10 minutes of hope. Then stepped in Steven Gerrard doing what he does best which is getting us out of shit with a vicious 86th minute strike that has instantly became Anfield legend.

Now Rafa s time has come to the end but he will always be remembered warmly at Anfield.

YNWA

here we go again: