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I thought these were meant to be difficult to play against? We made this look easy and it had nothing to do with them going down to ten men either. This was over even before then and the sending off probably saved them a real beating. We went easy on them in the second half as we just managed the game and conserved energy. We started much the same way we did at their place and quickly found ourselves 2-0 up. The main difference this time was that Atletico had actually started ok themselves. In the first game they didn’t start playing until they went down by two. This time they had a go from the opening whistle. They played some decent stuff and had the ball around our box quite a bit without really doing anything to test Alisson. Defensively though they couldn’t cope. We were right at it and when Sadio and Mo are in this mood they’re hard to stop. Throw Jota into the mix with his knack for scoring goals (I still say he scores every game even if the numbers say differently) and we’re probably the most fearsome side in the competition. Nobody will want to draw us in the knockouts. The opening goal was brilliant. The little triangles between Trent, Hendo and Mo caused them problems the entire first half. The left back got booked early for fouling Mo and he never looked comfortable after that. He’s the same moron who conceded the pen in the first game. Anyway, the lads worked it around well until Hendo rolled it back to Trent and he crossed for Jota to head in. BT Sport’s analysis of it afterwards was great. You had Ferdinand pointing out how lost the centre back was and what he should have been doing, then Crouchy and Owen are talking about what a striker is thinking in that situation and finally they had a great angle of Trent showing how he was looking to see where Jota was before the ball was even played to him, and then again as he shaped to cross. Just brilliant. Trent is fucking ridiculous. He made the second too, although it’s debatable what his intentions were. Was it or a shot or was he just driving it into an area? Maybe both. Sometimes you hedge your bets by blasting at the far corner knowing someone might get a touch. I think that’s what he was doing because when you look at how he strikes it, it’s not really the cleanest if he’s having a shot. If it’s anyone else I’d just assume it was a mis-hit shot, but because it’s Trent you just don’t know. He really is that good. Sadio started that move and then he finished it. He was on fucking fire. He obviously hates these fuckers because every time he’s played them they’ve done everything possible to try and get him sent off, and at least twice he’s been subbed because Klopp was worried he’d end up with a red card. He was booked in the first half for reacting to a bad tackle and that pissed me right off. That Koke prick booted him three times and also had a little follow up nibble when Sadio was on the ground. The ref booked Sadio for retaliation but did nothing to Koke. He was letting them away with too much early on, especially against Sadio. Then after being too lenient he suddenly went too far the other way by producing a red card that really wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it was a naughty tackle on Sadio and was one of those that deserves more than a yellow but the tackle itself wasn’t quite bad enough to be a red. There’s absolutely no doubt that the ref was giving him a yellow but then he got mad when Felipe wouldn’t come to him. If he was giving him a straight red he wouldn’t have even called him over, he’d have just shown the card and told him to get the fuck off the pitch. Refs call players over when they are booking them and that’s 100% what was happening until Felipe disrespected him and the ref’s ego took over. What he should have done is given him a yellow for the foul and then another yellow for the dissent. Instead he just gave a straight red. That probably means a lengthier suspension, which is probably fair all things considered. Overall I thought the ref was pretty poor but I can absolutely relate to what he did there as I’d be the same. Refs know what horrible fuckers Atletico are and he clearly just decided he wasn’t going to be played by them. What was weird about it was that Simeone didn’t react much and in fact he was fairly subdued all night. I expected him to be bouncing around being a complete twat, as usual, but he wasn’t really himself. He didn’t shake Klopp’s hand at full time though, so at least he stayed true to form there. Prick. As soon as they went down to ten it was obvious what their response was going to be - get Sadio sent off to even the numbers. Within a minute or two Sadio had committed a nothing foul only for their lad to roll around, writhing in agony while they all badgered the ref to produce a second yellow. At that moment it was obvious what Klopp needed to do, which was such a shame because Sadio was fucking killing them. He was flying and they couldn’t deal with him, but that yellow card he had meant he was too much of a risk against these cheating fuckers. Klopp summed it up perfectly afterwards when he said he hated having to do it but he had no choice because all it would take is for one of them to go up for a header and make contact with Sadio’s arm and that would be that. Half time came, Sadio was subbed and Bobby was on. 100% the right call. We started the second half like a team that really wanted to step on their throat. We were flying at them from all angles and it’s a miracle they didn’t concede. Jota had a goal disallowed as he had a toe offside. A real shame that as we were robbed of a sensational assist by Matip. How good was that? He’s fucking boss, I love him. He should have scored himself when he sliced wide from a corner. Jota missed an easy header too. If the third goal had came so early in the second half we might have added a couple more before we stopped playing. It didn’t come though and the final half an hour was mostly everyone just passing it around playing keep ball, and Mo getting it and trying to score. He tormented them all night but the ball just wouldn’t go in for him. It did feel like he was the only one really arsed about trying to score more goals but I was fine with that this time. When we shut it down in the last 30 at Old Trafford I was frustrated as it was opportunity to do something truly historical, and there was also the goal difference to factor in. That might be important after 38 games. This was different. As much as I’d have liked to batter them just because of how horrible they are, it wasn’t really important in the grand scheme of things. Goal difference was irrelevant and whether it was 2-0 or 5-0 didn’t really matter much did it? And with West Ham away at the weekend the priority was conserving energy and avoiding injury. Fabinho was given a well earned rest (he was fucking awesome) as Thiago made his return. I’ll be honest, Thiago in games like this winds me up. I feel like he needs to be playing in high stakes games where the result is in the balance, otherwise he’s just so fucking casual. He almost gave a goal away through the kind of sloppiness we’ve seen from him before in similar circumstances. It’s good to have him back though, especially with Curtis having joined the walking wounded after taking a finger in the eye in training. Ox hurt his knee too, and even though he was able to continue for a bit he was subbed as a precaution and had an ice pack on it at full time. He played well though and I’m pleased for him. We need him to regain some confidence because he’s going to get minutes. The other midfielders are so prone to picking up knocks that Ox is going to play a lot more than would have been expected. I’d definitely start him at West Ham as he needs a run of games to get going and it looks like he might be coming into form, Great to see Big Nat thrown on for the final few seconds too. That was clearly Klopp’s way of rewarding him for getting us into the competition with his heroics last season. Without what he (and Rhys Williams) did we’d be in the fucking Europa Conference League. Bobby going off with a hamstring was the only real downer on an otherwise great night. We’re probably looking at 4 weeks minimum with that. At least there’s an international break in there so he won’t miss too many games. I feel like Divock is going to do something in the next few weeks during Bobby’s absence though. And by something, I mean something good. Not something like the stoppage time shot he launched into the back row of the Kop! So four games, four wins and the final two games don’t really mean anything now. The prize money at stake means we won’t see Klopp just throw the games but there is a balance that needs striking here. We lost Bobby in this game and that shows what can happen at any time. We lost Jota for two months last season when he played in a dead rubber. The prize money is important but keeping our first choice players fit is more important. Honestly, I’d play something resembling the league cup side against Porto, not least because it might fuck over Atletico’s chances of qualification. I’d love to see them go out, partly because they’re fucking horrible and partly because it means there’s no chance we’d have to play them again. We’ve beaten them twice now so we’ve avenged what happened a couple of years ago. We’re clearly better than them and if we played them later in the competition I’m sure we’d beat them again. I’d just rather not have to as it’s annoying as fuck having to watch their antics. These games aren’t enjoyable. I haven’t really mentioned Suarez yet. You’re probably thinking I’m going to go off on one about the treatment he got from the crowd. I’m not, although I do have some thoughts on that which I’ll get to shortly. My main grievance with the crowd was “Ole at the wheel” again. Just fucking stop it. We’re playing against the Spanish champions, a fucking horrible team that we have a recent beef with. Just what the fuck has Solskjaer and United’s situation got to do with anything? European nights at Anfield are about us. No-one else, and certainly not an irrelevance like this current United side. So that pissed me off, not least because it happened several times. We’re better than that. Or at least we used to be. Now we’re booing ex-players, singing about Man United and yelling “shoooooooooot” when our centre backs have the ball forty yards from goal. In terms of big European nights this might be the worst showing in years. Even the “Simeone, you’re a wanker” one. I don’t recall us ever doing that chant before for anybody. Maybe I’m wrong, but it feels like a chant everyone else does and we don’t. Not a big deal by any means, just something I thought I’d mention as I was surprised by it more than anything else. The Suarez stuff riled me to some degree though. The booing of him at kick off and throughout the game genuinely didn’t bother me one bit. Honestly, it didn’t. I was fine with it as it’s fair game. He’ll do whatever he can rot gain an advantage and so should we. If booing him gets in his head and throws him off his game (which it kind of looked like it may have based on how ineffective he was), then that’s a smart move. It’s our equivalent of him diving to get someone booked. He isn’t going to approach the game any differently because he used to play for us and we shouldn’t either. When the whistle blows, he’s the centre forward for the snidiest, most horrible team in Europe and he’s as snidey and horrible as any of them. So if you want to boo him, go ahead. What I didn’t like was when he was subbed and loads booed him off. Not everyone, most people applauded him, but the booing was very audible. The game was won, his race was run and this was probably the last time he’ll play at Anfield. And some people took that opportunity to boo him other than just use it as a final opportunity to either show appreciation for the fucking incredible things he did when he was here, or to just keep quiet and say nothing. I mean, each to their own I guess and I don’t expect everyone to feel the way I do about it. I just think it was pretty small time and it made me a bit sad. I felt the same when McManaman and Owen both got grief when they came back too though, so much as I’d like to say this is a new trend it really isn’t. It was interesting when he thought he'd scored to make it 2-1 and he didn't celebrate. Was that because of where he was, or because they were losing and the goal wasn't especially significant? Maybe both. Doesn't really matter now, the main thing was it was offside and didn't count, because nerves would have started jangling if that had stood. Star man isn’t easy as everyone was good but no-one was really great because they didn’t need to be. Kostas caught the eye with another lively display and some quality crosses. Joel was back and looked fucking boss. We even had a ‘Matip Moment” late on when he was adjudged to fouled a player when he clearly won the ball, and he went into full on “Toddler tantrum in the supermarket mode”. Fabinho was class too, as was Hendo. I’ve already mentioned Ox and I was encouraged by him. Mo didn’t score but looked razor sharp, Sadio was brilliant but only played half the game. So I’ll go with Trent I think, although I don’t feel strongly about it and could easily be talked out of it. Onto West Ham now then. Tough game but we’ve done much better away from home and we’ve had some good performances at their place recently. Losing Bobby is a blow but we should be able to cope with that. Having Fabinho back is massive as he’s like a giant security blanket that just makes everyone feel safer. I feel pretty good with a midfield of Fabinho, Henderson and then any one of the other options. Take Fab or Hendo out and it’s a different story. If we can just pick up another three points we can head into the final international break very pleased with our work so far. It might not be enough to go top, depending on what Chelsea do, but a win at West Ham would be a fucking good result considering their current form. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Phillips), Matip, Van Dijk, Tsimikas; Fabinho (Thiago), Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Minamino); Salah, Jota, Mané (Firmino, Origi):