Aston Villa 0, Liverpool 0 (D,Post)

Mar 19 2007 by Nick Smith at Villa Park

On a personal level, it was an opportunity for the duo to attempt to alter what must surely be Benitez’s first-choice line-up in Europe, namely the side he sent out for both legs against Barca in the last 16.

And it’s inconceivable that, injuries permitting, the same XI won’t be pressed into action against PSV as their potential challengers for places faltered.

They did almost combine to break the deadlock early in the second half when Mascherano skipped through the middle and carried his run into the area, where he was a big toe away from turning in Aurelio’s return drive across the box.

But a measure of the Argentine’s inconsistency, which can only realistically be cured with more games, came minutes later with a wild hack into the Holte End.

At least attempting such a shot showed Mascherano had got to grips with the pattern of the match because speculative efforts were always likely to be the best source of a goal.

This was apparent from the third minute when Riise stung the hands of Thomas Sorensen during what was an encouraging start by Liverpool – Dirk Kuyt headed over a good chance from Riise’s cross a minute later.

But aside from a few fruitless attempts to exploit Craig Bellamy’s pace, things soon subsided, and it was scarcely more exciting at the other end.

It was unclear what John Carew had done to upset his Villa team-mates, but nobody wanted to go near him.

The Norwegian showed himself capable of shielding the ball from Jamie Carragher, as well as beating him in the air, but what’s the point if there’s no-one supporting to capitalise on it?

Relying on pace to get the better of Carragher proved beyond Carew, who needed help in this department from younger allies Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor, but they seemed unwilling to oblige.

Carragher and Daniel Agger might not have been able to take their mothers out but it was a leisurely Sunday afternoon sojourn for them anyway, a situation captured in Villa’s best move of the first half which finished with Agbonlahor being at too wide an angle to squeeze in shots past sliding blocks from Riise and Agger.

Stiliyan Petrov then claimed he should have had a penalty when he went flying just before the break.

Carragher might have been clutching at his back, but the Bulgarian was certainly clutching at straws in his attempts to break the deadlock.

The TV analysis of the so-called action areas of the first half summed things up nicely, showing three-quarters of the game taking place in the middle third.

It was all far too packed and in terms of ball-playing, had all the subtlety of a BBC Comic Relief guilt-trip.