Carson's calamity takes edge off Liverpool's triumph over tension

Liverpool 2 - Juventus 1

The profound sadness of the emotions stirred by the death of 39 people 20 years ago is a strange and unnerving backdrop for a football match, but for at least 45 minutes last night Rafael Benitez's Liverpool put aside the tension of the occasion.

The profound sadness of the emotions stirred by the death of 39 people 20 years ago is a strange and unnerving backdrop for a football match, but for at least 45 minutes last night Rafael Benitez's Liverpool put aside the tension of the occasion. Their two goals threatened to make this one of Anfield's greatest nights, until Fabio Cannavaro intervened to wrench the advantage in this absorbing tie back towards Juventus.

It was a match that asked much of the emotions of even the most marble-hearted spectator and it began with many of the Juventus support literally turning their backs on a banner commemorating the Heysel disaster. Then just minutes after the Kop held up a mosaic appealing for friendship, their team flew into a two-goal lead that looked insurmountable until Liverpool's 19-year-old goalkeeper Scott Carson was at fault for an away goal that could prove critical.

Defending this fragile lead in the Stadio delle Alpi on Wednesday will require Benitez's side to summon the verve and the fortitude that characterised their first half last night. Led by Steven Gerrard, they scored two goals against a team that had conceded only two in their entire eight previous matches in this competition. And in the second strike, by Luis Garcia, they had a goal that will give hope to every supporter who makes the difficult journey to Turin next week.

"I don't think there are any favourites for the second leg," Benitez said. "We know it will be more difficult but we have two options [win or draw] not just one."

Whether there are favourites in Turin will be dictated by whether Juventus repeat the insipid performance of the first half which their coach, Fabio Capello, said was a result of not playing at the weekend. But if, Juventus are the hungry, dangerous side that emerged after the interval, then Liverpool's Champions' League odyssey would seem doomed.

For 45 minutes last night, however, Benitez's side were exemplary. In the uneasy, tense atmosphere, in front of an away support that seemed to have little appetite for reconciliation, you had to wonder how they would cope. But what took place next was a remarkable 45 minutes of European football.

Or rather, a remarkable 45 minutes for Liverpool. In attack, Benitez surprised everyone by selecting the 21-year-old French striker Anthony Le Tallec, who has not started for his club for 14 months, and, with Milan Baros, he gave Cannavaro and Lilian Thuram more trouble than those two accomplished defenders would ever have expected.

Liverpool needed only 10 minutes to score a deserved opener. Gerrard swung in a corner, Luis Garcia flicked it on and the loose ball was volleyed home exquisitely at the back post: finished like a centre-forward by Liverpool's centre-back Sami Hyypia.

There was nothing Juventus could have done to stop Liverpool's glorious second goal which was teed up by Le Tallec and executed from 30 yards by Garcia. It was a breathtaking long, arching volley that gave Gianluigi Buffon, the man most regard as the world's best goalkeeper, scarcely the slightest chance to save it in front of the Anfield Road. It shook the old stadium and the restraint that had characterised the pre-match mood disappeared.

Within a minute Zlatan Ibrahimovic struck the post of the Liverpool goal which was being protected by the 19-year-old goalkeeper Carson for only the sixth time since he joined from Leeds in January. But even he had been lifted by the game's tempo. On the half hour, Pavel Nedved, who had been unusually quiet, played in Alessandro Del Piero and the Italian's shot from inside the area was beautifully turned away by the young goalkeeper.

Just after the hour, Capello made the kind of decision that used to be unthinkable at Juventus, he substituted Del Piero and, within a minute of David Trezeguet's arrival, the away side scored. Gianluca Zambrotta's cross on 63 minutes was met by Cannavaro at the back post ­ his downward header did not look threatening at first but Carson misjudged it and allowed the ball to bounce over him.

Benitez was careful to defend his goalkeeper, who he said was in "a good position" to stop the header.

"I've seen it again on television and it was difficult for the goalkeeper," the Liverpool manager said. "I was delighted with the first half but disappointed that we gave them that goal. When you score two goals against a team like Juventus it is difficult to do the same in the second half."

If Juventus were unhappy with defeat and the single away goal then the intensity of their game in the latter stages did not betray it.

The peerless Jamie Carragher was on hand to block a cross from Ibrahimovic to Trezeguet but otherwise it seemed like Capello's team had settled for the result. That seemed only to make Liverpool's task next week even more foreboding.

Liverpool (4-4-2): Carson; Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Traoré; Garcia, Biscan, Gerrard, Riise; Le Tallec (Smicer, 73), Baros (Nuñez, 66). Substitutes not used: Dudek (gk), Alonso, Warnock, Welsh, Potter.

Juventus (4-4-2): Buffon; Zebina (Montero, 81), Thuram, Cannavaro, Zambrotta; Camoranesi, Blasi (Pessotto, h-t), Emerson, Nedved; Del Piero (Trezeguet, 61), Ibrahimov. Substitutes not used: Chimenti (gk), Appiah, Olivera, Zalayeta.

Referee: F De Bleeckere (Belgium).