Happy Birthday Boss!
AC Milan 1 Liverpool 3, 17th September 2024
AC MILAN 1 (Pulisic 3)
LIVERPOOL 3 (Konaté 23, van Dijk 41, Szoboszlai 67)
As a child of the football season Liverpool manager Arne Slot must have celebrated his birthday over the years, whether as a player or manager, with a spectacular victory or two, but none will have surely tasted as sweet as this evening’s comprehensive and completely dominant win in Milan’s famed San Siro. For this evening’s performance let alone 3–1 score line was as impressive if not more so than the Reds thorough demolition of Manchester United in their own backyard 16 days ago and what will no doubt please the Reds manager the most was the complete nature of his team’s thorough dominance and utter control of the game. Forget Christian Pulisic’s early opener for the hosts. Yes the Reds were far too open and about to concede a quick counter attacking goal that flowed from goalkeeper Mike Maignan to the American international goal scorer in a matter of seconds, but this was a mere aberration. Between picking the ball from the back of his net on 3 minutes and tipping a fierce drive from the ever dependably underwhelming Rafael Leão in the 97th and final minute of the game, Reds goalkeeper Alisson Becker had NOTHING whatsoever to do. In front of him, Ibrahima Konaté and skipper Virgil van Dijk, goal scorers both, were rock solid in defence and in front of them, Ryan Gravenberch immense, barely losing a tackle, chasing lost causes, snuffing out any sporadic signs of danger. Alexis Mac Allister was far more muscular and imposing, Dominik Szoboszlai has found both his running and his scoring boots again, Cody Gakpo was magnificent for 67 minutes before his second half substitution, and how Mo Salah didn’t walk off at half-time with a hat-trick to his name only the footballing Gods will truly know.
Quixotically, it was Mo Salah’s close control and tight turn before crashing a right footed drive against the underside of the Milan crossbar on 17 minutes that seemed to be a catalyst for the Liverpool team around him to begin to play in earnest and from hereon in, they dominated a rather one paced AC Milan for 80 easy, carefree minutes. Whilst Salah crashed another shot into Mike Maignan’s crossbar on 29 minutes he also forced the huge French goalkeeper into sprawling full stretch saves on 27 and 40 minutes, the second of which was arguably the better of the two yet mere seconds later from the resultant corner, the defence in front of him wilted as Virgil van Dijk powered home a second goal and the Reds in all Black had come from behind to lead 2–1 and were threatening to score from each and every wave of attack. Diogo Jota should have scored on 27 minutes, or at the very least laid on a tap-in goal for Cody Gakpo who was screaming for the square pass and easy finish, before the Dutchman took matters into his own hands with a brilliant run that set up Salah crashing a shot into the crossbar (again), and then testing Maignan from long range on 38 minutes as well as the final minute of first half half injury time.
A familar pattern continued in the second half with wave after controlled wave of possession and progressive attacking football. Gakpo was again instrumental in the final third of a pitch AC Milan simply couldn’t escape from as Jota was denied at close range by Maignan in the 47th minute and a final act in the Frenchman’s injury plagued evening before his eventual substitution. His teenage replacement, Lorenzo Torriani, repelled a tame effort from Dominik Szoboszlai on 56, watched Kostas Tsimikas drive wildly wide of his goal 7 minutes later but a third Liverpool goal was coming and yet again it was Cody Gakpo with a driving run after a sweeping back to front move, and a perfect square cross for Szoboszlai to awkwardly shin into the far corner of the Italian’s net.
3–1. Game Over.
A perfect birthday present for the Boss!
Arne’s Afterword
“I said a few times already, normally you celebrate your birthday with your friends and your family. But this was a real good alternative to play a first Champions League game against a special club for Liverpool, but also a special club for Dutch people in a nice venue. Then to win it the way we did after going 1–0 down after five minutes with the result of Nottingham Forest still in our head. I think it was very good to see how they took the game in their hands the players and in the end we scored three goals and won 3–1”.
“It sounds a bit weird if you play three, four, five minutes and we already conceded one chance, which was offside, and then afterwards you concede a goal and that I’m going to tell you now that we didn’t even start bad. I think we took control of the game from the start. But in the first five minutes we also lost the ball from two choices that were not the best to make and then they could counter-attack us”.
“I was standing just a second ago next to Clarence Seedorf on the desk. They also talked about Ryan and Cody and I said it’s a special place for Dutch players to play because of the former players that have played here. To put a performance in like this is always nice as a Liverpool player and at a venue like this it’s even nicer. Yes, you can pick these two, but I think I could pick a few others as well that played really well. Like always, it’s very difficult for an individual to play well if the whole team doesn’t play well and vice versa. The whole team played well and then the individuals can shine from there”.
Thanks for reading. I often lament that despite my hundreds of articles here I rarely if ever make contact with genuine Liverpool fans so, if that is you, please say a hearty hello and, whilst you’re here, can I interest you in these spectacularly good self-published books on the Mighty Reds?
"A final word from The Boss" - link to Amazon
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.