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It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t convincing, it won’t be particularly memorable. But it sure was satisfying. There’s no worse team in the world to play than these. They’re fucking horrible but they’re also really fucking good. We saw both sides of that here and this was such a tough game. It didn’t start that way. We couldn’t have wished for anything better than that start. We looked sharp but the big thing really was how unlike themselves they were. They weren’t difficult to play against in that opening 15, we had our way with them and Simeone was losing the plot on the touchline. Mind you, he’s like that regardless of the score, the annoying twat. We went ahead early when Mo skipped away from three challenges and fired in a shot that deflected past the keeper. Initially it was given as his goal as it had come off the defender. Then they gave it Milner because it looked like he’d side footed the ball in. Then they changed their mind again and said it hit the defender so it was Mo’s goal. Milner won’t be arsed but Mo defo would have been, so this turned out for the best in the end. Mo deserved it for the way he skipped away from all those challenges. Atletico were rattled and it wasn’t long after they conceded another. What a strike too by Naby. Like his goal against Palace only this time with his other foot. That was as good as it got for him though. I was actually typing out a message ripping him for a really shit pass seconds before when Atletico pulled one back. It was such an easy ball he could have rolled through for Mo but he messed it up completely. Seconds later they’re down the other end winning a corner, and from that corner he got absolutely skinned by Lemar which led to the goal. It isn’t good defending from Keita but in mitigation he isn’t a full back and is never going to be comfortable in a situation where he’s left isolated against a tricky winger. Lemar beat him all ends up but maybe we need to be looking at how Naby was left in that one v one situation. What happened after that was a bit of a farce. Even allowing for the changes to offside I don’t think that goal should stand. Lemar is offside but because he doesn’t touch the ball he’s deemed to be playing no part in it, but he appears out of nowhere and jumps over the ball as Matip is in position to clear it. Joel probably could have prevented the goal but he hesitated due to Lemar being right on top of him. We’ve seen goals disallowed this season for less interference than that and they did take a long, long look at it. In the end they allowed it to stand and it caused a lot of discussion in the BT studio at half time and then even more so afterwards. Peter Walton is a complete fucking waste of space. In fact, the worst words in British sorts broadcasting might well be “let’s go over to Peter Walton and get his thoughts on that decision”. That cunt is stealing a living. I despise him. You know who else does? Joleon Lescott. You could see the absolute fucking contempt he had for him when they were discussing that first Atleti goal afterwards. Walton is talking absolute fucking gash about why the decision was correct because that’s what the rule states, and Lescott is just completely disgusted with him. In the end he stops even arguing the point because he knows you can’t argue with stupid. Lescott’s point was that Matip would have cleared it but for an offside player getting in his way. Crouch agreed. Walton would have too if that had been the decision given by VAR. But because VAR allowed the goal that means Walton is going with that, because this is all he does, the absolute fucking roaster. What’s the point in having him there when all he ever does is back whatever decision is made? The worst is when he argues in favour of one outcome and when they change their mind he’ll do a u-turn and argue against his own initial point. I can’t fucking stand him. He’s annoyed me even more than Simeone. Anyway, I’ve completely lost track of where I am now, let me read it back… Ok, so we’re 2-1 up but the momentum has shifted completely. Atletico were playing really well now and we were not looking good. They were playing with a rigid five at the back but still looking really dangerous going forward and were finding space behind our midfield far too easily. Their equaliser was brilliant from their perspective but cheap as fuck from ours. Keita was beaten far too easily by Joao Felix and then one pass inside completely killed us. Griezemann collected it, blew past Virgil and then beat Alisson with a low shot. Keita should have stopped it at source with a tactical foul but even after that we could have dealt with it better. What the fuck was Virg doing? He was facing the wrong way and didn’t even see Griezemann. That’s right out of the “Defend like Harry Maguire” handbook that. We were all over the place from about 20 minutes onwards though. We didn’t keep the ball and we looked wide open. Alisson needed to make two brilliant saves just to keep us level and it was obvious Fabinho was going to have to come on at the break. It was equally obvious Keita would be the one to make way. It’s not that he was so much worse than Henderson or Milner, as none of them covered themselves in glory. But there’s a pattern here. So often when he plays we get exposed and the opponent seem to be able to play through us. Most of the damage was being done in the area of the pitch that Keita was responsible for, so while you could just as easily have subbed Milner, the bottom line here is who do you trust in a game like this? Milner has proved himself countless times, Keita hasn’t. So he was rightly brought off and now his fanboys are kicking off again on twitter, accusing James Pearce and other journos of being racist and generally trying to convince the world Keita gets a raw deal because he’s African and not English. It’s this kind of shit that makes it hard to root for Keita even though none of it is his fault. The Naby cultists might be the worst section of the “LFC Fam”. The change settled us down but we were also helped by Atletico being reduced to ten men. The ref didn’t have a choice there, it’s an obvious red even though it was entirely accidental. There’s no malice there and in fairness to Griezemann when he knew the decision wouldn’t be overturned, he didn’t just stomp off in a huff, he went to check Bobby was ok first. The decision helped us but probably not too much as they’re the type of team that are well equipped to play with a man less and given the way they play I expect they’re used to it. They still posed a threat even after the second off but it was mostly just Carrasco running the channels non stop. Some shift he put in. Defensively they were comfortable enough and the second half was pretty awful as a spectacle. The sit housing was cranked up several notches after Griezemann was sent off as they desperately looked to even the score. Simeone was kicking off about any little foul and their players were milking any contact. Trippier got Milner booked by running into him and then hitting the floor holding his face. Milner was incredulous about it and Trippier just got up laughing, knowing full well he’d conned the ref. He did the same thing to Sadio in the first half. He didn’t learn that at Spurs. One thing about the best managers is that their teams tend to reflect their personality. Teams have an identity based on their manager. We’re a reflection of Klopp. You can look at Ferguson’s United, Wenger’s Arsenal, Mourinho’s Chelsea… and Atletico are a mirror image of Simeone. They might be the greatest example of it in history. A team full of horrible snide cunts who will do whatever it takes to win and they don’t give a shit what anyone thinks of their methods. Someone was wanting to make a triple change but the ball wouldn’t go out of play. The subs were stood there for a good five minutes and he was getting more and more agitated, trying to get his own players to put the ball out just to make the change. We got a corner, but everyone knows you don’t make changes when defending a corner so he had to delay it further. And then, one of the players he was wanting to sub had a moment of madness and conceded one of the most stupid penalties you’ll see. He wasn’t looking at the ball and he deliberately barged into Jota and took him down. It’s blatant. 100 times out of 100 that’s given as a penalty, but their lad was acting like he was the victim of the greatest injustice of the century. It’s ingrained in them you see. It all comes from the manager. They tried to put Mo off and Oblak was acting the twat, but Mo kept his nerve and sent him the wrong way to put us back in front. The triple change now became a quadruple one as Suarez was added to the mix. He wasted no time in leaving something on Virgil after he cleared the ball and he basically picked up where he left off the last time he faced us in Spain. He must have been straining at the leash to get on that pitch and when he got there he was in full on shithouse mode. They were desperate and cranked up the cheating even further. It looked like it paid off when one of them took a tumble after colliding with Jota and the ref pointed to the spot. One first view it looked to me like their player slowed down to ensure Jota ran into him, but having given something similar at the other end the ref was always going to be under pressure to give this one. The replay confirmed what I first thought but it also showed that even though their lad’s only intent was to initiate contact and hit the deck, the contact was actually minimal anyway. It was never a penalty but refs like to even things out so I held out no hope this would be overturned. But as soon as he was told by VAR to check the video I thought it was 50/50. Usually when they are told to go and take another look they will overturn it, but you need a big set of balls to do that with a baying crowd, a team full of bad shithouses in your face all night, and most of all, that fucking loony Simeone a few yards away on the touchline. So fair play to the ref for having the stones to do it. It did deny us the possibility of Alisson saving a pen from Suarez though, which would have been pretty fucking epic. As much as I joke about how much I still love Suarez, it’s more the memory and the feeling I had for him back in the day that I miss. Seeing him on the pitch playing against us doesn’t really move me or stir anything in me. When he was booked and he kept on abusing the ref I was laughing and wanting him to keep going so he’d get sent off. Honestly, nothing would have given me greater pleasure than him picking up a red card. He probably deserved it for the dangerous, snidey challenge he made that led to the booking. He wasn’t trying to foul Virgil, he was trying to make it look as though he was the one being fouled. It’s the oldest trick in the book, a striker makes a back for a defender and then goes down trying to win a free kick. This one had the double of whammy of him holding his face and writhing around the floor as though he’d been poleaxed. What actually happened was Virgil went up for a header, Suarez tried to barge into him to draw a free-kick, but Virg saw him coming and put an arm out to protect himself. Of course Suarez did that thing where he holds his face with one hand and waves his other arm up in the air like he’s in real distress. I must have seen that over a hundred times and it always made me laugh. It’s not so funny when he’s on the opposing team. Virgil landed really awkwardly too and that could have been disastrous. Thankfully he was ok and thankfully the ref wasn’t buying any of the shit Luis was selling. We held on fairly comfortably and I thought we saw out the closing stages really well. The introduction of Ox helped. He was busy and looked sharp. Don’t ask me why, but I can smell a big Ox moment coming up. It might be Sunday, but he’s going to do something, I can smell it. Anyway, to wrap things up. We were nowhere near our best but we won. That gives us a big lead in the group and leaves us one win away from qualification. It gives us an element of payback for them knocking us out a couple of years ago but I feel like we need to beat them again to fully set the record straight. Ideally, if we do that, I’d throw the game against whichever of Porto or Milan had the best chance of pipping Simeone and his bunch of shithouses to second spot. Star man is Alisson. He was outstanding and made some big saves. Matip played well too, as did Fabinho when he came on. Nobody else really stood out but that probably makes the win even more impressive. Winning against those twats while not being anywhere near our best is great. We need to sharpen up ahead of the weekend though. Atletico are a more difficult opponent than the Mancs but Old Trafford is usually a terrible venue for us. I never look forward to these games and this is no exception. Just give me the three points and I don’t care how we get them. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Gomez), Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Keita (Fabinho), Milner (Oxlade-Chamberlain); Salah (Williams), Firmino, Mané (Jota):