Last night saw Liverpool return to winning ways with a calculated and clever performance against RB Leipzig in their first-leg tie of the Round of 16 in the Champions League – with a great 2-0 win to take into the second leg.
The Reds had a good idea early on of just how threatening the German club can be, with Dani Olmo meeting Angeliño’s cross into the box with a great header that was met with an even better save from Alisson, who tipped the ball onto the post to keep thing’s at bay for Liverpool – which no doubt would have done his confidence the world of good.
Both sides found their chances quite frequently during the first half but one factor that I think really helped for the Reds was the lack of a target man our out and out striker starting for Leipzig – as discussed during the preview for the game, no one in the Leipzig squad has netted more than four times this season among 15 different scorers in all competitions, something that would have helped Jurgen Klopp’s side as they were able to evenly distribute their marking and pressing amongst the German’s squad rather than have to worry about one or two attacking outlets.
This differed for Leipzig as they had our front-three of Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino, and Mohamed Salah to have to try and contain and focus on which allows room and space for other individuals.
Liverpool finally opened the scoring on the 53rd minute thanks to a mistake from Marcel Sabitzer, whose back pass to Lukas Klostermann didn’t quite make its way to the German centre-back and instead was pounced on by Salag, who expertly tucked the ball past Peter Gulacsi to put the Reds deservedly in front after knocking on the door and controlling the press for most of the game.
Can Liverpool win the Champions League for a seventh time?
Yes
No
Another mistake from the Leipzig defence, this time with Dayot Upamecano failing to clear a long ball over the top from Liverpool was met by Mané, who carried the ball into the box and slotted it past Gulacsi to double the Reds’ lead and all but take control of the tie for now.
It was a fantastic performance from Klopp’s side overall and showed the fight and desire that the squad has to turn thing’s around this season and put results and form right again. We have performed really well in the Champions League this season and the question remains – could we win it? Stranger things have happened and the season is mirroring massively off of our 2005 win in the competition.
Despite having to still play Jordan Henderson in defence, the press and tempo of Liverpool’s previous seasons seemed to be creeping its way back in due to the squad slowly but surely getting used to these new roles they had had to adopt such as Gini Wijnaldum in that No.6 role and Curtis Jones making his name heard and becoming a regular in Klopp’s midfield.
The win has no doubt shot some confidence through the veins of the Reds and they will likely be wanting to take this good result into the Premier League this weekend with a visit from Everton for the Merseyside Derby.
What do you think Liverpool fans, were you happy with the win? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section down below…