English FA Cup 16/2/2008 - Liverpool vs Barnsley

The media is smelling a great big upset in this live commentary and play by play English FA Cup soccer match between giants Liverpool and minnows Barnsley. Why would they think so? Mainly because of the crisis that continues unabated at Anfield, and now they have a sudden defensive headache as well. Sami Hyppia is not entirely fit from an injury, Martin Skrtel has been dealt an injury blow as well after seemingly having slowly clawed his way back from an embarrassing outing against Havant and Waterlooville, and Daniel Agger is still nowhere to be seen as injury setback after setback continues to dog the young Danish player of the year. On top of that, Rafael Benitez is proving to be a poor manager by insisting that he will stick to his rotational policy and will rest Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres for this game. Obviously he has great belief in his reserves but it also shows that he isn't interested in the FA Cup and still thinks he has a great chance in the Champions League against Inter Milan. Of course he does, since Inter Milan has actually struggled against quality opponents in Europe this season but then again that's against quality opponents.


Barnsley are all fired up and raring to go in this live commentary and radio broadcast soccer match in the English FA Cup against Liverpool as they are buying into the hype and determined to create a huge upset here. However, the strength in depth that is obvious at Liverpool is not present at Barnsley as they have had to draft in a loan player from West Brom to feature in their goal. Luke Steele will debut for Barnsley in this game and he is a young inexperienced goalkeeper at this competitive level and it remains to be seen if he would shine at Anfield or crumble due to nerves in this pulsating live commentary and TV telecast English FA Cup soccer match between Liverpool and his team Barnsley. However the stats have shown that on Barnsley's last trip to Anfield in the English Premier League nearly a decade ago, they actually scored an incredible win over Liverpool.


Despite the knives out in full force waiting for Benitez to fall flat on his face in this live commentary and radio broadcast English FA Cup soccer match between his club Liverpool and underdog Barnsley, Liverpool does have decent backups in store, even if they are not quite up to the mark overall for their title ambitions. On top of that, Liverpool will play at home at Anfield and they have their vociferous, if somewhat naive, home crowd to roar them on to another stay of execution win for Benitez. If newspaper reports are to be believed, Liverpool will experience their second new ownership in less than a year by the end of this or next month. If that happens, this live commentary and TV telecast English FA Cup match between Liverpool and Barnsley might very well be Rafael Benitez's swansong in the oldest knockout soccer cup competition in the world.