REDS RUE MISSES
No miracle comeback this time as strikers fluff lines
LIVERPOOL 0 0 REAL MADRID REAL MADRID WIN 3-1 ON AGGREGATE
JURGEN KLOPP has seven games to save Liverpool’s season after they came up short of a Champions League miracle at empty Anfield.
The Reds must now bridge a threepoint gap if they are to rescue a top-four finish in the Premier League.
They will have a chance if they play with the spirit they summoned against Real Madrid, but they could not overturn a two-goal first-leg deficit.
Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was inspired for Real and will now face old club Chelsea in the semi-finals.
LIVERPOOL gave it a serious crack but their Champions League dream ended last night amid a flurry of missed opportunities.
The two-goal deficit they conceded with an insipid performance in the quarter-final first leg in Madrid proved too much to reel in despite a radically improved display.
Against Barcelona in the semi-final two years ago, such a first-leg deficit was eminently retrievable at Anfield. The trouble was Anfield wasn’t really Anfield last night. Empty and still, it was a far cry from the evocative amphitheatre inside which the team never walked alone on big European nights like these.
It was left up to Liverpool to stoke their own furnace. Manager Jurgen Klopp chose not to repeat his ill-fated experiment of starting with Naby Keita, which backfired in the first leg, but his choice of stand-in – James Milner – was a surprise. It left Thiago on the bench.
The point of the change was made inside the first minute as Milner left Karim Benzema in a heap after a clattering tackle. Note to Madrid: Liverpool were clearly not going to stand off the 13-time winners like they did in the first half in Madrid.
Milner’s inclusion may have centred around the leadership and attitude he could be relied upon to bring, but he almost proved an unlikely goal source in the 11th minute as his curling shot was acrobatically tipped away by Thibaut Courtois.
The former Chelsea goalkeeper had already been called on to deny Mo Salah when the Egyptian got on the end of Sadio Mane’s cross in a high-octane start by the home team. It was the first of two decent chances for Salah in a breathless first start.
Madrid spent it largely under the pump but the visitors gave an illustration of the danger they still posed on the break when Benzema struck a post in the 20th minute.
It was a tinderbox tie which exploded in the 24th minute when Casemiro, boiling after being fouled by Fabinho, took it out on Milner and sent the 35-year-old clattering into the Liverpool technical area. Andy Robertson was quickly in to inflame the situation and both were booked by Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers.
Liverpool’s full-backs had been handed licence to drive forward at will and twice in five minutes Trent Alexander-Arnold almost created something out of nothing. A teasing left-foot cross just eluded Mane then a storming run ended with Gini Wijnaldum shanking the best chance of the half over the bar.
Liverpool were simply unwilling to let Los Blancos settle. Another great ball with the outside of his right foot from AlexanderArnold created an opening for Roberto Firmino within a minute of the restart but the Brazilian shot straight at the outstanding Courtois then wasted another header from a cross by the marauding right-back. As Liverpool committed men forward they left themselves increasingly exposed at the back and it took an important intervention from Milner to shut the door on Benzema.
A brave stop by Alisson at the feet of Vinicius Jnr prevented Madrid picking Liverpool off on the counter.
Firmino was again denied by Courtois as Alexander-Arnold did well to hook a lost cause into the area then Liverpool substitute Diogo Jota blazed into the sidenetting.
Klopp’s men were left to rue their inability to convert chances as, for the second season running, their European adventures ended in the knockout stages at Anfield against a side from Madrid.