Liverpool breezed past an unwell-disciplined Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night, confirming their qualification to the Champions League knockout stages with a cushty 2-0 win.
After a exciting victory for Liverpool within the opposite fixture final month, Jurgen Klopp concluded that drama is ‘assured’ whilst his aspect duke it out with Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid. He changed into now not disappointed.
The hosts broke the impasse within the beginning area of an hour as Trent Alexander-Arnold arced a lovely, first-time shipping into the penalty region that left a group of blue shirts strolling the wrong manner, but sat up invitingly for Diogo Jota to nod Liverpool in advance.
For the second time in as many weeks, Liverpool raced into an early -goal lead towards Atletico Madrid. Sadio Mane barrelled across the pitch, slaloming a flurry of challenges and laying the ball off earlier than darting into the vicinity. Alexander-Arnold's arrowed skip sliced via Atletico's frazzled backline to pick out his Senegalese teammate, who doubled Liverpool's lead inside the twenty first minute.
At the start of any other surge forward, Mane become scythed down via Atletico centre again Felipe to halt a counter-attack within the final ten minutes of the first half of. After ignoring three parps of referee Danny Makkelie's whistle to return face to face with the reliable, the Brazilian earned a directly pink card.
Inside three minutes of the restart, Jota had the ball in the net another time after Joel Matip turned into allowed to saunter into Atletico's half and punch a pass for the Portuguese who had strayed narrowly offside. Liverpool squandered a flurry of probabilities around the 53rd-minute mark as they sought to emphatically close out the contest as Mohamed Salah, then Joel Matip went near.
After dropping with the aid of four clean goals on his returned to Merseyside with Barcelona in 2019, Luis Suarez was condemned to another depressing trip to Anfield as he had a deflected volley ruled out for an offside inside the building up rapidly earlier than the hour mark.
Content with a two-goal and man gain, Liverpool professionally ran down the clock, boasting more than eighty% possession inside the final half-hour however scarcely threatening to feature to their tally.
Alisson (GK) - 7/10 - Scarcely called into dirtying his gloves, Alisson became often composed with the ball at his feet. Trent Alexander-Arnold (RB) - 9/10 - Playing passes that few gamers can spot, let alone execute. Joel Matip (CB) - 7/10 - Spooned a volley from close variety huge to underline Liverpool's dominance. Virgil van Dijk (CB) - 7/10 - Locked in cruise manage from the first whistle to ultimate. Kostas Tsimikas (LB) - 7/10 - Filled the full-size footwear of the rested Andy Robertson with little fuss however some frills.
Jordan Henderson (CM) - 8/10 - Unshackled from the bottom of midfield, Henderson bounded ahead to act as a hyperlink in Liverpool's assaults. Fabinho (CM) - 8/10 - Serenely patrolling the devilish wallet of area between the traces which have hurt Liverpool of late, Fabinho didn't miss a step of his go back. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (CM) - 6/10 - Providing a sporadic driving pressure from midfield with out placing the competition alight.
