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A two goal lead and a clean sheet is a good night’s work. We’re not through yet but it would take an uncharacteristic defensive collapse for us to miss out on the semis now. Personally I thought Porto looked useful though so I’m taking nothing for granted yet. It’s a mark of how far we’ve come that a win like this is just seen as fairly routine now. Nothing to get overly excited about. In fact, there may even be an element of disappointment from some. We played alright, but it was generally third gear stuff. As I said, we’ve come a long way. The first half was good, the second half not so much. I wonder whether the way we played in the second half had anything to do with the Roma game last season though. 5-0 up and yet by the end of the second leg were hanging on and going through by a single goal margin because we conceded two away goals late on in the first leg. The first half in this one was end to end, thrilling stuff. Maybe Klopp didn't like that and thought we were too open? The second was certainly much more low key, as we played at a lower tempo and didn’t try to force it too much. Porto seemed to retreat into their shell a bit more too. In the first half they had a right go and seemed determined to not go home without an away goal or two. It made for an open, exciting opening 45 minutes. We went ahead very early courtesy of a deflected Keita strike. Lovely move, but the finish was somewhat lucky as Casillas looked like he probably had it covered until he was wrong footed by the deflection. That’s two goals in two games for Naby, both of them massively deflected (maybe he's becoming the new Lampard). They all count though and it seems to have helped his confidence no end. I loved Milner’s role in that goal too. He wasn’t content to just go in and win the ball, he made sure he knew exactly where it was going and he put it perfectly into space to set Mané away. Proper veteran know how that. Clever play from Bobby too to come short and collect the ball before rolling it to Naby. Just good football all round. We were rolling in that first half, helped considerably by how open Porto were playing. We don’t face that kind of approach very often and there’s a good reason for that, because it usually results in our forwards running wild. They threatened to do it in this game but it wasn’t quite happening, especially for Mo. He caused the Porto left back all manner of problems in the first half and should have scored when he went clean through after collecting a terrible backpass. Last season that was an automatic goal. This year it’s a 50-50 chance. It’s not like it was a terrible miss though, it was unlucky more than anything. But ‘unlucky’ was nowhere to be seen last season when he was banging in 44 goals. This was very unfortunate because he was impeded by a defender as he went through, and if he’d gone down it would have been a certain red card for Felipe. Mo rode the challenge but his momentum had gone, meaning the option of going around Casillas was no longer there. Instead he had to aim for a tiny gap and the ball rolled inches wide. Frustrating, but not particularly damaging as we scored soon after anyway. What a goal too. The pass from Hendo to split the defence and put Trent in was pure class. The ball across from Trent was perfect and Bobby had the simplest of tap ins. Glad to see he didn’t go with the ‘no look finish’ on that. No need to take any risks when you’re connecting with a cross coming at pace. Another 5-0 looked on the cards at this point but in fairness Porto always carried a threat and they could (probably should) have pulled one back and really thrown the cat among the pigeons with an away goal. Not for the first (or last) time, Marega found space in the channel behind Lovren and Trent and it needed a smart save from Alisson to deny him. Seconds later Alisson got into a mess when instead of catching a loose ball, he inexplicably just patted it onto the arm of Trent who was covering round the back post. That led to a VAR review, and as we know from the World Cup you can never be sure how those things are going to go, especially with handball decisions. Some of the VAR handball decisions in that tournament were mind bogglingly shit, so any time they go to the video you have to be a little concerned. It was never a penalty in a million years as there was nothing Trent could have done about it and it was point blank range, but the fact is we’ve seen them given. Thankfully common sense prevailed this time, but what the hell was Alisson doing? He’s had far too many of these ‘what the fuck’ moments but thankfully most of them have come to nothing. As well as being a better keeper than Karius and Mignolet, he’s also much luckier than them too as he’s gotten away with murder at times this season. I just hope he doesn't cost us over the next few weeks by doing something stupid. Porto’s tails were up now though and from the resulting corner they should have scored but again Marega’s finishing let him down, as this time he shot straight at Alisson when anything either side of him would have been a goal. He was a right handful that Marega though. His movement was great and he was constantly getting in behind. He gave our backline loads of problems but he didn’t give Alisson many, because he kept missing the target. The movement of Jamie Vardy but the finishing of Stuart Barlow. He’ll need to be watched carefully in the second leg though because it’s unlikely he’ll be this wild in his finishing for a second time. The end to end stuff continued and Bobby could have had a second but couldn’t keep his shot down. Difficult chance on his left foot, but the build up was glorious again. Nice driving run and pass to Henderson by Keita, and a lovely pick out from the skipper to drop it right at Bobby’s feet. That move typified the performance of the two box to box midfield lads. Naby and Hendo were both excellent and were involved in virtually everything good we produced. We also had a couple of those blistering counter attacks from the oppositions corners. Only the final ball let us down, but as I always say, there's nothing in football quite like a Kloppo counter attack. So 2-0 at half time and at this point I'm thinking that Klopp will sort out the issues at the back that was allowing Marega to get in behind, while at the other end we'd continue to push for more goals and basically finish the tie here and now. Never happened though. Marega was still a threat and we never really looked like scoring again. Actually that's not quite true as Sadio had a goal ruled out right at the start of the second half. I’ve seen loads of replays of it and still can’t tell if it was offside or not. Did that even go to VAR? I'm not sure it can if the linesman has already flagged. As far as I’m aware they aren’t supposed to flag if it’s close. Aren’t they meant to leave it and let it go to VAR? If he hadn’t put his flag up, would that goal have counted? I think it might, but we’ll never know. Thankfully it’s probably not that important anyway. At least I hope it’s not. That was pretty much as good as it got for us in the second half, as after that not a great deal happened. There were some good situations but they rarely led to clear chances. The intensity wasn’t quite there, which is fine because we were two goals ahead and we’ve got Chelsea this weekend. No point in going mad and knackering everyone ahead of that game. This was the kind of win we see virtually every week from City. Go a couple of goals up and then cruise, and conserve energy. I'd settle for five more wins like this in the league, that's for sure. Mo was annoying me in that second half though. I thought he looked boss in the first half, and that run back to his own box he made to snuff out a Porto counter was fucking ace. His decision making after half time was appalling though. I lost count of the amount of times he just dribbled straight into a defender. Porto seemed to play him differently after the break and instead of him coming up against the left back all the time, he was often confronted by the lad who is going to Madrid this summer, and he did very well to be fair. Mo got very little change out of him and also had a scare when VAR was used to see whether he should have been sent off for a studs up lunge. The still photo of it looks bad, but in real time you can see there’s no force behind the challenge, he just kind of dangles out his leg. Not just that, the only reason he’s even going into the challenge side on like that is because his arm is being pulled by another defender. VAR got that right, but again, on another night that would go against us. I fucking hate VAR, it’s horrendous, especially for those inside the ground who have absolutely no idea what's going on or what is even being looked at half the time. With 20 minutes left Klopp sent Origi on for Mané (a decision I was completely on board with) and then ten minutes later it was Sturridge on for Firmino (which had me scratching my head). Origi comes on and immediately wants to be positive and run at people. Sturridge comes on and gives us nothing without the ball, and in a game like this very little with the ball either. He’s someone you bring on for the last ten minutes of a league game when you’re 3-0 up, not when there's anything at stake and you're protecting a lead. To me it’s not a co-incidence that the last ten minutes was virtually all Porto. It happens all the time when Sturridge comes on. I’d love to know what Shaqiri has done to find himself in the doghouse. He almost got ten seconds at the end but the ball didn’t go out of play and he was left high and dry on the touchline in full kit when the final whistle went. I’d have been fuming, but he seemed in decent enough spirits. It’s weird that we haven’t seen him at all for months though, especially when Sturridge is getting on ahead of him. What next? Moreno getting a late run out on the right wing in the last couple of minutes on Sunday? All in all though a good nights work from Kloppo and the boys. Another goal or two would have allowed him to rotate a bit more for the second leg, but the main thing was to not concede and we did that, albeit somewhat unconvincingly at times. Marega got in behind us four or times times over the course of the game and that’s something that needs addressing before the second leg. It’s easy to just pin that on Lovren, but it wasn’t just down to him. One one occasion Van Dijk stepped up to play offside when he really needed to just cover behind his partner. Other times it was Trent not getting back in and leaving Lovren too much ground to cover. I Having not played for three months there was always going to be a bit of rust for Big Dejan, but overall he wasn't bad. The shirt belongs to Matip at the moment though and he should come straight back in on Sunday as he’s earned that spot over the last few months. It made sense to give him a rest and get Lovren some minutes though, as you never know who we might need in these next few weeks. With that in mind, it’s encouraging to see Keita finally contributing too, and the battle for places in midfield is pretty intense at the moment. Fabinho is virtually an automatic choice now, but Henderson has pushed to the front of the queue for one of the other two spots. Gini has gone off the boil recently and with Lallana once again proving that he can’t be relied upon Naby couldn’t have found a better time to show some signs of life. It will be interesting to see who gets the nod on Sunday. I suspect it will be Gini, but that would be a little harsh on Keita. This was probably his best game of the season. He was neat and tidy in possession, he was very good in his pressing and work off the ball, and we saw a couple of those gliding runs at the heart of the defence that were his trademark at Leipzig. More of that please, Naby. He was almost the star man, but once again I’m giving it to the captain. I thought he had a great game. Full of strong running, good passing and intelligent pressing. Honourably mentions to Bobby (some brilliant footwork in tight spaces) and Big Games James too, who were both very good. No-one played badly though. So now the focus is all on Sunday. I always felt that Spurs was the toughest game we would have left, but many have believed for weeks that Chelsea is the one with the most potential for things to go wrong. We don't have good history with this fixture and haven't beaten them at Anfield since Andy Carroll and Jonjo Shelvey were running wild all over them, days after they'd beaten us in the FA Cup Final. That's a long fucking time, and of course we had the infamous 2014 defeat that cost us a title. So I understand why there's trepidation about the game, and I'm not sitting here telling you it's going to be easy. I'm worried about it too, but what if we win it? The ramifications of that would be huge. Put yourself in Man City's shoes for a second. You're looking at the games we have left and will have a big red circle around this one. This was the fixture that handed City the title five years ago and they'll be hoping for the same outcome again. But if we come through this one then all the pressure is on them over the next few weeks. The only way to make them crack is to keep squeezing them. Who knows, by the time we play Chelsea Roy might have done us another favour and taken more points off City. Palace's home record is abysmal this year but they are well suited to playing against the better teams. If Zaha turns it on then you never know what might happen. I know one thing though, if City have slipped up in that game then the atmosphere at Anfield for that Chelsea game is going to be one for the ages. Just fucking win, lads. Just win. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Milner; Fabinho, Henderson, Keita; Salah, Firmino (Sturridge), Mané (Origi):