Liverpool showed why they are still considered one of the top teams in Europe after an impressive 3-0 Champions League win over Marseille in France. Not only did the Reds set a couple of records, but they also moved up to 4th on the Champions League table, in a prime position to move directly through to the round of 16 with a victory on Matchday 8.
Szboszlai Matches Gerrard, Virgil Gets 350
With his free kick goal in the first half, Dominik Szoboszlai, who scored a high mark in the Player Ratings) tied Steven Gerrard as the only Reds player to score in five straight Champions League matches. Ironically, it was Gerrard who scored twice the last time the teams met in 2008. Virgil van Dijk is the 50th player in Liverpool history to make 350 appearances for the club.
“It’s always difficult, in my opinion, to play against [Roberto] De Zerbi teams because if you are not front-footed, if you are late in your press, they can play out pretty easy,” Van Dijk told TNT Sports. "Obviously, they persist and keep on playing and taking those risks, so if you are winning those balls in between the lines, then there is plenty of space in between the lines to exploit, and I think we did that pretty well. But overal,l I think the performance was very good, something to build on. We will recover and go again."
We Derserved What We Got
Arne Slot said he felt like the Reds deserved all three points they are taking back to Merseyside.
“It is a tricky place to go because of their fans, but also because of the players they have and their manager. We had to be really good today to beat them, and I think that’s what we were. We probably deserved what we got,” he said. “In the first half, there were three, four or five moments where we took the ball off them, and we should have done better on the counterattack. On the ball, we were very positive again – we generated less chances than we did on Saturday, but we scored three, so everyone is more positive when you do that rather than create five times the chances but only score one.”
LFC Globe Verdict
This was the most aggressive I have seen the Reds play as a whole team, all year. They checked all the boxes. They pushed forward, employed high-pressure and converted from a set-piece. The defence was stellar as well, marking Marsielle, as other players pushed forward. Maybe now that Liverpool are well-positioned to go through to the Round of 16, the voices calling for Slot’s sacking will quieten down a bit as the Reds are in the midst of a 13-match unbeaten run.
