Liverpool 2-Atlético 0 | Anfield turned into a nightmare

Many times it is losing what, really, teaches you to win. And Klopp chewed many months and a pandemic that defeat, that of Anfield against Atleti in 2020. With a body full of memories his Liverpool appeared in the night, the revenge not yet consummated, despite the victory in the Metropolitan two weeks ago. Klopp wanted more, wanted last night. Erase that memory of Anfield, turn it into a nightmare. Crush the Cholo team.

An Atleti who believed in the first minutes. Responding with order and presence in the area the departure of Klopp’s. Llorente, the hero of that night, was missing, but Cholo came out with his best available men and that need: to score to put distance from Porto. It was after an occasion that Correa crossed too hard, too high, when what he had to do was shoot or center low, that discovered that those first few minutes had only been a trompe l’oeil by Klopp.

Because Liverpool’s initial sterile dominance was actually the wolf disguised as a granny. His name was Trent Alexander-Arnold and he just wanted to bite, eat. He fell on the Cholo bench in lead as Liverpool caught one against. They dragged Salah and Henderson, the space opened, Alexander-Arnold had time to think and see. Diogo Jota entered the area with his head shouting goool, without Felipe and Trippier understanding each other, much less blocking the way. There he sent the ball. A Jota also with memory, that summer training apart, the summer in which he did not convince Cholo. Klopp couldn’t have a sharper knife to begin wielding his revenge.

The blow knocked Atleti down. Suddenly Anfield broke all the photos, Anfield was no longer Llorente but was the cold of a defeat in a night to forget. Atleti opened the channel every time Alexander-Arnold, Henderson and Salah triangulated on the right. Fabinho, who stayed with each ball that passed close to his feet, as if his boots were made of velcro, threw vertically at Liverpool. With spaces to run and quick recoveries, sowing panic in every ball. Messy, dizzy, demolished the Atleti. Broken again along that line, the defense, once made of steel, today turned into fragile glass. Granny was actually Felipe and Hermoso.

Hermoso and Felipe were like an immense black hole, a void. Beautiful, oh Beautiful, he could not, he did not know with Salah, who made him dizzy, broke his legs and his back in each cast. And what happened to Felipe, oh Felipe, was worse. Seven minutes later, he was still arguing with Trippier about Diogo Jota’s goal, unhinged. In the meantime, the game was passing over him again. Mané escaped, he looked for Alexander-Arnold in the band while he made another suit for the Brazilian shouting: “To eat you better”. 2-0. And there would still be the worst. Because the next time Felipe occupied the plane it would be to go to the showers, the red Makkelie raised before him. A card too rigorous to punish a kick from the center to Mané without the possibility of contesting the ball but, it seemed, that the Brazilian’s refusal to look at him while he called him was turning that yellow red. Again Atleti with ten, like two weeks ago in Madrid, but without the possibility of a feat. The history of this Anfield would be written by Goliath.

The game would end, although he still had so much ahead of him. 53 minutes with 10. Cholo did not leave at half time with a bigger seam because the miracles returned to Oblak’s gloves before a shoe from Salah. The rojiblancos returned from the break with that stop on the head. They couldn’t let go. That the nightmare in Liverpool did not spoil the group stage, that a win did not put more lead on the feet in the group. The first place already red, fight in the second with Porto. But Klopp thought the same, but in reverse. He did not raise his foot his equipment. It continued to be a fire that spread throughout the field, arriving in an avalanche on Oblak’s goal. Eight minutes had passed from the second half and I could go 4-0. But Matip forgave and the VAR annulled a goal from Jota offside, the same reason why Suárez’s 2-1 disappeared from the scoreboard. Condemned to wander an Anfield turned into a trench, standing, but dead, skinned for the wolves and Klopp’s revenge.