Leipzig and Liverpool kicked off the Champions League round of sixteen with an away tie for both sides. The match was moved to Budapest due to the German government banning arrivals from countries affected by new coronavirus variants, such as the United Kingdom.
Jürgen Klopp stuck with the same team that lost to Leicester at the weekend. The sole change to the starting eleven was James Milner missing out for Thiago Alcântara, but that same change had been made just a quarter of an hour into Saturday’s match due to the Yorkshireman suffering a hamstring injury. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Julian Nagelsmann made three changes to the team that beat Augsburg on Friday. Dayot Upamecano – whose transfer to Bayern Munich this summer has just been confirmed – returned to the starting eleven, as did Marcel Sabitzer and Tyler Adams, replacing Willi Orban, Marcel Halstenberg and Yussuf Poulsen. They set up in a 3-5-2 shape.
As we noted after the Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham matches, Liverpool may be in poor form but they are generally struggling in a specific circumstance where the opposition are packing their defence to deny them space. Fail to do that and Liverpool remain dangerous.
Judging from this match, Nagelsmann learned little from when he took his Hoffenheim side to Anfield. Leipzig pressed high yet Liverpool never looked fazed by the pressure. Dani Olmo and Christopher Nkunku would push up high onto the centre-backs, but Liverpool would form a makeshift back three to pass around them, either by getting Georginio Wijnaldum to drop back between the centre-backs or by having one of the full-backs stay deeper alongside them. Amadou Haidara would sometimes push up to support the press, however this left space in midfield for Liverpool.
Play wide and Angelino and Adams would race forward to close down Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson. In order to have any chance of getting close to them, Leipzig’s wing-backs would have to position themselves quite high, leaving the backline isolated three-versus-three against Liverpool’s attacking trio. Liverpool could even outnumber Leipzig’s backline by pushing Curtis Jones forward.
This meant that not only were Liverpool able to pass around Leipzig’s press to play out, but they were also able to hit long balls straight over the top of it and worry Leipzig’s defence.
While Liverpool appeared unaffected by Leipzig’s pressure, the East Germans struggled to deal with Liverpool’s. Multiple times Liverpool pressed Leipzig, won back the ball and countered.
This was how Liverpool took the lead. Upamecano won the ball back off Roberto Firmino but, under pressure from the Brazilian and Jones, Sabitzer misplaced his pass back to Lukas Klostermann, playing in Mohamed Salah.
For the second, Jones hit a ball in behind and, with Sadio Mané breathing down his neck, Nordi Mukiele panicked and tried to volley the dropping ball away. He completely missed, leaving Mané one-on-one with former Red Péter Gulacsi to double Liverpool’s lead.
If there was ever a time to advance past Liverpool, this was it, yet Leipzig made the game incredibly easy for the Premier League champions.
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