Not the result we hoped for but it’s fine. Considering there were no goals, it was a cracking game. A classic European tie. We played well for a while but couldn’t capitalise on it and eventually we ran out of ideas. Bayern seemed happy to take a goalless draw and showed little interest in trying to nick an away goal. Hopefully they will live to regret that.
Our defence played well, the midfielders were all impressive and Bobby was outstanding for someone who should have been tucked up in bed with a lemsip or a pack of immodium (depending on what type of virus he had). Had we been able to get one maybe we’d have gotten more, as some of the football we played was great (in the first half especially). Sadly we couldn’t finish it off and it allowed Bayern to become more and more comfortable.
The finishing was poor but the final ball was often even worse. I’d say that was the only thing wrong with what was otherwise a good performance. If Sadio had been able to finish or if Mo had not continually ran into cul de sac’s we’d have been fine.
I don’t think there’s any need for people to feel disappointed and there’s certainly no cause to be disheartened. Disappointing is drawing at home with Leicester or away to West Ham. This is Bayern Munich, serial winners, and a team who a couple of years ago would have been seen as being light years ahead of us. Now we’re facing them on an equal footing.
In fact, we’re facing them as slight favourites. You could see the respect they have for us in how they approached the game. They were much more defensive than anyone expected and to be fair I thought they were very good, very composed and they passed it around nicely. That might have changed if we’d scored, but we’ll never know because we didn’t.
They defended well, rode their luck at times and eventually they looked largely untroubled. I felt as though they had a goal in them too after how they played in that first half, but after the break they didn’t do much and seemed content to just sit in and keep what they had. It’s a first leg away from home against a very good side, so it's long been a tried and trusted approach.
In their shoes though I’d be thinking this might just be a missed opportunity. No Van Dijk. No Gomez. No Lovren. No away goals. That's the biggest positive we can take from the night, the makeshift pairing of Matip and Fabinho stood strong and the clean sheet could prove to be the most decisive aspect of the tie. We'll see.
The first half was a cracker. Chances galore and lots of nice football from both sides. Salah had a good chance that he couldn’t convert when Hendo picked him out with a glorious ball over the top. Not an easy one, and I’d have probably tried to head that in if it was me. But then I don’t have a left peg like Mo so that would be why. A diving header would have been easier than attempting what he did though I reckon.
Bayern hit back straight away and almost took the lead with a freak own goal. Gnabry did brilliantly to skin Robbo and drill a low cross into the box. Lewandowski missed it under pressure from Matip, but the defender didn’t have time to react and side footed it straight into the chest of Alisson, who knew nothing about it.
Bad moment there for 'Big Bird', and he had another one not long after. In fairness, it was more on Alisson than him, as the keeper dawdled on the ball (as he tends to do far too much) before just about smuggling it away to Matip, who was not expecting it and was caught completely on his heels. His feeble flicked attempt at clearing the ball was seized upon by Coman who struck the side netting.
Mané then shot wide following the best move of the game. The way the lads worked that opportunity out of some tight spaces on the right was outstanding. Shame Sadio couldn’t finish it off. He’d have been better cutting inside and then releasing the overlapping Robertson, but instead he moved to his left and dragged his shot wide of the near post.
He then wasted an even better chance when he didn’t realise how much time he had when a loose ball fell to him after Keita’s shot had been partially blocked. He could have taken a touch and picked his spot but he rushed it, tried to hit it on the turn and scuffed it wide from 8 yards.
It felt like all our chances were falling to Mané, and he missed another opportunity from another blocked Keita shot, as this time his overhead kick went well over. Difficult one that though in fairness.
Salah missed a great chance too when he headed wide at the back post after a gorgeously flighted ball in by Trent, while Matip put one wide after lovely interplay between Mo and Bobby had created the chance.
So we had our chances, we just didn’t take any of them. The second half wasn’t anywhere near as good, mainly because the final ball kept screwing things up for us and because Bayern became more defensive. The longer it went, the more frustrating it was and the more inevitable the goalless draw became.
Part of the problem was that Bobby eventually ran out of steam and had to go off to be replaced by Origi. With him went the link between the midfield and attack and it all became a bit too much about individuals rather than the collective.
Not Divock’s fault by any means - it was others who were guilty of not passing - but the understanding isn’t there between him and the others and the dynamic understandably doesn’t function as well.
There was one situation late on when he made a great run in behind and Mané just refused to pass it and instead went himself and lost it. That pissed me off because had he slipped him in we may have seen a repeat of Origi’s goal against Dortmund, as it was in the same area of the field. He could just as easily have fucked it up of course, but we'll never know because fucking Sadio didn't pass it to him. There was no excuse for not playing that pass and had it been Firmino or Salah making the run I expect he would have done.
The closest we came to a second half breakthrough was a diving header from Mané that the keeper tipped around at his near post. Other than that it was just a lot of set-pieces that never really threatened to come to anything. The delivery wasn’t the best (Salah in particular is terrible on corners), but the real issue was the massive height difference between the sides.
I looked at our lads in the box any time there was a corner and it was obvious that unless Big Bird somehow got his 50p head on the end of something we weren’t going to win any headers against them. We didn’t miss Virgil at the back, but we missed him on our attacking set-pieces.
0-0 isn’t a scoreline anyone expected but this is big boy football. It’s the European Cup; it’s not supposed to be easy. Just because we made it look easy last year doesn’t mean that’s now the norm. It isn’t. This is hard fucking work. It’s Bayern Munich, one of the giants of the game, and they’re not going to just come here and shit the bed.
The ‘power of Anfield’ can work in two ways. It can intimidate the opposition and it can inspire our lads. Sometimes it does both. Bayern are too long in the tooth to allow themselves to be unduly affected by the crowd though. Mats Hummels was on the wrong end of it a few years ago so he knew what to expect (same with Arjen Robben) and he will have briefed the rest of them.
The crowd were up for it but this wasn’t an all or nothing, high stakes, everything on the line game. It was a first leg, and we’re not big underdogs. That makes a difference and the intensity was perhaps not quite what it has been on other occasions. Maybe if it had been at fever pitch it might have unsettled Bayern, but probably not.
The crowd were right into it in the first half and YNWA before kick off was great. I don’t know if George intentionally played it when he did but I’m not sure that turning it off after the opening chorus will be enough to stop UEFA from handing out a charge as the fans totally drowned out their anthem, and we know how they don’t take kindly to that.
In the second half when the game began to drift, the crowd seemed to become increasingly resigned to the fact that we weren’t going to score but because this wasn’t a do or die type situation that’s almost to be expected. There wasn’t the frantic, manic atmosphere to drive the players on in the closing stages because this is essentially only the first half. The last thing we needed was to over commit and give away an away goal, which could decide the entire tie.
I'd say there has been an over-reaction to the performance in some quarters. Watch the first half again and then tell me we didn’t play well. Yes it dropped off after the break and the second half wasn’t a good performance from an attacking perspective, but the defensive side of it was fucking boss. Almost flawless in fact. Alisson had nothing to do because the defending (and by that I don't just mean the defence) was great.
Goal number one is to win the game. Goal number two is to keep a clean sheet. We achieved one of those so all in all it’s not a bad night’s work. I mean come on, we can’t win every tie in the first leg. We did last season but it’s not always going to be that way. The important thing is to not lose it in the first leg *cough* Man United *cough* , which we haven’t.
The general consensus seems to be that this is a better result for Bayern than it is for us. Not for me, Clive. At worst it’s 50-50 but it might even be slightly in our favour thanks to the clean sheet. We don’t need to win in Munich. We just need to score and to not lose. Easier said than done of course, but it’s difficult for Bayern as well. They need to win (or hold out for pens and cross their fingers).
They’re clearly a good side and there’s an aura of calmness and professionalism about them. They’re vastly experienced, been there and seen it all. You could tell. They never panicked and stuck to their gameplan well. It’s worth pointing out though that they didn’t muster a single shot on target. They had their threatening moments of course (mainly through the lively Gnabry), but they never seriously troubled a defence missing it’s top three central defenders.
That’s being overlooked by many I think. They got to face a Liverpool defence missing Virgil and they couldn’t score. We had our number four and five centre backs out there against Lewandowski and he barely got a kick.
It’s probably not going to be any easier for them in the return leg either, although the big difference there I suspect will be in their attacking ambition. At Anfield they seemed happy to keep everyone back and keep it tight. That’s not an option in the second leg and that will leave us more space to play in. Their right back is suspended now, which might unsettle their defence a little.
He seems like a tit, and I don’t just mean because that jarg muzzy he was sporting. Did you see him shouting like a fucking loon in Sadio’s face after he made a tackle? Mané just laughed at him. It’s almost a shame he’s not playing in three weeks because I’m sure Sadio would be looking forward to having another crack at him, especially as he knows if he had his shooting boots on he’d have been going home with the match ball. Yet this prick tackles him once and is giving it the arl Marco Tardelli?
We could easily go over there and lose. Only a fool would suggest otherwise. We could turn in a performance like we did in Paris or Naples and if we do then we’ll lose convincingly. It all depends on how we perform on the night and also whether we get the bounce of the ball.
I’m not telling you we’ll definitely go through, I’m saying is that 0-0 is fine and that I saw nothing at all in this game to make me any less confident of progression than I was going into the tie.
Star man is Hendo. A stonking performance from the skipper which I’d like to think will silence his doubters for a while, but I’m not that naive. Maybe if he follows it up with an equally impressive display on Sunday that will help. He’s got great performances in him but he just struggles to produce them consistently, partly because he seems to pick up injuries at the worst possible times. We need this Hendo for the rest of the season.
Both centre backs were very good too (once Matip got over a couple of initial wobbles) and Naby looked lively again. The full backs weren’t at their best though. Trent was wasteful in possession while Robbo really had his hands full with Gnabry, who probably beat him more times than every other opponent he’s faced over the last year combined.
Hopefully Mo and Sadio will be sharper in the second leg too, and more importantly (to me anyway) on Sunday. As big as these Champions League games are, they don’t even come close to what is at stake this weekend. I’m nervous already, whereas if I’m being completely honest I’d barely even given the Bayern game a second thought until kick off approached. I’ve had this United game on my mind for months though.
I just want it out of the way so we’ll know exactly where we stand for the run in. By that I mean, every time we look at the table and see City above us, the consolation is always “we’ve got a game in hand”. It makes us feel better. It’s a comfort blanket. Until you actually stop and think about it and realise that the game in hand is THEM, and it’s THERE.
It’s the least enjoyable fixture on the calendar at the best of times, but the stress factor is cranked up like never before this year.
So come on Reds, let’s have you looking sharp in the final third, play to your best and let’s fucking do these bastards.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Fabinho, Robertson; Henderson, Keita (Milner), Wijnaldum; Mané, Firmino (Origi), Salah:
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