In a rerun of the final match before Covid-19 shut down football, Liverpool hosted Atlético Madrid at Anfield.
After a disappointing showing at the weekend, Liverpool were handed a boost to their skeleton midfield as Thiago Alcântara and Fabinho returned from injury. Fabinho was one of five changes made to the side that drew with Brighton, with Kostas Tsimikas, Joël Matip, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Diogo Jota also starting in place of Andy Robertson, Ibrahima Konaté, Curtis Jones, Naby Keïta and Roberto Firmino. Jürgen Klopp set Liverpool up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Atlético weren’t in the best shape heading into this match. They were having troubles selling tickets for the match due to Coronavirus fears – supporters unwilling to take the risk after Atleti’s previous visit to Anfield was linked with between 37 and 41 deaths – while the team itself was missing key players, with Thomas Lemar, Marcos Llorente and Geoffrey Kondogbia all injured, and Antoine Griezmann and Stefan Savic suspended. Diego Simeone made two changes to the team that beat Real Betis on Sunday, replacing Griezmann and Savic with João Félix and Felipe in the 3-4-2-1 they adopted last season.
Out of possession, Atleti would drop back into a 5-3-2 shape, with Angel Correa moving back into midfield.
As Mohamed Salah would stay wide and Jordan Henderson and Jota would drift over to the right, Yannick Carrasco and Rodrigo de Paul were reluctant to push out, leaving Trent Alexander-Arnold in space to pick out passes. This was a disaster for Atlético as Alexander-Arnold is probably, Salah aside, the Liverpool player you least want to give space to operate in. In the opening minutes, he took advantage to pick out a nice through ball and switch play over to Tsimikas on the left several times, forcing Atlético to waste energy scuttling across to the other side.
Twelve and a half minutes in, Alexander-Arnold used this space to set up the opening goal. Liverpool forced Atlético back on the right, then played backwards to the young Scouser to whip in a first-time cross for Jota to head home. Atleti’s defenders appeared to be expecting another switch of play to the left, stepping up and turning their bodies away from goal, but this was poor judgement: Alexander-Arnold had space to work in close to goal and used it to pick out a pass, with Jota able to run in behind Felipe before he could come close to turning to catch up with him.
Less than ten minutes later, Atlético were drawn over to their right for a throw-in, where Jota laid off the ball for Sadio Mané. The Senegalese was surrounded by three Atleti players, but he wriggled away, outmuscling De Paul, before touching the ball on for Henderson, who moved it out to Alexander-Arnold bursting forward on the right. Alexander-Arnold took one touch then fired in a low cross to return the ball to Mané making a run into the box to finish, with Felipe again failing to cover himself in glory, allowing the Liverpool attacker to get ahead of him with no real resistance.
Having been at fault for both goals, Felipe then finished his evening with a red card, tripping Mané as he counter-attacked, ensuring Atleti were down to ten men before they even got in for half-time.
The game was over for Atlético before they had even got going. Liverpool’s full-backs had been an issue in the previous match, yet Atleti did even less to combat them this time around, so it’s difficult to see what exactly they were hoping for here. Perhaps the idea had simply been to frustrate Liverpool, but in that case their defence needed to perform a lot better than they did. Perhaps the plan had been to dominate Liverpool through the centre as Brighton had – there was a brief glimpse of the four midfielders playing around Liverpool’s three – but in that case they needed to at least occupy the full-backs so Liverpool couldn’t just play around them.
A man and two goals down, the match was over as a contest if it had ever really been one. Atleti sat back in a 5-3-1 shape, with Correa dropping back into defence, while Liverpool half-heartedly tried to break them down, happy to simply maintain possession and see out the game.
It was a comfortable performance by Liverpool but one that was handed to them by a truly miserable showing by Atlético. A draw would have been enough to ensure Liverpool of a place in the knockout rounds, but a win ensured they won the “group of death” with two games to spare, allowing them to rest players in the final two rounds if they wish, which could prove key as we head into the busy winter months.
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