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Villarreal vs Liverpool a few quick thoughts

  • What a difference a goal makes
  • If they game would have ended on 90 minutes we would have been saying what a decent result it was for Liverpool
  • But a minute later and Liverpool’s gameplan had well and truly backfired
  • Jurgen Klopp decided against starting a recognised striker and looked to come to El Madrigal with a clean sheet as a minimum with the added bonus of snatching an away goal
  • And he nearly got the first part right
  • But then Adrian Lopez’s injury time tap in threw a massive spanner in the works
  • It’s amazing how much a goal changes the perception of a performance. If it stays 0-0 then it’s a job well done, but after the defeat the criticism as to why they didn’t start with a striker then comes to the fore
  • They started brightly with Joe Allen having a guilt edged opportunity and dare I say had they had a striker on the pitch they may well have scored
  • Their best opportunity of the game was when Roberto Firmino’s low effort hit a post in the second half
  • But they always looked comfortable if slightly uninspiring and it looked like being a creditable defensive performance
  • Simon Mignolet was called into action late on and had to make a string of saves, then the game seemed to spark into life all of a sudden
  • Alberto Moreno broke clear and went on a surging run late on but could only fire his effort high and wide
  • Their opportunity to snatch a win had gone
  • But it seemed as Moreno had a rush of blood to the head and forgot his defending duties in search of a winner
  • Moreno was way out of position as Denis Suarez collected a cross field ball, this left only Kolo Toure to try and deal with cutting out a pass
  • But the Ivorian could do nothing as Suarez’s inch perfect pass allowed Adrian Lopez to tap in as Mignolet claimed Offside in vain
  • A suckerpunch for Liverpool but it was of their own undoing in all fairness
  • They will now have to overturn the deficit at Anfield but let’s not forget what they did in the previous round
  • Jurgen Klopp will perhaps have to shoulder some of the blame but you can’t be blamed for defensive lapses like that of Moreno’s
  • So Villarreal take a slight lead going into the 2nd I guess it’s going to have to be another one of those European nights

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