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Benfica (H) - UCL Quarter Final 2nd leg, Wed 13th Apr 2022 (8:00pm)


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8 minutes ago, Grinch said:

Last four with ease.  Commentators doing their best to talk it up when we’re two, three or four up all night.  Never in doubt.

Yeah, exactly. It’s almost like there isn’t an aggregate score to these ties. 

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1 minute ago, Anubis said:

Yup. Mad. We started the game two goals ahead and finished it two goals ahead. They made no significant progress.

 

Tsimikas was brilliant tonight.


Running offside every five minutes isn’t exactly something to crow about.  Commentators have a habit of making meals over “chamces” that don’t matter one fuck.

 

The Greeks been excellent for a while.  Should be knocking on Klopps door.

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No way our first choice back four get caught out on the offside trap like that. It’s a very difficult one to get right at the best of times, let alone when four defenders have never played together in a real match before. Nothing to worry about at all. 

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9 minutes ago, Captain Howdy said:

Yep, it was fucking horrendous

I mean, it was obvious time and again what they were inviting, and they kept on doing it. Faffing around at the back without any sense of where they were trying to go. Alisson messing around and then booting the ball into touch, several times. Hendo doing asinine lobs into the box when there were at least three simple passes around him. Lots of players playing the ball back into our half when the Benfica players had practically given up. Sadio loping around as if he wasn't even following the game (or the offside trap, or his own left back). Salah reduced to link up play when this was the game to get him back scoring. Endless slipping over. It goes on and on. Just witless, absolutely witless. People can say it doesn't matter but we've had these bad habits for some time whenever we think we're fairly safe and we keep causing needless problems for ourselves. The last thing you want at this stage in the season are failures of concentration.

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Roy Keane made a good point saying it's easy to 'have a go' once you fall way behind in a game and the pressure is right off. Their domestic cups are done and they are going to finish 3rd in their league. This was all they had to play for. 

 

Add that to Liverpool clearly keeping an eye on upcoming fixtures with selections tonight, plus maintaining a nice buffer throughout the home leg. 

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Played tremendously well for periods. Zipped the ball around very well. Second half we could and should have scored more. 

Thiago and fabinho added some lovely balance to the side. 

Changing 3 of the back 4 had the potential to be tough as you need continuity on that area. Those players aren't used to playing together. 

And of course we missed the leader at the back not being in. 

Jurgen spot on to rest players and give minutes to tsimikas, gomez etc as they'll need to be tuned in. 

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Just now, A_S said:

Roy Keane made a good point saying it's easy to 'have a go' once you fall way behind in a game and the pressure is right off. Their domestic cups are done and they are going to finish 3rd in their league. This was all they had to play for. 

 

 

It's easy to have a go, but it's not easy to turn that into goals unless the other team is spectacularly dozy. I've rarely wanted so often to shout 'WAKE UP!' at the team.

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That reminded me of those back-to-back 4-4 games with Arsenal and Chelsea towards the end of the 2008/09 season.

 

Benfica to their credit came to try and play, and their finishing was clinical as fuck. Scored 3 and had another 3 or 4 disallowed. We had at least 1 goal disallowed ourselves - it was that sort of weird night.

 

It's not possible to play high-intensity pressure football for 90 minutes so you need to have moments when it is slowed down. In those moments, you need to make doubly sure to track runners and not leave the back door open. Don't allow easing up to turn into sloppiness. If it's a lesson for the players to learn, I'd rather it be in this game than in the ones to come. By that point, having the solution put into practice is what is required.

 

Another semi it is then. We go on.

 

 

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It was disappointing to give goals away, but we were never in danger of losing that game.  

 

Firmino took my constructive criticism and did something positive in the second half, even though he couldn't avoid fucking up badly on a couple of occasions even then.  Still, two goals on a plate are always welcome.  It's a shame Mo couldn't get one served up - the longer it goes on, the more difficult he's going to find it.  I was desperate for him to get one own he came on.  Mane looked sharp when he came on.  Benfica increasingly went direct with long balls to cause us some discomfort, but the makeshift back 4 had plenty of slack to play with, which is why I guess we kept the very high line.

 

Both full backs did well, especially my boy Tsimikas who, no disrespect to Robertson, looks like our best left back.  Taking on and beating the opposition full back without the advantage of a run on him, and the quality of his passing is second to none.  Having a two footed player there makes such a difference.  

 

Konate is a fantastic CB in the making.  His distribution is probably better than VDVs even - both in terms of quality and variety.  He'll be an all time great for us if his development continues on the path it's on now.   

 

Diaz was busy, but didn't get much joy today.  Keita played well again, mobile and tidy.  Good to see Divock getting on at the end - Klopp would be brave not to have in on the bench if we reach the final.  All in all, a relatively serene progression into the game with this year's dark horses. 

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1 hour ago, Funkasy said:

Firmino is finished

 

1 hour ago, Elite said:

Bobby is so fucking wasteful.

 

1 hour ago, J-V said:

Peak Bobby that fucking hell.  Like a forward version of Henderson. Shits himself near goal half the time.

 

1 hour ago, Babb'sBurstNad said:

2018 Firmino knocks that straight over the keeper's head.

 

1 hour ago, waddy78 said:

Unfortunately that Bobby has long gone.

 

1 hour ago, J-V said:

That Firmino shot shitout/shit pass was a joke.

 

Best and most knowledgeable supporters in the world!

 

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1 minute ago, stringvest said:

but that was all completely true.  He stunk the place out in the first half. 

Mainly because he was being too selfless and losing possession when he should have just took the shot on like any other number 9 would. 

 

Klopp at half time probably told him to just fucking go for it and that's why we got a much more dangerous version in the second half. 

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7 minutes ago, gkmacca said:

I mean, it was obvious time and again what they were inviting, and they kept on doing it. Faffing around at the back without any sense of where they were trying to go. Alisson messing around and then booting the ball into touch, several times. Hendo doing asinine lobs into the box when there were at least three simple passes around him. Lots of players playing the ball back into our half when the Benfica players had practically given up. Sadio loping around as if he wasn't even following the game (or the offside trap, or his own left back). Salah reduced to link up play when this was the game to get him back scoring. Endless slipping over. It goes on and on. Just witless, absolutely witless. People can say it doesn't matter but we've had these bad habits for some time whenever we think we're fairly safe and we keep causing needless problems for ourselves. The last thing you want at this stage in the season are failures of concentration.

I agree with this. We get very sloppy at times and the thing is, once it creeps into your game, it's very hard to cut it out. it's like taking your foot off the gas because you think the game's won, then the oppos score a couple of quick goals and you have a fight on your hands.

 

Alli nearly did a Karius rolling one ball out which the Benfica player got a touch to and put us under pressure.

 

People can say it doesnt matter, that's their opinion and they're entitled to it. But it does matter. We've gone from conceeding 4 goals since the turn of the New Year to shipping 3 tonight, 2 against city and another against Benfica in the first game.

 

What I loved about the 78 team is even at 1-0 with 20 to go, they'd shut up shop and see the game out.

6 minutes ago, A_S said:

Roy Keane made a good point saying it's easy to 'have a go' once you fall way behind in a game and the pressure is right off. Their domestic cups are done and they are going to finish 3rd in their league. This was all they had to play for. 

 

Add that to Liverpool clearly keeping an eye on upcoming fixtures with selections tonight, plus maintaining a nice buffer throughout the home leg. 

I agree with this, from their point of view, it was shit or bust tonight. And it nearly came off for them.

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40 minutes ago, waddy78 said:

Would you let him go in the summer? I'd say Konate has moved above him now.

I don't know if it's a lack of game time, but he's not hit the heights of the season he first partnered Van Dijk. Given his pace, its amazing how deep he continually drops - playing everyone onside in the process. He's a good option for back up, but not sure he'd be happy with that. As you say, we have better options ahead of him now.

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2 minutes ago, Aventus said:

Mainly because he was being too selfless and losing possession when he should have just took the shot on like any other number 9 would. 

 

Klopp at half time probably told him to just fucking go for it and that's why we got a much more dangerous version in the second half. 

He spent the first half passing to Benfica whenever he got the ball it wasn't just about what he didn’t do in front of goal.

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