There’s a wonderful article in today’s Times, written by Oliver Kay and well worth a read. It’s hard to find from the home page of the Times Online website, but after reading it in the print version I just had to find it to share it. In particular the first couple of paragraphs drew my attention, but click the link to read the whole lot.

‘Philistines’ converted in the ancient cathedral of the Kop - Times Online

Oliver Kay

The two old men in the directors’ box stood open-mouthed, their eyes glazing over. The Kop in all its glory has the ability to leave even the most hardened visitor spellbound and, just as Roman Abramovich gawped in admiration when his first match as owner of Chelsea took him to Anfield in August 2003, so were George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks gobsmacked by their first taste of the passion they have had the good fortune to buy into.

Two hours later, as the dust settled on a match of high drama and the noise followed the 42,579 crowd on to the streets, Gillett stood alone in the same spot in the directors’ box, watching Liverpool’s players go through their post-match warm-down exercises. Steven Gerrard spotted him and offered a thumbs-up. Gillett smiled down and clasped his hands together almost reverently. “Thank you so much,” he called to the Liverpool captain before telling a handful of reporters near by that the evening had been “like nothing I’ve ever heard or felt before”.

In fact, apart from some droning nonsense by Tony Cascarino (who?) the Times is full of positives about Liverpool’s win last night. There’s another article about it, from Matt Dickinson - Pleasure in the pain on another great night for Benítez:

Liverpool deserved their place in the last eight for the boldness with which they approached both legs

Liverpool’s win, certainly over the 180 minutes, was thoroughly deserved. It’s good to see that our national newspapers are seeing that too, as so often it seems they do little else but criticise.