It’s not supposed to look this easy.... 6-1 on aggregate in a CL quarter final after scoring four in the away leg. The mad thing is we didn’t even play anywhere near our best. "We know we didn't play well" said Milner, while Klopp also made some remark about how we can play better.
When you're this good you don't always need to play at full throttle and clearly we had plenty left in the tank here. That bodes well for the weekend as unlike City we didn’t have to expend too much physical or emotional energy. It doesn't mean we'll definitely beat Cardiff, but it increases our chances and all in all this night couldn't have gone any better for us.
We scored three in Munich and four in Porto. The away day struggles that plagued us in the group stages are well and truly a thing of the past now and those wide open spaces of Camp Nou should have our front three licking their collective chops. They’re looking sharp again now. Sadio has been fucking incredible since the turn of the year but Mo and Bobby are in the groove now as well.
Porto must hate us mustn't they? They’ve actually given a decent account of themselves each time, yet over the course of four games they’ve lost 11-1. I reckon they’ve probably had as many chances as us during those games too. We’ve been clinical, they haven’t. It wasn’t like they were missing sitters in this game but they had some decent openings that they did nothing with.
The opening twenty minutes was all Porto. They were bang up for it and played at a frantic pace. They were averaging a goal attempt every 90 seconds or so in that opening period. Shots were raining in from everywhere. Only one of them forced Alisson to extend himself though, and if I remember rightly it was offside anyway.
We couldn’t keep the ball so it kept coming back at us. Corona was really lively and we struggled to deal with him in the opening stages. Robbo and Trent probably had difficulty concentrating as they may have been too busy laughing at the absolute state of the fucking lipstick mark neck tattoo he had. What a twat. Good player though.
Marega was making a nuisance of himself too but he wasn’t as much of a danger as he had been in the first leg. I thought Virgil started the game quite shakily and it was Matip that was holding down the fort in the early exchanges, but as soon as Virgil settled down Porto’s threat receded. It helped that we scored too, which took the air out of the stadium.
It was a weird goal as no-one seemed to think it was going to stand. My first thought when Mané put the ball in the net was that there was going to be a flag, and there was. My next thought was that I wanted a replay as I expected it was a lot closer than it initially looked. Sadio is as quick over a couple of yards as anybody I’ve ever seen (on a par with Owen) so although he looked miles off, he probably wasn’t.
The replay didn’t come though, which was a bit weird. Instead, the camera remained on the ref. I clearly saw him saying “it’s a goal” so I jumped up and celebrated. Then he carried on yapping into his headset. What the fuck’s going on here then? I sat back down, waiting. And about 30 seconds later I see Mo’s arms go up in the air and the ref signalled for a goal. I didn’t bother jumping up this time, the moment had gone. And that’s my biggest gripe against VAR, and yet I’m torn because without it that goal wouldn’t have stood (and we'd have been denied that side splittingly funny ending at the Etihad).
Sadio's goal meant it was game over because Porto were never scoring four. Hell, given how shite they’d been in front of goal I wasn’t expecting them to even get one. All of the intensity had gone out of their play now and I knew we’d get the opportunity to hit them on the break.
I was hoping to see Origi get himself a goal in the second half but he was hooked at half time for Bobby, who was absolutely fucking sensational when he came on. Poor Divock though. He got a start based on being boss in training, but he had very little chance to do anything as we were on the back foot for most of the first half.
He tried to be positive when he had the ball and a few times he knocked it down the line and tried to use his pace, but they stopped him easily enough. He also got laid out by an outrageous WWE style shoulder block by the notoriously snide Pepe.
I’m rooting for Big Div and really want him to do well, but you could see the massive difference in our play when Bobby came on. Hopefully Divock doesn’t let his head go down after this though as he’s still got a significant part to play in this run in. We’re going to need him as we can’t just keep wheeling out the same front three twice a week. Keep your chin up lad, you can still be a hero.
Bobby though. Fucking hell. The impact he made was massive. Whether he’d have had the same kind of influence had he started is open to debate, as like I said, Porto had us under the cosh and that only really changed after we scored. What we do know is that Firmino came on and completely ran the game. The second goal started because he won the ball in the left back position, didn’t panic despite being pressured, and managed to switch the play to where the space was.
Wijnaldum collected and fed the overlapping Trent, and he produced a slide rule Gerrard pass that took out the last defender and reached Salah without him needing to even break stride. Casillas came flying out and made up Mo’s mind by leaving a big space for him to roll the ball into. Mane was square for a tap in, but Mo is always taking that himself and rightly so.
Now Porto needed five. They did at least get one back. Disappointing from our point of view to concede from a corner like that, but sometimes when the ball is right and you have a big man that has timed his run well, it’s virtually impossible to stop. The lad who scored had a cracking game. You can see why Madrid have snapped him up as he looks like a big talent. Strong, quick and skilful. Like a Portuguese Joe Gomez.
Speaking of Joe, he was back in action having replaced Trent immediately after the second goal. Hendo was brought on as well to give Robbo a bit of a rest. Tell you what, the skipper was fucking sensational from the second he stepped onto the field. Like a Mackem Kevin De Bruyne.
His first involvement was a perfect through ball to send Mané clear. Sadio’s first touch was incredible and he did everything right to race through and go around the keeper, but he just couldn’t wrap his foot around the ball as he moved at full speed and it sailed wide of the open goal. It looked like a sitter but I reckon that was much more difficult than many seem to think.
Gomez looked good. Strong in his defensive work and positive in his forward running. He was involved in the third goal when he made a challenge and got the ball to Hendo who carried the ball forward, waited for Gomez to make an overlap and distract the defender, and then curled a ball right into the area that Firmino had pointed to. Bobby buried the header, meaning all three forwards had scored.
I know I’m probably reflecting on this through rose tinted glasses, but it felt like that happened every other week last season. I remember writing how it would upset me if one of them didn’t score. It doesn’t seem to have happened anything like as often this year, so I enjoyed this immensely. I love it when all three of them score in the same game, not least because it means we’ve scored three and have almost certainly won the game.
There was time for Big Virg to get in the act too, heading in emphatically after Mané had flicked on a Milner corner at the near post. Loved that one, we should see it more often as Sadio wins so many front post headers from corners that if the delivery is right we could be scoring these type of goals regularly.
We could have scored more but four was just fine. What could easily have been a really difficult game ended up in a stroll because of the resilience of the lads to defend and resist the early pressure, and then the quality to strike when the opportunity arose. The perfect old school away performance really. This team has matured massively over the last 12 months, but they’ll need all of that calmness and professionalism in the next month or so as every game is fucking massive.
Reaching the semi final stage two years in a row is a fine accomplishment. Of last season’s final four we’re the only ones to get there again this time, which says a lot. We’ve actually had more trouble getting out of the groups than we have had negotiating the knockout stages, because knockout football suits us.
We’ve never lost a knockout tie under Klopp but we might be about to face the biggest threat to that record in the next round. Maybe City last year was a tougher game, but this is certainly more glamorous because this is a proper club we're up against. Fellow European royalty. Real Madrid have the most European Cups but a tie with Barcelona has that extra little bit of magic about it for me. They’re just a little bit sexier and therefore it’s more exciting playing them than anybody else.
They’re also clearly beatable. Messi is on another planet but the rest of them don’t scare me. We know as well as anyone how good Suarez and Coutinho are, but we regularly face players of their level domestically (Aguero, De Bruyne, Silva, Hazard). There is no-one like Messi though. There never has been. This is a new and unique test for us.
It’s a fucking massive test for Barcelona too though. They don’t face anyone like us in Spain and they haven’t faced anyone like us in Europe either, because there is no-one like us. They will HATE the intensity and speed we play at. They won't get a second's peace on the ball and we can make life very uncomfortable for them.
The second leg is at Anfield, which in the past is something that I would have seen as being a massive advantage. We’re so dangerous on the break away from home though that I don’t think it actually makes any difference to us where the second leg is. It probably makes more of a difference to Barca, as no doubt they’d want to be at Camp Nou for the second leg.
For two years I’ve watched them play and always found myself thinking “we’d fucking destroy these”. Now we’ll get to see if I’m right. I can't wait, this is what it's all about, the games where legends are made.
Star man is Sadio, just ahead of Fabinho the destroyer. Firmino and Henderson were both phenomenal in the time they were on the pitch but Mané played the full game and looked full of confidence and swagger.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Gomez), Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson (Henderson); Fabinho, Milner, Wijnaldum; Salah, Origi (Firmino), Mané:
Recommended Comments