Steve Gerrard - Captain Fantastic in Olympiakos testimonial win

Steven Gerrard waves to the Anfield faithful

Today saw our Captain Fantastic finally step out at Anfield through his guard of honour to play his long awaited and much anticipated testimonial game. The opposition carefully selected after that monumental “ohhhhhh you beauty” night, the stage was set for a wonderful day at Anfield to mark the career of one of the most loyal, genuine, and talented men in football – Steven Gerrard.

With training photos leaking the day before showing Jamie Carragher and Robbie Fowler, there was sure to be a nice little treat for the sell out crowd. It was always in Gerrard’s interest to keep this clash as a proper pre-season game but with the addition of the recently retired Carragher and Fowler – well, that was more than enough cherries on the top of the cake.

I was lucky enough to be able to be present at Gerrard’s testimonial and had a fantastic seat on The Kop in Block 304. I’ve never had chance to watch a game from The Kop so far and so you can imagine my excitement for this one. It may have been a friendly, but it was a brilliant atmosphere on the whole.

Steven Gerrard of course got a standing ovation and an ear drum bursting round of applause when he entered the field. I seriously felt proud to be present for this man’s testimonial, they just don’t make them like him these days.

As far as the game went, it was a decent friendly. Olympiakos weren’t as threatening as they could have been but they had their moments and it was nice to see the well known Javier Saviola appear for them. The bundle of Olympiakos fans who were present at Anfield too were also great sports.

For Liverpool, they started without Suarez, Carragher, or Fowler, though we knew Fowler wasn’t going to be able to last for too long with his new belly. Ha!

It was Joe Allen first on the score sheet for the Reds, a missed chance minutes earlier that he scuffed high meant he needed to redeem himself and he certainly did, after an Aspas pass presented him an easy tap in. Allen had Liverpool in the lead.

Half time was reached without any more goal action but I’d learnt one thing from the first half, Kolo Toure is a beast. I’ve never seen him live, I obviously know he has real presence and power but he’s soddin’ massive. I was impressed with his performance.