Atletico dump champs Liverpool out of CL
Liverpool, March 12: Liverpool’s Champions League defence is over after Atletico Madrid played the role of party poopers at Anfield and paved the way for a strangely anti-climactic end to the season for Jurgen Klopp’s Reds.
Barring an unprecedented collapse, Klopp will deliver a first league title in
30 years, though there is some doubt over whether the season can even be completed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Liverpool, after a recordbreaking start to the Premier League campaign, had the title effectively sewn up by Christmas but failure to add more silverware during a historic season now feels like a letdown.
“For two and a half years we had an exceptional ride in the Champions League, we had party after party after party in the Champions League pretty much,” said Klopp, whose side were also finalists in
2018. “Tonight was a party, everything was set, it was great — crowd exceptional, the stadium, everything showed up in the best way. The boys delivered a super game, fought hard, played well, and scored wonderful goals. But we lost.”
Atletico’s 3-2 win in extra time on Wednesday completed a 4-2 aggregate victory and inflicted Klopp’s first home defeat in Europe in five years as Liverpool boss, even though the Spanish side were pinned against the ropes by the holders for 94 minutes.
That was how long it took the hosts to score their second goal to move 2-0 in front on the night as a combination of wayward finishing and some brilliant goalkeeping from Jan Oblak forced the tie into extra time.
The post-mortem following Liverpool’s exit points to a tale of two goalkeepers.
Atletico coach Diego Simeone hailed Oblak as the best in the world.
Liverpool’s Alisson Becker is another contender for that crown but, with the Brazilian sidelined by a hip injury, one error from his stand-in Adrian changed the course of the tie.