There is reverse psychology, and then there is the eternal mystery of the mind of Rafael Benítez. Last night, less than a week after Craig Bellamy allegedly threatened John Arne Riise with a golf club at the end of a squad training week in Portugal, the Liverpool manager rewarded the Welshman not with the threat of a transfer at the end of the season but with a place in his starting line-up for a match that could define the club's season. Ninety minutes later both men were celebrating their unlikely reward.
Bellamy scored Liverpool's equaliser, set up Riise for the winner, got himself booked for nattering at the referee, and secured Lionel Messi's shirt in exchange for his own as Barcelona's bemused players left the field. Not a bad night's work for a man whose latest transgression of the rules of professional behaviour seemed to have condemned him to a state of permanent disgrace.
One thing you can say for sure about this troublesome character, however, is that he does not shrink from the spotlight. And last night, in surely the biggest match of his 10 years as a professional footballer, he came up with the goods for the manager whose faith, not to mention a £6.5m investment, he appeared to have so casually betrayed.
The immediate response to the news of his inclusion was to conclude that, with a place in the last eight of the European Cup at stake, pragmatism rules. After Benítez watched Valencia, his old club, take Barcelona apart last Sunday with a series of rapid, raking counterattacks, he may have concluded that Bellamy's speed could make the difference in the effort not just to keep the reigning European champions on the back foot but to penetrate their defensive shield.
But it was Bellamy's head rather than his speed which secured Liverpool's equaliser two minutes before half-time, his effort from Steve Finnan's long diagonal cross from the right somehow squirming off Victor Valdés and spinning across the line before the goalkeeper could scoop it away. Given the events of the past few days, the identity of the scorer was probably as inevitable as the nature of his celebration, which involved a swing with an invisible golf club.
Just over half an hour's playing time later it was Bellamy's quick thinking which produced an inviting square ball across the face of the Barcelona area. Riise applied his left foot with a two-iron of a shot which flew under Valdés's crossbar and gave Liverpool a remarkable lead.
On the eve of the match a smiling Benítez insisted that the kerfuffle in Portugal had not been as serious as reports suggested, and that his players had apologised, accepted their fines and put the matter to rest. He would not be drawn on the specifics of Bellamy's individual punishment, and we will probably never know the extent to which the player's contribution last night will have affected the final resolution of the affair.
As Bellamy took his position for the kick-off, just ahead of Riise, the pair were being closely watched to see if they would succeed in performing a more harmonious duet on the the pitch than they managed with a karaoke microphone on the Algarve. Within a couple of minutes they were combining down the flank for the first time as Liverpool attempted to give their hosts an early surprise.
The decision to deploy Riise on the left of midfield meant that, having disposed of Djimi Traoré last summer and Stephen Warnock last month, and with Fabio Aurelio unavailable through injury, Benítez would have to pick someone to play out of position at left- back. His choice was Alvaro Arbeloa, a 24-year-old right-back newly arrived from Deportivo la Coruña after 22 appearances in La Liga.
With Lionel Messi returning to start his first game after a long absence, having shown fine form as a substitute against Valencia, this seemed to be putting a heavy responsibility on the shoulders of the new acquisition, even with Riise available to track back and provide support. So it proved in the early stages when Messi, Ronaldinho and Deco put together a series of high-speed combinations which seemed likely to condemn the left side of Liverpool's defence to a night of anguish.
But Benítez came into the match with an unbeaten record on his visits with Valencia to Camp Nou, and once his players had conceded the first goal and absorbed a further wave of attacks from the home team they snatched an equaliser which seemed to unsettle their opponents. In the third quarter, when Barcelona were straining to strike back, Liverpool's defence concentrated on keeping the array of gifted South American forwards at bay, ensuring there were always two defenders on hand any time Ronaldinho, Messi, Deco or Javier Saviola turned to face them. There was no mistaking the effect on Barcelona of the absence of Samuel Eto'o, who watched the match in a white suit which might have been designed to draw attention to his absence.
When Bellamy was replaced with 10 minutes to go, there was a handshake from Benítez as he left the pitch. After the final whistle, he made his way around his team-mates and shared a brief embrace with Riise. For the Welshman, the Spaniard and the Norwegian, a dramatic few days had ended with one of the most extraordinary results in Liverpool's history of European competition. And who would bet against them now?
