25 May 2013

Revealed: Jamie Carragher's retirement present from his LFC team-mates

With the Champions League final between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich only hours away, Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has revealed the CL-themed retirement present he received from his Anfield team-mates.

In his column for the Daily Mail today, Carra - who is due to join Sky Sports as an analyst - noted:

"For a retirement present, I was treated by a few Liverpool players to a trip to the Bernabeu earlier this month to watch the second leg of [Borussia Dortmund's] semi-final against Real Madrid".

Pretty cool present for someone who is as football-mad as Carragher, but it's a shame that the game itself wasn't a classic.

Despite that, Carra came away from the game mightily impressed with Dortmund, and tipped Jurgen Klopp's side to overcome Bayern in the final. He enthused:

"Dortmund have incredible pace, intensity and quality. They swarmed all over Madrid - Gundogan and Bender had too much energy and power for Khedira and Alonso, and if they can get on top of Schweinsteiger and Martinez, Bayern might find it difficult to keep pace"

Carra also believes Marco Reus could be the man to make the difference:

"In Reus, they have a player who has only been outperformed in the Champions League this year by Messi and Ronaldo. It has been said Gotze’s thigh injury will damage Dortmund’s chances, but losing Reus would have been worse"

Carra may be slightly exaggerating Reus's influence here. In the CL this season:

* Reus: 4 goals/2 assists in 12 apps.
* Messi: 8 goals/2 assists in 11 apps.
* Ronaldo: 12 goals/1 assist in 12 apps.
* Lewandowski: 10 goals/2 assists in 12 apps.
* Muller: 8 goals/2 assists in 12 apps.

In terms of specific, measurable impact on their respective teams, there's a strong case to suggest that Lewandowski and Muller have also outperformed Reus.



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16 comments:

  1. True....But I Still got 100 on Lewandowski to score and Dortmund to win :)

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  2. Niall O'Reilly6:32 pm, May 25, 2013

    lol must say its great to be back on here :D

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  3. Niall O'Reilly6:33 pm, May 25, 2013

    Not that anyone probably noticed I was gone haha

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  4. Niall O'Reilly6:52 pm, May 25, 2013

    lol cheers...not having a computer for over a month really makes ya feel out of the loop :(

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  5. Welcome back mate :)

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  6. why oh why could they not have given carragher the greatest present of all the premier league lets hope there saving it for gerrards final season now that would be a fairy tale ending to a carear

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  7. Niall O'Reilly8:58 pm, May 25, 2013

    lol you will when I suddenly am replying to your comments again :D

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  8. discuss is not working properly it had 51 posts of you lol;-)

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  9. Niall O'Reilly9:07 pm, May 25, 2013

    I know it always resets my avatar back to the default one :/ .....It must be buggy as hell

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  10. Great performance by Dortmund. I only wish Liverpool had a manager like Klopp. Hope BR is in similar mould.

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  11. So let me get this straight.. their retirement present to an Anfield legend was a trip to the semi final of the CL...

    I'm sure they got a few complimentary tickets from somebody(cough Alonso
    cough).. so they paid for a flight and a night in a hotel for the
    guy...

    About the same as asking me and few lad's in the office to contribute to the price of a Mars bar for a guy who had been there 16/17 years ... WoW.. that really burned a hole in their pocket..

    Sorry but if that's the guy's 'retirement present' from the lads it's pretty pathetic !

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  12. I agree. Not even the CL final tickets would have gotten the benefit of the doubt.

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  13. Wasn't it reported that Sahin got a few Dortmund lads together and met Carra? Alonso wasn't part of it.

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  14. You get a watch at the very least in any other job !!



    Prob got a staff discount on one at the LFC shop for him... cheap skates !! :-)

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  15. watched the cl final WHATS all the fuss about german football ?? ok it wasn t a bad game all these so called experts blowin smoke up german arses made me sick. if u think were have problems in centre defence what about those clowns playin for Dortmund .they might as well played sid james and hattie Jacques there is was aright CARRY ON . no if that's the benchmark its nothing to worry about as for Bayern not the best team to win the cl but maybe it was just a poor completion this season.

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