Topic: CLQF: Liverpool vs Real Madrid (1-3)

[LiverBirdKop]

We tried but we were never gonna score in the second half.

I'm proud of the way the boys fought tonight. Another night we easily win this game while making those fuckers in white look bad.

[Syntexity]

We needed to finish our chances better. That was what let us down tonight. The effort, the intensity, it was all there except for our finishing. Salah should be scoring atleast one goal tonight, probabaly two, but we lack that edge in front of goal and our other attackers are just not that dangerous this season unfortunately.

Overall we were the better team tonight, and there was plenty of positives tonight. But we didnt do ourselves any favours in the first game. We could have avoided some of the situations that lead to goals that game. And that, coupled with poor finishing, is why we are out. Now, if we had an injury free squad we would not lose that away game either in my view.

[bornandbRED]

Played well first half. Huffed and puffed but the quality wasn’t there in the second half. Same story as usual - they let us have it and we didn’t have the answer, same as Burnley, Brighton, West Brom, Fulham, Everton, Chelsea so on and so forth.... our attack and incision has fallen off a cliff. No idea what the answer is but Mane and Firmino are utterly average footballers at the moment.

[Caligula?]

Our front three have been out on their feet most of the season.

We've had defender after defender fall and midfielder after midfielder. Even our forward line have spent half the season crocked. And that's not mentioning the players that got Covid.

Fair play if you want another fucked up season like this one again, but I'd rather not, ta.

How is qualifying for the Champions League going to fuck up our season next time around?

[HFD]

All fart and no poo.

[RedBlakey]

when was the last time you made a positive post? Cunningly absent in our recent Premier League post match threads!

Nothing cunning about it, there has been very little to be positive about, despite stringing a few wins together we have largely been poor.
Oh and to answer your question......January 28th 2021

[Tony19:6]

Had our chances tonight, particularly first half

[stockdam]

We had lots of corners tonight and didn’t create one clear chance from any of them. Their keeper closed down the angles well. In the end all they needed to do was to keep two or three centre halves in the box and head everything away. Salah was the only player we had who looked like scoring.

[Fromola]

Am thinking Kloppo might be a little bit too loyal to certain players. When have we ever won a game with the 4 forwards (Salah, Jota, Sadio, Bobby) on the pitch all at once? It just doesn't work. They get in each other's way. Salah, again, a top goalscorer who can't hit a barn door in a big match when the team really, really, really needs a goal. Atletico last year, same thing. Bobby... Poor Bobby, I feel bad for the guy; he looks so sad these days. This has been such a shit year. It's just heartbreaking.

But we can't lose hope. Let's keep our heads held high. We'll be back.

Didn't he bring Jota on with the other 3 at Arsenal at 0-0? The shape went out the team once Fabinho dropped back.

[Gods_Left_Boot]

Horrendous finishing cost us again, it was criminal not to finish the first half a couple of goals up. Unfortunately when we had to force the issue by switching to 4231 we completely lost the midfield and the control of the game. It's a performance the lads can be proud of, but the decision making in the final third and the finishing have been largely terrible all season.

[Red Raw]

Massively disappointing.  Our shitty first leg performance allowed them to morph into our absolute nemesis, like playing Stoke with money.   

[Bread]

Not sure what to say to that. Utterly dominant in possession, and frequently created the opportunities to make this a night to remember. Unfortunately let down by the quality of the finishing when we breached the Madrid defence.

On another day, that could have been a 4-0 thrashing. I don't think Madrid particularly deserve much praise; I think they rode their luck by coming up against a team that can't finish their dinner. Salah being the main culprit; how he frequently tops Golden Boot charts season after season is a mystery when you consider that he's been susceptible to nights like tonight throughout his entire LFC career.

[AndyMuller]

Boring that. Onto next season!

[oldman]

on the positive side - thats 2 games unbeaten at home now

[Gnurglan]

0-0. Thought we played well and tonight we were the better side. But we lacked sharpness. Over the two legs Real deserved to go through.

[LFCEmpire]

We need our fans back in the stadiums ASAP! This never felt like an European night at Anfield. 

Proud of the boys, YNWA!

[Sarge]

Miss gilt edge chances and don't score and we will finish 4th? How does that work?

Those chances that were made wont always be missed, would it be better if they were not in a position to score or are you happy we are out to have an aul moan?

[TSC]

Second half let down after the first.  Lost count of the number of aimless crosses from deep. 

Ultimately can’t miss chances like they did in the first half and of course paid for that 1st let performance.

[deFacto please, you bastards]

Salah, again, a top goalscorer who can't hit a barn door in a big match when the team really, really, really needs a goal.

I mean have you been blind for the last three years? Can't score in a big match?

Jesus Christ.

[robertobaggio37]

Klopp’s obsession with Wijnaldum is doing my head in

[Bend It Like Aurelio]

Pathetic. We squandered a lot of good chances in the first half but the tie was lost the instant Fabinho was moved back into defence and we went with the same Gini/Thiago combination that's failed so many times already this season. Hey, we've looked good playing a 4-2-3-1 with Thiago and Fabinho, but let's not even bother trying that in our biggest two games of the season. Hey, we've been unsettling them with our pace and harrying, so let's arrange the line up most likely to slow the game right down. Diabolical decision.

And don't even get me started on the front three, who've all regressed. Salah still looks dangerous, albeit a shadow of his past self. Mane seems more interested in falling over while Firmino is simply finished as a front three player at this level. Move him back into midfield or ship him out to a midtable club somewhere. Phillips, Trent, Milner and Gini (pre-subs) all had good games but it was so, so easy for Real in the end.

We did make Real Madrid, winners of 4 of the last 6 CL’s, park the bus. While I totally understand your frustration, we played well tonight. In the end, we couldn’t finish, and if we only didn’t give up all those easy goals in the first leg, we may be watching a penalty shootout now.

I’m actually not too pissed off, this season hasn’t been the best, but I think this is just the close of the first chapter in my mind. We were always due for a fall.

[davidlpool1982]

Never thought we'd score after 60 mins. No runners from Midfield beyond the front 3 has been an issue all season, not helped when the front 3 are all playing within themselves and fairly static. We kept crossing the ball in with maybe one or 2 men in there against 5 or 6. Was never going to work. We look scared at times to shoot from outside the area too, we did it once each half, with Milner forcing a great save from Courtois when doing it.

Gonna feel strange wanting Madrid to win the whole lot, but there you go. Chelsea having 1 big ears is bad enough, but the idea of City or PSG winning it makes me want to vomit a little

[Crosby Nick]

Gave it a good go. Restored a bit of pride I think. If you’d said before the game we’d have created that many chances I’d have bitten your hand off.

Ultimately lost in the first leg and it was hard from that point to picture us winning this competition. Not to be. Just hope we can be back to try again next season.

[Fromola]

0-0. Thought we played well and tonight we were the better side. But we lacked sharpness. Over the two legs Real deserved to go through.

No complaints. You don't deserve to go through playing like we did in the first leg. A bit like for Roma in 2018.

[Wabaloolah]

Robbo's form is not good at the moment, our set-pieces have been pretty poor recently.

yep, Robbo looks knackered, has he missed a game? Again the CB crisis an in particular Virgil's injury probably meant he hasn't been rotated as much as the boss would have wanted to this season. Harsh on Kostas that but can't really throw him into the mix with Nat and Kabak really.

He's got the Euros to come too ☹️

[kezzy]

Lost the tie in the first leg but had enough chances tonight to make it through.  We seem to have some phobia as well of being scared to take a shot outside the area.  Need to put a run together until the end of the season and make sure we get top four. 

[Clint Eastwood]

Klopp’s obsession with Wijnaldum is doing my head in

He was really good today. First time he hasn't been anonymous in months.

[damomad]

One for Phillips to tell the grandkids about, keeping a clean sheet against the greatest club side in world football history.

Jota shout have started. We need to look at our attacking options in the summer, the front 3 tonight together just haven’t been prolific enough all season.

[Dave McCoy]

Salah could have won the tie for us with the chances he had.

With that said basically just a microcosm of our season today in that we on the whole played well but didn't really accomplish much.  We lost the tie in Madrid with just an awful opening 45 minutes, simple as that.

My worst case scenario did come true at least in that Chelsea still has midweek games and the hope of a CL win which should help our top 4 race.  Still would rather be in it though.

[DonkeyWan]

God, that was frustrating. Ran out of steam after 60 mins (which is a worry for the weekend I guess) and all the subs only served to disrupt the game. However, good hustling and harrying, really took it to RM and another night that ends up 3 or 4-0. The decision to start Keita in the first leg was really punished, but at least tonight restored a little pride and reputation. My view of the players that started only:

Becker: Couple of big saves to keep Liverpool in the game.
TAA: Far better performance tonight. Madrid tried bombing a few on top of him, but soon quit that. Got impatient near the end, but overall a good game.
Philips: I hold my breath every time he has the ball, he looks super awkward on it. Didn't do much wrong tonight though, and smashed a lock of RM players at a corner, which I enjoyed.
Kabak: Bar one mistake he had a good game, I would rate him around the level of Klavan, which is decent.
Robertson: Not as impactful as TAA, but ran his legs off tonight.
Milner: MotM for me, was really great to see him biting into tackles, putting in reducers. You really miss his presence, that skill allied to graft.
Fabino: Ruled the roost, but also slowed the game down at times, his tendency to turn and go backwards rather than push the initiative was frustrating me.
Wijnaldum: Such was the measure of control Fabino exerted, he seemed quiet, but a better performance than any I have seen this season. That missed chance though, goddamn...
Mane: Started well, had the FB all ends up, but lost his way once Madrid doubled up on him. There is no doubt he is in a bit of a slump, but at least is willing to fight his way out of it
Firmino: Shut down Modric in the first half, couple of decent chances in  the second, but fucked up a simple slide pass for the on-running TAA(?) Gah!
Salah: Both impressive and impressively annoying at the same time. The player most likely to score bashed two great chances over the bar, hit a 1-on-1 straight at the keeper and dithered like an eejit in the box rather than slamming a ball home. That kind of season I guess.

Disappointing, but a better way to go out than another 1,2-0 and slinking out of an empty stadium...

[Desert Red Fox]

We didn't play badly, I think. Sad thing is - we needed more than to "not play badly", we needed to make the difference. We didn't.

Tie was lost during the first leg. Shouldn't have been so meek and lost over there, but... whatever. What's done is done. Now we gotta dust ourselves and prepare for the last part of the season. We need to make top 4.


I'm not angry at them, to be honest. I refused to get my hopes up that much due to how awful this season has been for us - I wouldn't have demanded of them to reach SF. Not in this context. So, all in all, considering how rotten it has been at times, it wasn't too bad. Hope we get top 4 and try again next season... we need some revenge

[Brain Potter]

Massive missed opportunity that. Very poor in front of goal but lost that with the display in Madrid. A shite season can’t end soon enough.

[Red_Rich]

What can I say... no desire to kick the team when they're down.

So many seasons over the past 16 years, I'd have us down to win that. This kind of comeback is our speciality, after all. Even 0-0 at half time I'd have thought we had the two goals in us. Tonight, it just felt a bit flat. I think a lot of that ultimately comes down to the lack of fans. What a weird and forgettable season.

That's football I guess. One minute you're the top of the world and the next...

Ah well. I don't even feel as gutted as all that, the whole thing has felt so stale.

Ain't that the understatement of the year! 



Now it's time to get what we need from these last 7 games to set everything up for a proper assault on next year when hopefully fans will be back.

Who really wanted us to win in Istanbul win no fans anyway?

[TepidT2O]

Miss gilt edge chances and don't score and we will finish 4th? How does that work?

But that’s not really the case.  We didn’t play well in the first leg.  Get a different result there and you get a different Madrid performance ..

And a wee touch of luck tonight and we get a goal and it’s all different

[Tommy Torres]

We must have the worst shot/conversion ratio in the whole of England. It’s shocking really, you can accept a game or two where it doesn’t go in but virtually a whole season, it’s ridiculous.

It was a good performance accept where it counts, putting the ball in the net. Gutting really.

[lgvkarlos]

Robbo's form is not good at the moment, our set-pieces have been pretty poor recently.

He has forgotten how to pass, but he's not on his own.
Still gets up a down and puts a shift in but the quality going forward has disappeared.
Thought we looked dangerous down the right until we put Sadio there.

[naYoRHa2b]

Those chances that were made wont always be missed, would it be better if they were not in a position to score or are you happy we are out to have an aul moan?

If we play like that tonight though we won't win because we won't score. I'm not moaning, I'm saying if we do what we did tonight then we still end up firing blanks. Like we have half the season.

[johnj147]

Sick of losing to these .cocky c*nts as well.gutted. and Philips was great again.should have being playing at back all the time since matip. vvd  out . wouldn't be in this mess in league.

[hide5seek]

Better team went through.

[Robinred]

Very disappointing, given we are marginally better than a very ordinary RM team. The effort was magnificent, but the finishing and final ball were frankly poor.

They deserved to go through if only because we created enough chances to have won 2-0, but were once again extremely profligate. They defended doggedly and blocked no end of shots and crosses, but there was so little craft, guile and accuracy in our finishing, a win never looked on.

It’s the story of our season, and apart from Palace away, we have been wasteful on far too many occasions.

If RM win this competition this season I’ll be truly amazed.