Liverpool viel zu stark für die Roten Bullen
RB Leipzig 0 Liverpool 1, 23rd October 2024
RB LEIPZIG 0
LIVERPOOL 1 (Núñez 27)
Unbeaten on German soil since a painful April night in Leverkusen in 2002, it took a gem of an ultimately offside goal from Leipzig striker Loïs Openda on 25 minutes to shake the Reds from their early game slumbers and from hereon in, they gained full control of a game they were never going to lose. The memories of Lúcio, that giant of a ball playing Brazilian central defender, striding purposefully into the Liverpool penalty area before smashing a winning goal past a bemused Jerzy Dudek two decades ago are still raw for those of us who experienced this footballing heart break in the flesh. Nightmares often turn to the dark side when that roller coaster of a night in Germany are recalled. One Michael, Ballack, scored a first half screamer in front of my disbelieving eyes before another Michael, Owen, was either through on goal or hitting the outside post of it late in the second half, before Jari Litmanen scored an impossible goal to send the Reds to Old Trafford for a Champions League Semi-Final and a continuing tilt at back-to-back European trophies. Let joy be unrestrained in the away end of the Bay Arena!
Then along came Lúcio with 6 minutes to go to break everyone’s Red heart.
There was no such German heartbreak on the cards this evening and especially so following a poacher’s tap-in goal from Darwin Núñez on 27 minutes. The goal itself, whilst a toe-poke only 6 or so inches from the goal line, began life as controlled possession of the ball for perhaps the first time this evening and from Alexis Mac Allister the ball was rotated in one-two passes between Cody Gakpo and an another impressive performance from Kostas Tsimikas before the Greek international with the constant bags under the eyes of a man who seemingly hasn’t slept in a week, “dinked” a beautiful cross onto the head of Mo Salah, his header seemed goal bound, but his tall Uruguayan strike partner stabbed home to make sure. The air rather went out of “The Red Bulls” balloon and after a strong, dominant 25 minutes whereby Amadou Haidara twice tested Reds goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher from long range and Slovenian striker Benjamin Šeško should have done better with a close-in header on 6 minutes before curling a long range shot inches wide on 18 minutes with Kelleher hopelessly stranded. The home team became penned in their own half and unable to escape save the late game chances that fell to Yussuf Poulsen and Xavi Simons. Kelleher dealt with both chances with aplomb and was many Reds “Man of the Match” in the weird and wide world of social media.
Whilst the Irishman was mighty impressive again and I fervently pray he stays and deservedly usurps Alisson Becker as Liverpool’s number 1 in the coming season(s), I had Ibrahima Konaté as the Reds most impressive player this evening, and just a tick ahead of the midfield duo Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai, Cody Gakpo and the chaos theory that surrounds Darwin Núñez. Konaté was clearly targeted as the central defender RB Leipzig wanted to attack and expose and one second half error aside, the French man mountain was again up to his defensive task and provider of yet another relatively easy and carefree evening for skipper Virgil van Dijk beside him.
Tougher, much tougher challenges lie ahead for this Liverpool team but this evening they have a perfect 3 wins from 3 in Europe and a faintly ridiculous 11 wins from 12 games in all competitions. Arne Slot’s elongated honeymoon as new Reds boss will continue long into this football packed end to 2024, and up next is Arsenal, one of only two teams that will ultimately threaten the unreal becoming a reality and the tantalising prospect of not only challenging but winning the Premier League in his first season.
Dreams are made of this they say, and if you can’t dream after 11 wins from 12 games, when can you?
Arne’s Afterword
“I don’t think we started the game really well in the first 10 or 15 minutes, but after that I liked a lot what I saw. Many, many, many times we played through their press, opened up their midfield and went for an attack. That led to the first goal, that led to a few chances — more than a few and then in the end it’s a pity that you still need your two centre-backs to play such a big game and your goalkeeper to make two such important saves because a game like this should have been ours after 60, 70 minutes and it wasn’t. That’s why the last 20 were still difficult for us”.
“If you play good teams and if you play a pot one team in an away game, there will always be moments in the game that the other team has some moments as well and I think one of them was from a corner kick. The way I looked at this game was that we had, for large parts of the game, total dominance like in all the other games we played except for the one against Chelsea. But this is how I like to see our team play: much more chances than the other team, much more ball possession, much more time freeing up the midfield from build-up”.
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.