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Here are my three thoughts on Liverpool’s 3-2 win at Atlético Madrid in Champions League, our Game of the Week (mid-week variety):
• A wild game got killed by the Antoine Griezmann red card. Nobody was expecting four goals in the first 34 minutes, but this was a case of two high-energy elite teams throwing haymakers from the start. Mohamed Salah continued his ridiculous form by beating three defenders on the dribble before scoring the opener (guys, he might go to his left), and Naby Keïta picked a glorious volley out of the air to make it 2-0 Liverpool. But Keïta was abysmal in his defensive midfield duties, creating space for Atleti to exploit, and the hosts equalized with two Griezmann goals. (Jürgen Klopp yanking Keïta at halftime for Fabinho was one of the most obvious subs ever.) Let’s be clear: Griezmann’s straight red in the 52nd minute for hitting Roberto Firmino in the head with his boot (even though Griezmann was following the ball with his eyes) was the right call; it was a reckless play, and those referee decisions have nothing to do with intent. But the red killed the game. Only a truly stupid penalty committed by Atleti’s Mario Hermoso kept this from finishing 2-2, and Salah took advantage from the spot for the Liverpool win.
• Liverpool’s defending was suspect. We already mentioned Keïta’s defensive issues, which Fabinho largely solved. But while Virgil van Dijk is a transcendent player, he got caught wrong-footed a couple times in this game, including on Griezmann’s second goal, when the Frenchman raced past Van Dijk as though the defender were an orange cone. We’re nit-picking here, since Liverpool is atop its Champions League group and performing well in the Premier League, but this kind of defending won’t often result in three points over the long haul, and Klopp knows that. Lately, Salah’s tremendous attacking play has covered up for spots on the field where Liverpool isn’t playing at its best, but it seems unlikely that Salah (with goals in nine straight games, often of an incredibly high difficulty) will continue to keep up such a torrid pace. Salah has been creating goals out of low-expected-goals situations, and it’s no coincidence that Liverpool’s xG was 1.30 compared to Atleti’s 2.17.
• Rodrigo De Paul is just a terrific player. The truth is that Griezmann should have had a third goal in the first half when De Paul, Atleti’s Argentine central midfielder, sent a diagonal ball over the top that was eerily similar to the one he sent to Ángel Di María for the only goal in Argentina’s Copa América final win over Brazil. In this case, a Brazilian who wasn’t goalkeeping in that Copa América final (Alisson) made a nice play to shut down Griezmann, but I couldn’t help but feel if Di María were on the end of De Paul’s pass he would have found the back of the net. In any case, De Paul is one of the reasons the Argentine national team has improved so much over the past 18 months. He’s a defensive demon with a 90-minute motor who’s also terrific at distribution and hitting those diagonal balls over the top, which he did with regularity on Tuesday, often into the space vacated by Trent Alexander-Arnold.
What are your thoughts on the game? You can share them in the comments below.
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Two contrasting tactical schemes by two great managers and teams. And it was a pretty even game until…. Totally correct call.
I definitely agree on the Antoine Griezmann red card. I know that the Champions League is prestigious, historic, and you can't really mess around in it, but the game was just fun until the card came. Any red card equals quite an offense, and it certainly was one. (I do think Griezmann's emotions got the better of him, as that was a risky play to fly in to.)
There was everything you could ask for in the match: Goals, a comeback, a penalty, an excited stadium that's sound was on for 90 minutes... What the UCL is about.