Liverpool ease into quarterfinals
SALAH AND MANE SEND REDS THROUGH TO QUARTER-FINALS
IT took 70 minutes, but Liverpool finally got the goals their superiority deserved. Will this be a turning point in their blighted season? Injured players are returning to the team, those displaced have been restored to their favoured positions. Suddenly, Liverpool look a different team.
Nat Phillips and Ozan Kabak, two centre-halves, were outstanding in the heart of defence, Fabinho made a huge difference back in midfield. Diogo Jota, in his second week back since sustaining an injury in early December, breathed fresh life into the forward line.
Mo Salah scored the first, Sadio Mane the second. It was just like old times.
Some frustration to begin with, however. Liverpool missed a huge amount of chances before the breakthrough came.
As it was, Jurgen Klopp’s team put the game to bed in the space of four minutes.
That the first goal involved all three forwards must have been particularly pleasing for the German as his strikers have been off-colour of late.
That changed when Mane fed Jota, after a ball through the middle from Thiago Alcantara. Jota sped on and cut the ball square to Salah.
He drove into the box at which time everyone knew what was coming next.
Everyone bar Dayot Upamecano, that is. He seemed genuinely surprised that Salah cut inside on to his left and no doubt equally shocked when, a second later, the ball was nestling low in the corner of Peter Gulacsi’s net.
The goalkeeper didn’t deserve that. He’d had a good game.
Leipzig deserved it, though. And the second, four minutes later. Klopp had introduced Naby Keita and Divock Origi from the substitutes bench and they combined to give Liverpool a commanding 4-0 aggregate lead.
Keita played Origi in down the right and his quick cross caught out everyone but Mane, who required a single touch to put it in the net. See, they win at home.
‘The two centre-halves played an incredible game,’ said Klopp. ‘The whole last line played an incredible game because that is a tough task. We had to press them. We defended deep together really well which is important.
‘Everybody had a really good game. It was a good performance.’
Chasing a two-goal deficit from the first leg, the expectation was that Leipzig would start quickly, as they had done in the final group stage game against Manchester United.
What to make, then, of an opening three minutes that saw Jota almost take advantage of defensive sluggishness, a desperately poor clearing header from Upamecano and Thiago with a splendid opportunity.
Short of confidence, perhaps, he tried to play Salah in and the moment passed.
Leipzig had much of the early ball, but Liverpool had the superior chances and plenty of them.
In the sixth minute, Georginio Wijnaldum, captaining the side in Jordan Henderson’s absence, played a sweet little chip that put Mane in at the far post but he shot over. Soon after, a lovely, inswinging corner from Trent Alexander-Arnold picked out Jota, whose head was excellently saved by Leipzig goalkeeper Gulacsi — his first of many.
He was in action again after 24 minutes when a Leipzig corner came to nothing and was cleared, acrobatically, on the half volley by Thiago.
The ball dropped to Salah, in behind the Leipzig defence, with only Gulacsi to beat.
The finish was disappointing, straight at the goalkeeper, who was swift off his line, the loose ball falling to Mane who headed it straight into the ground at his own feet.
This was Liverpool’s most assured display since the first leg and Leipzig were at full stretch to keep them out.
In the 29th minute, Mane fed Alexander-Arnold, who cut the ball back into Salah’s area but Upamecano got there first, kicking the ball high over the Leipzig bar.
It was a brave and quick-thinking clearance, and one of the few times in this tie when he has afforded a glimpse of the reliability that has come at such a price for Bayern Munich.
Not so just before half-time when, in an effort to clear up from Salah, Upamecano ran the ball straight into the path of Jota, who shot into the side netting — the biggest miss of the half. It wasn’t only Upamecano who looked vulnerable, mind. Minutes earlier, Jota had hassled Nordi Mukiele, Upamecano’s partner, off the ball before shooting straight at Gulacsi.
For a team chasing the game, Leipzig were disappointing. Julian Nagelsmann, their coach, obviously considered AlexanderArnold Liverpool’s soft spot and targeted him remorselessly through Christopher Nkunku on the left.
Unfortunately, Nkunku was predictable, a couple of touches and cutting inside, with little variety. The one time he made it count, after ten minutes, Leipzig forged their best opportunity of the first half.
Nkunku whipped the ball in, Yussuf Poulsen held it up and Dani Olmo’s shot was part-saved
part-charged down by Alisson — a vital intervention.
That aside, Leipzig offered little — a shot from Kevin Kampl comfortably saved after 32 minutes, another pulled wide by Emil Forsberg less than a minute later.
Yet with Fabinho restored to midfield and Phillips in the centre of defence beside Kabak, Liverpool looked much like their old self and Leipzig found it hard to get through.
Nagelsmann switched the shape from 3-4-3 to 4-4-2 in search of inspiration but to little effect.
Liverpool still had the first chance of the second half, with Jota again escaping the attentions of the Leipzig defence.
His shot forced another save from Gulacsi, with Salah putting the rebound over the bar.
Nagelsmann’s response was to bring another two strikers on but the Reds eased to victory.
Goalscorer Salah said: ‘It is a big result for us. We want to fight in the Champions League and also fight in the Premier League and see what can happen.’
LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson; AlexanderArnold, Phillips, Kabak, Robertson (Tsimikas 90); Thiago (Keita 72), Fabinho, Wijnaldum (Milner 82); Mane (Oxlade-Chamberlain 90), Salah, Jota (Origi 71). Subs not used: Adrian, Jones, Shaqiri, B Davies, R Williams, N Williams, H Davies. Booked: None. RB LEIPZIG (3-4-3): Gulacsi; Mukiele, Upamecano, Klostermann; Kampl (Sorloth 46), Adams, Olmo (Haidara 72), Sabitzer; Nkunku, Poulsen (Hwang 60), Forsberg (Kluivert 60). Subs not used: Orban, Konate, Samardzic, Halstenberg, Martinez, Henrichs. Booked: None. Man of the match: Nat Phillips. Referee: Clement Turpin (France).