Klopp’s boys will be trouble
LIVERPOOL WIN 5-0 ON AGG THE FINAL steps of Liverpool’s untroubled progress into the last eight of the Champions League were never going to be urgent with all the hard work already done.
But on a night which understandably had little of the electricity normally associated with both European nights at Anfield and this stage of the competition, Jurgen Klopp’s side breezed past Porto to reach the last eight.
This was as easy a task as Liverpool have faced in the competition so far: converting a 5-0 first-leg lead into anything apart from defeat.
It was a touch disappointing perhaps given the platform that they failed to add to their handful, but in truth it mattered not and this result aside there will be few teams who will want to face them, including English representatives or any of La Liga’s giants in the pot, when the draw is made a week on Friday.
Klopp had done his best in the build-up to revive a flat-lining tie, insisting complacency was their enemy and that Porto were capable of inflicting the same punishment on Liverpool as they had taken at home.
Nobody had been fooled including, you feel, the Liverpool manager himself, who fielded five changes from the side which beat Newcastle on Saturday. And certainly not Porto coach Sergio Conceicao, who made 10 changes from the first leg.
If this lack of meaningful competition and a slowburning start smothered much of the normal Anfield noise, it did nothing to persuade a sizeable away contingent from supporting their side noisily throughout – a tiny minority guilty during the minute’s silence for Davide Astori as well.
It was Liverpool who carved out the only chances in the first half, Sadio Mane twice going close as the home side exerted a stranglehold that Porto appeared unable to escape.
In Oporto, Mane had struck three shots on target and scored with all of them. Here the gods balanced things up denying him first as his outstretched right boot failed to keep a delivery from Joe Gomez under the post in the 18th minute.
Then, more agonisingly, by the post when James Milner slid him in on the right side of the penalty area and his rifled shot beat Iker Casillas’s dive but rebounded back towards him off the far post.
Dejan Lovren might have succeeded where Mane failed after Alberto Moreno was hacked to the turf 40 yards out on the left side, Milner’s free-kick finding the centre-half but his header again sailing narrowly over.
With Jordan Henderson and Milner bossing the base of the midfield without too much trouble, Liverpool controlled the game which reached the half-time whistle goalless.
Neither side would have been too disappointed with stalemate either. For Liverpool it was further evidence they are adding game management to their more obvious attacking talents and with an XI missing Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and both first choice full-backs.
For the visitors, damage limitation and the avoidance of humiliation was the aim for all that an aggregate thumping was in store however well they defended.
The second half contained little in the way of goal chances with the best of them going to the visitors,
Oliver Torres’ shot from 22 yards well saved by Lorus Karius.
Positives for Liverpool aside from safe passage were that Adam Lallana managed a first 90 minute shift of his season and his first European football since the Europa League final Sevilla in 2016.
It says much about where they are at the moment that Liverpool have bigger fish to fry this week with a trip to Old Trafford on Saturday. For that, Klopp will be glad that everyone came through unscathed goals or not, including Mohamed Salah who was sent on late on as much to warm up the crowd as anything else.