Crisis? What crisis?
Liverpool in 2-0 Champions League win over Leipzig
There have been many different versions of his Liverpool team that Jurgen Klopp has been forced to confront this season, but on this night he will have recognised the old qualities of the side who were once the biggest disruptive force in European and English football.
A run of three defeats is over, or at least it has been ended in a Champions League round-of-16 first-leg tie against an opponent who played at times with all the finesse of a side chasing a deficit in the last few minutes of a cup final.
Still, it was Liverpool who destabilised Julian Nagelsmann’s hungry young team, who had eliminated Manchester United in the group stage before Christmas.
Klopp said afterwards that for the benefit of those who do not watch RB Leipzig often, this was “completely different” to what might be expected – and indeed the German club looked a shadow of the side who made it to the semi-finals of this competition last season.
Shaky in the first half, there then came two big defensive mistakes after the break with Mohamed Salah and then Sadio Mane breathing down the necks of the Leipzig defence, which let in Liverpool’s two great goalscorers for the crucial away goals.
Did Leipzig play so badly in the Puskas Arena in Budapest – the home team in a neutral venue due to Covid travel restrictions – because of the effect on them of this Liverside? Klopp thought so. “I know Leipzig pretty well and how overwhelming they can be from a physical point of view,” he said.
“That’s what we had to deal with and we had a really good game. We had a day less to prepare, played a good game, deserved to win and forced them to make mistakes.”
Even with Jordan Henderson holding the defence together and Ozan Kabak, still in the side after that painful debut on Saturday, this felt more like Klopp’s Liverpool.
There was the relentless approach that made their opposition doubt themselves. The spaces between the lines of Leipzig were pressed hard by Klopp’s men. There was a more frantic mood to the German side when chased down by Liverpool, which is just the way their manager likes it.
No doubt that the mistakes in Leipzig’s defence were major contributors to the goals, but the chances still had to be taken. In midfield there was another outstanding performance from the 20-year-old Curtis Jones. It is becoming hard to leave him out of the big games, including that second leg at Anfield in three weeks’ time.
“We are not children – we are not going to think ‘OK we won one game, everything is going to be fine’,” Klopp said. “It’s much more important that we play good football. Nobody is really happy with recent results, but the football we played dominating [Manchester] City and some against Leicester – we shouldn’t forget that.
“A lot of people were waiting for us to slip again, but tonight the result was there. We forced the opponent to make the mistakes.”
And what mistakes they were for both goals – a misplaced pass from the Leipzig captain Marcel Sabitzer for the first and then a defensive surrender from Nordi Mukiele for the second goal.
Even before that, the passing of the Leipzig centre-back Dayot Upamecano will have caused some consternation at his putative new club Bayern Munich. He was all over the place in the first half, albeit with a slight improvement after that.
There was an early chance for Leipzig when the former Manchester City full-back Angelino crossed from the left and the Spanish striker Dani Olmo got to the ball first for a header against a post. Alisson Becker did not get to that one, but there were other saves that will have settled the Brazilian goalkeeper, who has found himself too often of late retrieving the ball from the net.
“Definitely,” Klopp replied, when asked whether the clean sheet might have a restorative effect on his goalkeeper’s confidence.
“To be honest he had big moments in the Leicester game. He had brilliant saves [in that match]. But of course it helps. Ali will sleep really well on the plane home.”
There were Liverpool chances in the first half. The most promising fell to Mane, who went through and was blocked by goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi some distance out of his area, before the Hungarian dashed back to keep an eye on the chip over his head from Andrew Robertson.
The Leipzig defensive line eventually broke before the hour, with two goals that suggested the defensive personnel were not quite up to the job asked of them – and certainly not against Salah and Mane.
First Sabitzer unwittingly played a pass into the path of Salah’s speculative run behind the centre-back Lukas Klostermann. The German, the only one in the Leipzig team,
slipped and Salah was in. Even before the Egyptian struck, Sabitzer raised his hands to his head in dismay. He knew what was coming.
Equally bad as Sabitzer’s pass was the error by the French right-back Mukiele for the second goal, five minutes after the first. He lunged and slipped in trying to control a long ball played over his head and one could only assume that the proximity of Mane had him flustered.
Mane’s finish was just as sure as Salah’s had been for the first goal.
These were jolts to Leipzig that reminded them what they were up against and, although Nagelsmann made changes in the latter stages of the game, it felt as if an impression had been made on his young team.
They had a late chance through the South Korean substitute Hwang Hee-chan, with Henderson beaten for pace, as he had been once in the first half. Those vulnerabilities have not gone away, but neither have many of the qualities of this Klopp team.
RB Leipzig (4-3-3) Gulacsi 6; Mukiele 4 (Orban 64), Klostermann 4, Upamecano 4, Angelino 6; Sabitzer 6, Haidara 5 (Poulsen 64), Kampl 5 (Hwang 73); Nkunku 6, Olmo 5, Adams 6. Subs Martinez (g), Konate, Sorloth, Samardzic, Kluivert, Halstenberg, Hartmann, Henrichs.
Booked Haidara, Mukiele, Nkunku, Angelino, Olmo.
Liverpool (4-3-3) Alisson 7; Alexander-arnold 7, Kabak 6, Henderson 7, Robertson 7; Thiago 6 (Oxlade-chamberlain 72), Wijnaldum 6, Jones 8; Salah 8 (N Williams 90), Firmino 7 (Shaqiri 72), Mane 8. Subs Adrian (g), Kelleher (g), Tsimikas, Origi, Davies, R Williams, Phillips, Cain, Clarkson. Booked Kabak, Henderson.
Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).