I suppose it’s a measure of how great this team is and how much they’ve spoiled us that my over-riding feeling after a 3-1 away win in the first leg of a Champions League quarter final was mild annoyance. That’s ridiculous I know, and probably comes across as a bit “Sky Generation whopper”, but in my defence it wasn’t a case of me just demanding perfection and expecting us to win by five or six.
It wasn’t that, it was just that it was so obvious from early on that this was a game where we could easily fill our boots so I just wanted the tie over, which would allow us to rest most of the big hitters in the second leg. I didn’t go into the game thinking that and I’d have happily taken 3-1 before kick off. It’s just that it was clear from early on that we could create chances at will and the second leg would be a formality if we hadn’t been so wasteful.
In fairness it is actually close to being over anyway thanks to the late goal from Diaz, but the gulf between these two teams was so big for most of this game that this really ought to have been at least a five goal margin of victory. It wasn’t because we weren’t clinical, with Salah’s profligacy a particular concern ahead of this weekend’s trip to the Etihad. On the flip side of that, I’d probably be more worried about the weekend if we’d scored six or seven in this one, so I suppose I should be happy that we’ve held some back.
That isn’t to say Benfica didn’t have their moments. They had a flurry in the second half after they scored and they made it uncomfortable for us for a 10-15 minute spell, but by the time that happened we really ought to have been completely out of sight. We completely dominated the first half without ever really hitting top gear and it had the feel of those games across the city when we spanked Porto. The only difference was we didn’t convert enough chances.
Any time we went forward we looked like we’d fashion a chance but the finishing wasn’t up to scratch. Salah was lively but wasteful, Keita had a couple of efforts he didn’t make enough of and eventually it was left to the big fella to show them how it’s done when he planted a header into the bottom corner from a Robertson corner. That’s his first goal for us but this should be just the start. He’s going to be a threat on set-pieces, especially when the main focus for opponents is stopping Virgil.
He ran off to celebrate near the corner flag, signalled for everyone to give him room and then he nailed a knee slide. Fabinho tried to copy it and ended up on the floor folded up like an accordion. He’s lucky he didn’t injure himself. Knee slides are so much more difficult than they look. I tried it once and ended up leaving two massive knee divots in the turf before I face planted. You’ve got to get your weight leaning backwards otherwise you end up like Fabinho. And me.
The second goal was a work of art. I love absolutely everything about that goal. There are just so many layers to it. Look at what happens when we win the ball back. Watch the forwards immediately look to see if they can run in behind. Watch Trent. As soon as he sees we’ve got the ball he’s looking towards the front line to see where the runners are. That’s before the ball even comes to him. So when Konate rolls the ball to him, Trent already knows who is making a run and where the space is.
As great as Trent’s passing ability is it’s the game awareness and football intelligence that allows him to play those passes. Like all the great players, he’s got a mental picture of where everyone is on the pitch so he’s always one step ahead. A lot of players could play the pass, but most of them wouldn’t even see it, or by the time they did it wouldn’t be on.
The pass is brilliant, the run by Diaz was great too but I initially did him a dis-service because I wondered if he had deliberately picked out Sadio or if he’d just mistimed his header when going for goal himself. The replay quickly confirmed how unselfish and aware he was as he knew immediately that he was going to nod it across to Mané, who had a simple finish. It’s a brilliant goal and I love how happy Diaz was. You can tell already that there’s just no ego there with him, he just wants to be a part of the group and to play his part.
This was a big game for him because Benfica are his old rivals and their fans made sure he remembered that. He was jeered all night but it didn’t phase him. Picking him to start this game was a no-brainer because he’s so familiar with the opponent that there is a comfort level there for him. It also meant that Jota and Bobby could be held back in case either are needed to start at the weekend. I have absolutely no idea who will start that game but all five should be quite fresh because of the way Klopp has rotated them all recently.
Sadio played centrally again in this one and was a bit hit and miss. I felt like his touch was really heavy at times but I do like how he’s able to come deep and then get turned to run at the defence. He did that to good effect when he collected near half way, spun and then carried the ball forward before sliding in Diaz. He could have gone around the keeper but the angle would have then been tight so he elected to take the early shot and try to dink it over him, but the keeper was able to make the stop.
Mo also went clean through after another ridiculous ball by Trent. He didn’t do much wrong here and I think this is one of those instances that just highlight the kind of run he’s in. He’s running at full speed so it’s a tricky ball to control into his own path and it kind of bounced up awkwardly onto his knee, which meant by the time he got there the keeper was smothering him and there wasn’t really anywhere to put it.
He tried to prod it to the side of the keeper but it was saved. He’d had an earlier effort deflected wide off the keeper’s foot too. Again, not much wrong with that but he’s in one of those runs where he’s not getting the rub of the green. He badly needs a goal to get him rolling again.
I felt like it started to weigh on him a bit and some of his touches began to look very un-Mo like. I’ve marvelled at times this season at his ability to pluck the ball out of the air and kill it with one perfect touch, but that just wasn’t there. Some of the passes to him were difficult to take, but whereas he usually makes those look easy, too often here they were bouncing off him.
It’s a concern, but only because of who we have coming up next. We’re still winning games regardless of whether Mo scores or not, but that game at the Etihad is one where we will almost certainly need him at his best. We’ll get chances, of that I have no doubt, but we can’t afford to be as lax in front of goal as we often are.
I’d go as far as to say Mo is our most important player this weekend, because I feel as though I know what we’ll get from virtually everyone else, but right now I don’t know whether we’ll see ‘best player in the world’ Mo or the slightly off version we’ve had since he came back from AFCON. If he’s on, I’m certain we’ll win that game. If not, well, that makes it a lot more difficult.
Anyway, 2-0 at half time and all good. It felt like we were cruising towards a four or five goal win that would allow us to rest whoever we wanted next week. But then as we’ve seen quite regularly before, we had a lull and ended up under some pressure. Don’t get me wrong, at no point did I ever think we would not win the game but it became clear that we were not going to run away with it and it was actually a game now.
What caused the second half wobble? Probably the goal. Goals change games and it certainly got their crowd into it, and in turn their players got a massive shot of adrenaline and suddenly Benfica looked a bit of a handful. Most teams we face will have some sort of spell in the game because we aren’t coming up against pub sides here, either domestically or in Europe. They all have good players and if we have a bit of a down spell then they’ll be able to cause problems.
Their goal was sloppy as fuck from us, and it’s not just on Konate either. It starts with a casual ball by Trent that looped right up into the air and put Robbo under pressure. Robbo then compounds it with a not especially great header towards Diaz, who then has to jump in a 50-50 to win it. He did win it but couldn’t direct it to Robbo and it sent Benfica off on the attack. Rafa raced away down the right and swung in a cross towards Darwin Nunez. Konate had covered really well and was in a great position to deal with it but he got his feet in a muddle and the ball went through his legs to the Uruguayan, who controlled it and finished well.
He’s really highly rated but I wasn’t overly impressed. He took the goal well but I think my judgement of him is clouded by the constant diving and the dreadful fucking haircut. His record is impressive and we’ve apparently been scouting him, so watch this space I suppose. I do love a good Uruguayan striker so if he sorts the hair out then maybe I could get on board with it, but as of now it’s a hard pass from me.
He had another chance soon after when he was picked out by Everton (I never thought I’d see the day when Everton was playing in the Champions League) but his shot was too close to Alisson. We were wobbling big time in that spell and we were just uncharacteristically sloppy all over the park. Even Thiago was at it. He gave the ball away horrendously and as soon as he did that you knew he was just going to chop the lad down and get a booking. Sure enough, he cleaned him out to stop the counter. Smart foul that.
Klopp had seen enough though. He had a triple change planned anyway and I was sure Keita would be one of the three to make way, because he always is. He’d played quite well but it’s the easy and obvious sub to make. I don’t know if that was Klopp’s intention or not, but after that little mad moment of Thiago’s it was him who got the hook, along with Sadio and Mo.
The changes definitely gave us back control. Hendo made a big difference and I thought Bobby helped with that too. He was getting on the ball and kept us moving higher up the pitch. Jota looked direct and hungry and really should have scored when he was played clean through very late on but he shot straight at the keeper.
That did my head in because I’m sick of seeing strikers run onto a bouncing ball, with the keeper well stranded off his line, and for some reason they don’t just lob the ball over them. It’s the easiest finish in the world. All joking aside, when I used to play 11 a side when I was younger I reckon half the goals I scored were lobs, because it really is the easiest thing in the world to do.
If a keeper is running out of his goal he can’t turn and get back in time if you loft it over him. And also, by going over the keeper you now have the entire goal to aim at, rather than trying to squeeze it around him into a tight window. When the ball is bouncing and sits up for you, there’s honestly nothing easier than just easing it up and over the keeper, but Jota chose to try and bring the ball down and then go for the finish, by which point there was basically nowhere to go as the keeper was on top of him.
This isn’t a Jota thing, it’s something I see all the time and it irrationally pisses me off. I feel like it’s a dying skill. You just don’t see people chipping keepers anywhere near as much as you used to. The likes of Dalglish, Bergkamp, Cantona, Berbatov and of course myself, we were the masters of it but now most strikers shit themselves and go for power. It makes me sad.
Anyway, prior to the Jota miss Diaz had shot wide when he should have done better and it was looking like we’d have to settle for a 2-1 scoreline that would still have been a good result but would have left the tie still in the balance. After all, we lost 1-0 to Inter in the second leg of the previous round so it’s not out of the question that it could happen again and we’d therefore need to go close to full strength, which isn’t ideal when sandwiched between games with City.
Thankfully Diaz made amends when he ran onto a deflected pass by Keita, rounded the keeper and finished it nicely before racing off to celebrate in front of the Benfica fans, who understandably weren’t happy. Some tit lashed a plastic flagpole at him though. The damage that could have done doesn’t even bear thinking about. When you see them flying through the air end over end, all I can think is that it’s going to hit someone in the eye. It almost did, as our lads were running in to celebrate and it whizzed narrowly past one of them.
More flagpoles then came raining down too and they should be fined heavily for that. UEFA are quick to go way overboard over flares but this is much worse. Robbo got pelted with lighters as he took a corner late on too. Not really sure why they were so angry as surely they must have expected to lose. They’re miles behind Porto, who we always hammer, so Benfica never really had any chance here barring something mad happening, like us picking up a red card or something.
On that note, a special mention to the ref who had a great game. He wasn’t falling for their diving at all and let the game flow for the most part. Refs in Europe are usually class and it was reassuring to see this guy’s performance after the complete shitshow we got from his compatriot in the last round. Normal service was resumed here and hopefully if we reach the final this guy is in contention to officiate it.
As for the performances of our players, it was mixed I’d say. Everyone was good first half but only a few were good in the second half. Naby is getting an awful lot of praise for his display and I’ve even seen people saying it was one of his best games for us. I don’t see it. I thought he was fine, a solid 7 out of 10 but no more than that. Maybe I need to watch it again and I’ve missed something, but to me he was busy, neat and tidy, did very little wrong but didn’t really stand out as being anything special at all.
I didn’t think Diaz was that great either, although he was definitely one of our better players. I mean he was good, but he’s played better on quite a few occasions since he came here. The difference here is that he had something to show at the end of it with a goal and an assist. His work rate was impressive again and he kept going right until the end, but as I say, he’s played better than this a few times already.
Fabinho was good, and other than that one costly mistake I thought Konate was really impressive. Take the mistake away and he’d be the star man, but because of the mistake I’m not giving it to him and I’ll go with Trent instead. He just oozes quality. We’ve had some great passers of the ball in my lifetime. Molby, Alonso, Gerrard… but Trent is as good as any of them when it comes to dropping a ball on a sixpence.
I’d give him the night off next week though. Play Gomez in that one to keep Trent fresh for the double header with City. I think most of the team for this weekend picks itself but I don’t know what I’d do up top. Mo starts because he’s Mo, but as for the other two, I honestly have no idea. I can make a case for all of them and I’m glad I don’t have to make that call. If you put a gun to my head I’d probably go with Bobby and Sadio because they know what it’s all about and have had a lot of success against City, but leaving the goals of Jota out of such an important game would be a huge call.
It's the biggest game we've had since... I don't even know, we've had lots of huge games over recent seasons but this feels as big as any of them. I'm dreading it to be honest, I hate games with City as the tension is fucking unbearable, especially at their place. Hopefully it goes the way we want it to and we're not left feeling aggrieved at Manchester based officials being inflicted on us again for such a huge game.
You know what I want to see on Sunday? Milner coming on in the 88th minute as that's the sign that all is well and we're just seeing out the game. He must have come on in the 88th minute for what feels like 10 games in a row now. It's every week, and long may it continue.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Gomez), Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Thiago (Henderson), Keita (Milner); Salah (Jota), Mané (Firmino), Diaz:
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