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In dismantling Porto Liverpool looked like a team on a mission for number six


In dismantling Porto Liverpool looked like a team on a mission for number six

Why shouldn’t Liverpool fans start dreaming of Champions League success?

AMONG the morning headlines praising Liverpool’s outstanding 5-0 win in Porto on Wednesday, one piece – in The Independent’s ‘I’ newspaper – stood out for trying too hard to be different.

According to said piece, we shouldn’t “get too excited just yet”, which was strange to say the least after a Valentine’s Day performance that gave us a lot to love.

If I could be represented by an emoji when reading this piece over a morning brew, I was the little yellow face raising a quizzical eyebrow while cupping a chin with finger and thumb.

Because why shouldn’t we get excited? Where are the rules here?

I’m in football to get excited. To enjoy. To celebrate. To go mad with mates and dare to dream. And I’m dreaming. Because why not? Liverpool aren’t wrapped up in a crisis right now – they are fighting for runners-up spot in the Premier League and wondering what the last eight of the Champions League will hold.

And if hopes and dreams are shattered by future disappointment then so be it. It’s all part of the dance, as Brendan Rodgers once said. And we can enjoy that dance. Because if not, why are you dancing?

When I watched Liverpool dismantle Porto in the first leg of the knockout tie, I saw a side that was clocking up a third consecutive clean sheet on the road. One that is scoring goals for fun and in Mo Salah with 30 goals and Roberto Firmino on 21 goals, can be a match for anyone.

In Sadio Mane, I saw a top-class performer who has been struggling for confidence rediscover his mojo across the course of 90 minutes – from a player making the wrong decisions and struggling to complete simple passes to one ignoring team-mates to complete a hat-trick with a classy finish that yielded the match ball.

With a front three like that fit and firing remind me again why I’m sitting on my hands and biting my tongue in the face of a big win abroad and Liverpool placing a foot firmly in the quarter finals of the Champions League?

According to the author of said piece, “we should perhaps take it with a pinch of salt”.

After – with huge helpings of hindsight – deconstructing anything and everything about Porto, he went on to add: “Liverpool boast a frontline that must make many a manager in the Champions League envious. The trouble for Klopp is that Liverpool also possess the sort of defensive organisation that could make many in the Championship wince.”

Sorry? Liverpool are unbeaten in 13 Premier League games at Anfield this season and have conceded just nine goals. Away from home, The Reds have scored 34 – more than any other team. Selective statistics? A little. But it shows the potential of the side to win a two-legged match. And that’s the stage we are now at with Champions League football.

This was also a comment made after Liverpool -- from front to back -- had aggressively got the job done against a side unbeaten in their league. And one that pre-match was billed as having Champions League nous by the bucketload compared to a naïve Jürgen Klopp side representing a club that hadn’t reached these stages in nine years.

Further, the defending from Liverpool on the night was pretty good. From the start, 19-year-old Trent Alexander Arnold, who appeared to be targeted by Porto early on, was aggressive and assertive in getting the job done. It set the tone.

Next to him the centre-half pairing of Dejan Lovren and Virgil van Dijk won their battles, made their blocks and on the opposite flank Andy Robertson again emerged with a gold star for his lung-busting performance.

Championship level? This was a pressure game in Europe’s biggest competition. A tie with the world watching in. And a match with so much riding on it for present and future. Yet Liverpool played with confidence, surety and Mo Salah even found time to do a few keepie-ups in the penalty area and tee himself up for a header before scoring a goal.

“Against better opposition the Reds may not be so lucky,” the author concluded.

Presumably, he missed the game at Anfield when Liverpool dismantled Champions elect Manchester City.

It’s just as easy to type, “against better opposition the Reds may be so lucky”. When it’s come down to scrapping with the big boys, Liverpool have been pretty good at swinging punches under Klopp.

The truth is the Reds look far more assured with van Dijk around to spread calm. Robertson has settled at left back. Loris Karius is benefitting from being the de facto number one. And Lovren on Wednesday looked more assured knowing he had a defender of quality alongside him who never stops talking.

From back to front on Wednesday, Liverpool looked like a team on a mission. One fired up and determined to make in-roads into a competition that means so much to the club on and off the pitch.

Liverpool’s first two goals were born from sheer determination to win the ball and drive forward from the midfield. We saw Mane popping up in a full-back position to help out the defence. And while Firmino is wowing the world with backheels and cool finishes, Reds equally revere him for his tireless toil in midfield to break up opposition attacks.

There is an ethic to Liverpool lately, a steely will. And when that is allied to supreme confidence and eye-popping ability in the final third, it’s something to smile about.

It may not excite Evan Bartlett at The ‘I’ newspaper. But it excites everyone who supports Liverpool and who dreams of a big number six at Anfield.

Get excited. You might just like it.

 

 

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