Echoes of the Crazy Gang crash in ’88, Reds fall to the Madrid mob STAN COLLYMORE
FOR much of the first half, Real Madrid played more like the FA Cup-winning Wimbledon side of 1988 than 13-time champions of Europe.
They were passive in Paris and on the back foot, looking regularly for long balls over the top in a bid to catch Liverpool on the counter instead of the intricate passing moves you’d usually associate with them.
In the end, though, they showed the classic mentality of a big club which knows exactly what Europe is all about.
They suckered everybody — me included — into thinking Liverpool were going to walk away with it.
But they stayed in the game with a pragmatic game plan from Carlo Ancelotti that had its roots in the cslatassnicwiatsatliaalknin‘cgatoentaocmcioh’o,rpokdinestohneir
Football’s ultimate maverick sounds off
luck when they had to, and then did what all the great teams do: they took their opportunity when it presented itself.
That they were still in the game by the time Vinicius Junior put them ahead just short of the hour mark was almost single-handedly down to keeper Thibaut Courtois.
He was exceptional before the goal and just as good after it with saves from Mo Salah and Sadio Mane.
I’m still adamant that, had those two taken at least one chance in that first half an hour or so, Jurgen Klopp’s men could have gone on and won by two or three.
But there was always a worry that the Reds might rue those missed chances, and so it came to pass.
Individually, perhaps the biggest disappointment was Luis Diaz and I just wonder whether we saw his newness at this level.
He has been a delight to watch since joining Liverpool from Porto in
January and I’m very excited to see what he can do in the coming years.
But his performance just made me wonder whether he’d spent most of Friday night wide awake imagining getting his hands on the famous trophy.
Lights
Games of this magnitude can play tricks with a player’s mind and it can happen again when you jog out on to the pitch and see that silverware shining in the lights. It can make your legs wobble and it looked as if Diaz was just a little overawed by the occasion.
At the other end, Liverpool actually kept the door well locked in the first half but Real were a different side after the break.
You always know at this level that you can dominate the ball but then get caught out by one long punt over the top and, while Vinsicius’s goal wasn’t of that mould, Liverpool will
be disappointed to have been caught as they were.
The cross-shot was shanked but Vinicius was alive to it and that goal and the win it earned rubber-stamped Ancelotti’s legendary status, not just at Real but in European football.
Everyone talks about Pep Guardiola and Klopp but he has to be right up there with the very, very best.
Achievement
I wonder if he doesn’t often get mentioned because he’s seen as a gun for hire, someone who doesn’t hang around for seven or eight years at one club.
But to win Laliga and the Champions League with a Real Madrid team that are debt ridden, that can’t compete with the Premier League sides financially, come on, what an achievement and what a guy.
He’s a quite incredible football manager and proof that age isn’t a barrier to greatness.
The disappointment for Liverpool will of course be compounded by events outside the stadium prior to the match and it was awful from UEFA.
I saw videos from friends caught up in bottlenecks created by police vans and listened to accounts from journalists I respect, and it was an utter disgrace that a year after the Euro Championship debacle in the final we had more serious issues here.
UEFA and FIFA need to look very seriously at everything that has happened of late because there is overwhelming evidence that UEFA have had major issues and problems and failed to deal with them.
I’m adamant that had Mane and Salah taken one of their chances in the first half the Reds would surely have won by two or three goals