So that 0-0 in the first leg didn’t do us any harm after all eh? Bayern got the result they wanted at Anfield but it did them no good because they needed to beat us, and that’s much easier said than done these days.
Granted, we’d lost all three of our Champions League away games this season, but there’s a world of difference between the groups and the knockouts. Those three losses were in games where the stakes weren’t as high. We could lose them and still progress, and we did.
In high stakes games this season we’ve been beaten once. By Manchester City. In a game that was settled by the tiniest of details and which could have gone in our favour had the referee done his job and sent off Vincent Kompany. So the point is, beating this Liverpool side is extremely difficult, even if you’re the mighty Bayern Munich.
And where’s this bullshit “Bayern are over the hill and in need of a rebuild” narrative come from? The commentators kept going on about how they’re “not the Bayern of old”. Really? Coz last time I checked they were top of the Bundesliga and they reached the semis of this competition last season, where they were screwed by Real Madrid after completely outplaying them.
Who are these over the hill players of theirs? Sure, Robben and Ribery are at the end, but who else? It’s lazy, nonsensical bollocks. Most of that team are in their prime, and they’ve got some boss young players like Sule, Kimich and Coman. They had a slow start to the season while the new coach found his feet but they’ve been flying of late.
Bayern are still Bayern, but we’re just better than them and whatsmore, they knew it. That’s why they played the way they did, because they were frozen with fear about what would happen if they opened up and tried to attack us.
They kept the tie in the balance right up until Virgil headed us in front and they knew they needed to score twice. After that they had to come out, and you could see they had no belief that they could hurt us. The space opened up and we were playing through them at will. That second half was close to being the perfect away performance.
The first half was a little strange though. Both sides seemed to cancel each other out and it was similar to the second half at Anfield, the big difference being both teams scored this time.
Performance wise though I didn’t think we were anywhere near where we needed to be. We gave the ball away far too much, although we defended very well and made life difficult for them. We can easily improve on that first half, but when they play with the maturity they showed in the second half, this team is virtually impossible to beat.
The first half display wasn’t helped by having to make an early change when Hendo rolled his ankle and couldn’t continue. A lot of fans would have started Fabinho over him anyway, but there are two things to consider here. One, Hendo was fucking brilliant in the first leg. Two, Fabinho can’t play every game and it made sense to leave him out.
He didn’t get much rest though as he went on early. He was a little sloppy at times but on the whole he did a great job, as he tends to do most weeks now. The other two midfielders were pretty invisible in the first half and were chasing shadows for most of it.
Bayern knocked the ball around quite well in the middle of the park and had plenty of possession, but Milner and Gini did a lot of good unseen work filling spaces and closing down. They didn’t see much of the ball though and we gave it away too often which made it harder for ourselves.
We still had the better of the chances though. Bobby flashed a shot wide early, Robbo brought a save out of Neuer and Sadio was scaring them to death any time he was able to have a run at them. The goal he scored to put us ahead was just exquisite. You won’t see three better touches than that, each one was perfection.
The keeper was rash in coming out and he made it easier for Mané to score, but even so, that was fucking glorious. The first touch to bring the ball down out of the air was almost impossible as he had about a tenth of a second to see that ball. He wasn’t even looking, and when he finally turned around the ball was right there on him. Incredible touch.
The second one completely wrong footed Neuer, and the third was a deft chip into the net that took the covering Sule completely out of it. Sadio is in sensational form at the moment and that’s covering for the lack of goals we’re getting from Mo.
With us having got the all important away goal, I couldn’t see Bayern getting back into it because they were creating nothing. Their equaliser came out of nothing but it was great play by Gnabri, who was their most dangerous player in both games. He feigned to come short and then spun in behind Robbo who tried to play offside. Pretty sure the exact same thing happened in the first game too but we got away with it.
This time we weren’t so fortunate. Gnabri powered into the box, held off Robbo and then drilled the ball across the face of goal where the unfortunate Matip could only stick out a leg and divert into his own net. I don’t blame Big Bird for that at all though. It was a nigh on impossible situation to deal with as if he’d left it then Lewandowski had a tap in. He had to try and get something on it but he was stretching so he couldn’t direct it away from goal.
The goal lifted Bayern and for the rest of the half I felt we were struggling. We weren’t exactly under the cosh, but we didn’t look comfortable and half time came at a good moment for us.
The second half was a completely different story. We looked more incisive in possession and played between the lines more, which allowed us to keep the ball and also get the forwards involved. He didn’t score but I thought Mo was really god in the second half and allowed us to get out and carry the ball up the field and relieve pressure.
Some of the one touch give and go’s with Bobby and Gini in particular were great to see, and the longer the game went on the more you could see that we had them. Bayern had one moment in that second half and that was it. Just one moment of danger. At home.
Again it was Gnabri causing the problem as he got in behind Robbo and drove in another brilliant low cross that thankfully eluded everyone this time. That was their one and only threatening moment.
As for us, we looked dangerous every time we went forward. Mo hit a snapshot too centrally and Neuer was able to save, and he should then have had a penalty when he dribbled into the box and was clipped as he turned inside the defender. He didn’t go down, but it knocked him out of his stride just enough for Sule to get back and take the ball off his toe just as he was about to shoot.
What’s the point in VAR if they aren’t going to look at things like this? Do they only use it when they want to screw over PSG / help out the mancs (delete as appropriate)? Next time Mo goes down easily and is castigated for it, this should be used as exhibit A for the defence.
You could almost feel the goal coming as we forced a number of corners and were knocking on the door. Trent’s first half deliveries hadn’t been great but he whipped in a couple of belters in the second half that had Bayern at full stretch to keep us out.
They could do nothing to stop Big Virg powering in to meet Milner’s right wing corner though. He’s finally started to score the goals that a player of his absolute aerial dominance should do. What a man. Since he got that song he can’t stop scoring, and the fans can’t stop singing.
At 2-1 the tie was over. Not only because we’re so resilient and difficult to score against these days, but also because the Bayern players’ body language screamed out that they knew they were done. Players know. They’re out there trying to break us down and they knew they couldn’t, that we were too good.
To their credit, they even said so afterwards. Bayern coach Kovac admitted that we were just better than them over both games, and their Sporting Director said the same thing. He basically said that we were just too strong and too physical for them. They’re used to playing the game in the other team’s half and dominating, but they couldn’t do it because we didn’t allow it.
They spoke a lot more sense than Lewandowski, who spent both legs being completely dominated by Van Dijk, Matip or Fabinho, who took turns in babysitting him in their pockets.
“In both games we played too defensive,” he said.” We didn’t try to push forward to create situations – in the first game and tonight. We were playing too deep, we didn’t take risks to try to score the goals, I don’t know why.”
They didn’t push forward and take risks, and he doesn’t know why? Really? He doesn’t know? Because I can come up with three reasons without even having to think about it. Salah, Firmino and Mané.
It’s a bit rich Lewandowski complaining about his coach’s tactics when his only contribution to the two games was to repeatedly throw himself to the floor any time the ball was played up to him. He was probably lying on the floor when he made those quotes, the crying cunt. File him away in the “Massive fraud” draw with Higuain and Cavani.
What? Look, I don't give a fuck if he's scored three thousand goals in Germany or that he's the Champions League's top scorer this season or whatever numbers you want to throw at me. That's exactly the same shit people said about Zlatan, and he was an over-rated turd too. Bottom line, if they don't produce when I'm watching then I'm going to say they're shite.
Bayern’s 'defensive' approach to both games was no doubt a result of what we did in this competition last season. We put the fear of God into everyone in Europe and but for some freak circumstances in the final we’d have won the competition. We’ve not come close to repeating that blistering form in this season’s competition (although we played some great stuff at home against PSG and Napoli) but it doesn’t matter because everyone remembers last season.
The other aspect to it is that we’re good defensively now that teams no longer have that “put pressure on them and they’ll crack” incentive that was there when we were involved in 3-3, 4-3 and 5-4 type games. Virgil has changed all that. He’s incredible.
Even when he’s not there the team can now defend because of the confidence that he’s instilled in the entire squad. When he is there though, fucking hell. It’s not even just that he’s a great defender. There’s so much more to it than that. He’s a threat in attack too, and his leadership, calmness and general all round dominance inspires those around him.
Some of the legends of the 70s and 80s have spoken about the impact Souness had on the team. They’d talk about how they’d look at him in the tunnel and think “we can’t lose with him out there with us”. I bet this team looks at Van Dijk in the same way. How can you not? You see that big majestic bastard stood there in all his magnificence, and you just know you’re gonna be alright.
He’s the best defender I’ve ever seen and you could even take it a step further and put him in the conversation for best player full stop. He doesn’t have the longevity yet but that’s a different discussion.
My cousin Tom has been saying for about six months that Virgil is the best player in the world. Comparing defenders with forwards or even midfield players isn’t an exact science, and I can’t make the case that he’s better than Messi or Ronaldo because it’s an apples to oranges comparison. It’s hard enough for me to even argue that Maradona is better than Messi (hard but not impossible, as Diego will always be number one in my eyes) so I can’t put a centre half above him, but let’s put it this way, I wouldn’t swap Van Dijk for any player in world football.
That second goal was the decisive moment in the tie, and all that was left was for Sadio to put the icing on top with his second of the game. It was another great goal too. Big Div had come on for Bobby and he seemed to enjoy himself out there. He was lively and he played his part in the third goal when he collected a pass from Alisson and then found Mo on the right.
The nonchalant ball in with the outside of his left peg was inch perfect, and Sadio did what he does better than anyone else in the squad and found space in the box to stretch and head past Neuer. Sadio’s movement and ability to get in between defenders is probably the most under-rated part of his game. He’s amazing at it and seems to have a headed opportunity in every game.
It would have been nice had Mo ended his barren spell but it’s coming. He’s doing so many things well at the moment that it’s going to just all fall into place for him soon and someone will pay a heavy price.
The only sour note on what was a historic night for us was the daft booking Robbo picked up deep in stoppage time. He didn’t need to make that challenge but even so, that was never a fucking booking that, especially as I think it was his first offence. The ref could have done us a favour there as the tie was over and booking Robbo made no difference to anything other than our next game.
He looked massively disappointed at full time and it briefly took the shine off the win for him, you could tell. It probably took the shine off it for Milner too, as he knows he’s likely to be on left back duty again in the next round. I hope he is anyway, as no-one needs to see Albert the Moron in a game of any importance.
This was such a great result though. I don’t know if this team will win the trophies they deserve, but what we have seen from them over the last couple of years has been special. Far lesser sides than them have won trophies due to the competition not being as fierce as what these lads are up against, and I just hope they get that little bit of luck that you need (and that has so often deserted us) to get over the line.
It’s a mark of how strong this team is now though that they can and win in Munich without even needing their “A Game”. Before Virgil we needed the forwards to be right at it for us to stand a chance in big games because we’d usually concede a couple. Now we’re in every game because we’re so hard to score against.
Klopp said afterwards he was just happy because it was good for Liverpool and that beating Bayern didn’t mean anything extra. Fuck. Off. He’ll have been buzzing about this and texting all his Dortmund mates. Bayern inflicted so much heartbreak on him that it’s only natural this would mean more to him, but fair play for taking the moral high ground I guess.
This win gives us momentum to take into the title challenge and it also adds to the aura that surrounds this team in Europe. Very few teams go to Munich and turn Bayern over, and you know everyone else in the draw is hoping to avoid us.
I’m prepared for anything in Friday’s draw, but I’d dearly like to avoid City because that would just be fucking unbearable. Those games with Chelsea back in the day took years off my life but this would be ten times worse. Last year was stressful enough but so much more fuel has been thrown on that fire since that in terms of hype and bad blood and tension, I genuinely feel it would be the biggest two legged tie of my lifetime.
I feel like it’s inevitable that we’re going to meet them but it’s the last thing I want, and probably the last thing they want too.
I don’t want Juve either as I can’t be doing with all the unpleasantness that comes with that. In an ideal world we’d avoid all the other English clubs but neither Spurs or United would worry me over two legs.
Barcelona don’t scare me either but I’m hoping City get them as Guardiola’s ego is so big that his stupid baldy head would be so pre-occupied with beating Barca that he might take his eye off the ball domestically.
Porto is the easier draw, but Ajax would be fine too. They were brilliant against Madrid and are a dangerous side, but Madrid this year would struggle to beat anyone in the top half of the Premier League. So as great as Ajax were, it needs to be put in the correct perspective.
Ajax or Porto would be ideal, especially as Robbo will miss the first leg. I wouldn’t want to face City without Robbo in there against Sterling, but we kept a clean sheet against Bayern without Big Virg so I’ve got faith in the team regardless of what Klopp decides to do (as long as it’s not Moreno, obviously).
Star man is a toss up between Sadio and Big Virg. I can’t decide between them so I won’t. Everyone played their part though. Over the two games Matip didn't give Lewandowski a sniff, and even denied him a goal by putting it in the net himself. That's dedication to the job right there. "Stop him scoring, whatever it takes". "You got it, boss!"
Trent was ice cool and not fazed at all by coming up against the experienced Ribery, a man who despite being in his mid-thirties had a number seven shaved into his head. In fairness, with a face like that you can’t blame him for doing anything he can to deflect people’s gaze elsewhere.
Trent though, you can see him maturing all the time now. He was doing some proper little snidey things here, like taking extra time on throw ins and slyly kicking the ball away to slow things down.
These lads are learning about game management now and it was great to see players telling team-mates to calm it down and take their time. I saw Milner doing it, which you’d expect, but Mané was all over that shit too. And don’t think I didn’t notice Fabinho doing the old Didi Hamann ‘tree falling down’ routine to win a free-kick late on either. Bravo, sir. Bravo.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson (Fabinho), Wijnaldum, Milner (Lallana); Salah, Firmino (Origi), Mané:
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