MO & CO LOSE CUTTING EDGE
Host of chances, but Salah’s Reds can’t breach Bayern wall
Liverpool have failed to score in only four games this season, and three of them have been in europe. Short-term it means they are going to have to do it the hard way when these teams next meet.
As a pattern of results, it suggests there is something still to be said for those crafty, resilient defenders who populate this tournament like man traps.
Bayern Munich are not the quickest at the back, but they know the course and distance and last night it showed. This is a club that has missed two Champions league semi-finals since 2010. They’ve had more than a few nights like this and were rarely alarmed. They came, they saw, they did a job.
it was a throwback of a game after liverpool’s high- octane encounters last season. Munich kept a full- strength liverpool forward line at bay and frustrated the home crowd into a state of tetchiness. Anfield was its usual noisy self to begin with but long before the end there was a sense of frustration that their magic trio were being handled.
liverpool had decent possession and good chances and were the better team — but roberto Firmino was replaced by Divock origi with 15 minutes remaining, a sure sign the best laid plans were going awry.
They could have nicked it, had Manuel Neuer not made a save from Sadio Mane at the near post with four minutes to go, but liverpool didn’t have a whole lot to show for rather a significant shift.
it is far from a lost cause, mind. liverpool usually score and even a goalless draw gives the visitors a puncher’s chance on penalties. virgil van Dijk will be back, too — though there was little wrong with liverpool’s marshalling of robert lewandowski in his absence.
Munich’s striker had outscored liverpool on his own in the Champions league group stage but there was scant sign of his status as the competition’s top marksman here. Quick feet, yes, wonderful movement, certainly, but scarcely a meaningful intervention in front of goal. His greatest contribution were the frissons of anxiety his very presence caused. He has a brilliant record against Joel Matip in Germany, too, but it did not show.
Jordan Henderson was outstanding but Fabinho was arguably the hero of the night, being a battlefield promotion due to liverpool’s lengthy list of absentees at the back. He did not let the side down, even if Bayern Munich’s priorities lay elsewhere.
For Munich, the star turns were the men of experience: Mats Hummels, Thiago Alcantara, Javi Martinez. So many times they took control as liverpool probed and found only dead ends.
At a mid-point in the first half, Jurgen Klopp turned to the crowd around him and made the universal gesture — in these parts, at least — to calm down. He may have been better served giving the same advice to his goalkeeper, Alisson. Three times in the first 17 minutes he was guilty of a less than composed clearance, and had Bayern Munich been sharper to react they could have been ahead.
Alisson’s first clearance of the match was unconvincing to say the least, played straight to Kingsley Coman in the Munich midfield, although his response amounted to nothing. Soon after, there was a poor punch to clear a cross from former Arsenal man Serge Gnabry — one of those ex-epremier league players who turns up looking comfortable in an elite european starting line up, to the surprise of all — before a state of complete confusion between Alisson and Matip let in Coman again. He was put through by lewandowski but shot into the side-netting.
That was the story of the match, largely. Munich did not create much of their own but looked dangerous when capitalising on liverpool’s mistakes.
This is what happened after 37 minutes when Trent AlexanderArnold came haring out from the back only to be calmly dispossessed by Thiago as Munich quickly countered. This time it was Gnabry on the ball, his shot diverted round the far post by Alisson’s fingertips.
Before the game there was great confidence in the streets around Anfield, with locals predicting three, maybe four-goal margins. Soon, adjustments were being made. The experience of high-end elite clubs in this competition counts for so much. Munich’s defenders will never be confused with F1 testing, but they are solid citizens, good defenders, and have been around the block. liverpool got close to goal on a number of occasions but Munich always repelled them. They made blocks, they got a foot in, nicked a vital touch, a smart interception, a diverting header. When liverpool did get beyond them, finishing let Klopp’s side down.
Henderson, as so often happens on big european nights, was outstanding. He raises his game in matches like this, and did here. in the 12th minute, it was his neat through ball that put Mo Salah through, the striker getting a touch on the volley as the ball
came over his shoulder, but not enough to defeat Neuer.
Naby Keita looked lively, too, and in the 17th minute Mane should have done better from his pass, shooting wide from a strong position. Might Liverpool have had a penalty after 33 minutes? Referee Gianluca Rocchi did not think so and as VAR is now in place for Champions League games, his assessors must have agreed.
Firmino found Keita, whose shot was blocked by a desperate lunge from Niklas Sule. Replays showed it struck an arm, but in such close proximity to the shot it is hard to see how he could have avoided contact. The ball went loose to Mane in a fabulous position, but he made a poor show of his effort on the turn. Keita had a shot deflected high in the 38th minute and Mane had more time to take control than he understood. Instead, he tried a hurried overhead kick that flew wide. Equally, Matip should have done more to capitalise on a cross from Henderson after a lovely backheel from Salah.
It meant the best chance of the game actually fell to a Liverpool player — but at the wrong end. In the 13th minute, Gnabry crossed and Matip, in a rare flap about the nearby presence of Lewandowski, leathered the ball against the chest of his own goalkeeper. It was the save of the night, not that Alisson knew too much about it.
And so to Bavaria, where Munich have lost two of their last 26 games in Europe. By worrying contrast, Liverpool’s last five Champions League games outside Anfield have ended in defeat.