Liverpool crushed Manchester City 3-0 in the Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday.
Here are three things we learned from a Liverpool perspective.
STYLES MAKE MATCHES
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp.
Pep Guardiola admitted in the midweek build-up that Man City’s style make them a “perfect opponent” for Liverpool.
Those words were fortified on Wednesday. Jurgen Klopp secured his seventh victory in 13 clashes with Guardiola – the most of any manager the Catalan has faced – and it was evidenced once more that he has the blueprint for victory against the City boss.
No other team in the world can attack space quite in the way Liverpool do, the unsteady visitors were simply overwhelmed and overloaded in the first 30 minutes.
Liverpool’s timing of the press was perfect, snapping into a compact 4-3-3 shape and pocketing the ball when City fell into their trap. David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne both gave the ball away frequently and it left City painfully exposed.
The Reds found gaps and exploited it, countering with expert speed for Mohamed Salah to open the scoring, pressing high up the pitch to feed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for his rocket and then Sadio Mane nipping in between Vincent Kompany and Fernandinho to head home.
The old boxing cliche determines styles make fights, and that translates whenever Guardiola and Klopp face off – more often than not it’s the German who delivers a knockout blow.
Now, they go to the Etihad Stadium seeking the coup de grace.
MIDFIELD MASTERCLASS
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain celebrates.
Pitting a midfield three containing a 32-year-old James Milner, an Arsenal failure in Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and an apparently “limited” Jordan Henderson against the guile and panache of City’s creative cognition David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne appeared unsettling on paper.
Yet, to a man all three were tremendous. Milner looked terribly off the pace when he entered from the bench in January’s 4-3 win after a Liverpool midfield consisting of Gini Wijnaldum and Emre Can pressed City into submission.
Here, Milner was a machine, charging around the pitch to win the ball back with the type of dogged determination of a man robbed of his wallet.
His first-half stats read: 100 percent aerial duels won, 45 touches, 30 passes, five tackles won, two interceptions, one chance created and an eighth Champions League assist of the season – the most in the competition.
Henderson, too, was a colossus. The criticism he receives verges on the bizarre sometimes but he suffocated De Bruyne, was positionally excellent and made the midfield tick.
The captain’s booking means he will be suspended for the second leg and will be missed dearly.
Finally, there is Oxlade-Chamberlain who detonated a rocket to blast Ederson’s net and his detractors.
The strike was so sweetly struck the ball barely moved in flight. A goal, an assist and defensive solidity, Klopp couldn’t have asked for a better performance from his midfield.
SALAH INJURY A CONCERN
Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah is substituted after suffering a groin injury
Whether it was a precautionary measure remains to be seen but the sight of Mohamed Salah trudging off down the tunnel will surely worry Liverpool supporters.
Once again he was City’s tormentor, opening the scoring with consummate ease amid the chaos. But it’s not just his sharpshooting which is so crucial to the Reds, as was evidenced when he went off.
The Reds lost their rhythm and chief outlet on the counter while defensively they dropped further and further back onto the edge of their own box without his presence in the press.
The hosts formation switched from 4-3-3 and went 4-5-1 when he exited with a groin complaint and Klopp will hope the Egyptian is fit for the second leg to avoid a repeat of the second 45.
