ABSOLUTELY BLINDING
Firmino winner is a sight for sore eyes as super Reds win a Euro classic
ROBERTO FIRMINO kept his eye on the prize to fire Liverpool to a dramatic win.
The Brazil striker started the game on the bench after suffering an eye injury at Tottenham on Saturday. Wonderkid Kylian Mbappe looked to have grabbed a draw for PSG, but substitute Firmino struck in the 92nd minute to send Anfield crazy.
A goal from Daniel Sturridge and James Milner’s penalty put the
IMAGINE being a teenager in one of THOSE Anfield European nights – and you just happen to have to mark Neymar.
Then imagine glancing at the touchline to see your manager gesticulating wildly towards the other end of the pitch and screaming at you to gallop up there and forget about what’s behind.
Welcome to the world of Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Welcome to the Jurgen Klopp philosophy and his attacking instinct.
Never mind that the 19-year-old (top) had possibly the biggest test of his young life so far – never mind PSG’s £420m strike force.
Klopp saw a weakness in the French side down their left flank and saw that Neymar was refusing to do the tracking back.
For the German coach, it is all about courage... but he needs his players to have the confidence they can go toe-to-toe with the best opponents and defeat them.
Here, we saw they do – and Alexander-Arnold typified that. He never once glanced nervously back, just charged down that flank and tore the Parisians to shreds.
The first goal was his making, then, even after PSG came back into it, he kept going, kept creating.
When Neymar did have a say in the game, another of Liverpool’s brilliant youngsters came to the fore.
Joe Gomez is still learning the centre-half role, but you would never have guessed as he strode brilliantly across every time to plug the gap.
One tackle on the Brazilian in the first half was majestic.
There is a big future for this Liverpool team, and these two are very much central to it.
The first half-hour said that, this brilliant European night said that – and the perfect ending in the second half said that.
We knew Liverpool have the courage – and no one typifies it more than Trent.