I'm a bit all over the place with this one. I'm usually fine with any clean sheet in a home tie, but then we had a couple of very good chances to score, and a fair few very good opportunities to make other excellent chances. So, is it that good a result? I definitely wouldn't call it bad, I just hope we're not looking back at this as a missed opportunity.
I massively under-rated Bayern pre-match. Hands up, I was thinking bit old, not what they were, won't cope with our pace/attack. Then I saw the line-up and was reminded that they've got excellent players across the park. Hummels, Kimmich and Thiago stood out in particular in my view. The first two were excellent defensively and Thiago is just a sublimely calm footballer with supreme control over a football. Again, in contrast, they didn't really offer much in an attacking sense, obviously by design, but were probably fortunate to get a draw. I thought we caused them problems, sporadically, across the whole pitch - side to side and front to back.
As for us, well I agree that Henderson was man of the match. Was snuffing out issues across the whole pitch and I thought he used the ball well, even though he's still prone to stalling us with some of his immediate return passes to centre halves/full backs. Salah had a night to forget, even though he should probably do better with the header at the back post and clearly had his full-back concerned all night. Bobby and Mane had good first halves, then faded second. Keita was occasionally excellent, occasionally frustrating. I love that he looks for the through balls and has the confidence to play them, but I wonder what he's actually seeing/expecting to happen at times. He was unlucky when trying to get it wide to Robertson during the second half counter, but there were a few other occasions when it seemed he was trying to thread a pass through a space that just didn't exist. Forcing it in other words. Still think there's tons to come from him. Both fullbacks were inconsistent offensively yet generally solid at the back. Fabinho and Matip did well, the latter should probably score in the first half. The entire team, like Klopp referenced, struggled to play a decisive final ball. Still, in those moment when we played well, we created chances, caused them issues and probably did enough to win the game. Like I said at the start, it was a strange game, a lot of 'grey areas' and pretty hard for anyone to put a narrative around.
I can't see the second leg being much different, I imagine they'll play to keep things tight, break on us when they can and look to play in a couple of 5/10 minute patches of pressure. I do think we've got another 20/25% of performance in us though, and if we see peak Liverpool we'll win.
It's on a knife edge. I'll settle with that.