A Brief History of Liverpool’s 2018-19 Champions League Run, Part 1
Liverpool have had a memorable run to reach the final in Madrid. Today we look back at how they got there.
Liverpool are in the Champions League final for the second year in a row, and while the outcome of the match itself will go a long way to deciding how it’s all remembered, right now it feels as though the run to get to it in 2018-19 has been noteworthy.
In a way that perhaps wasn’t the case last season, Liverpool have been put in difficult positions this time around. On more than one occasion, their run has appeared done. Each time, though, this squad has dug deep and found a way to advance.
If they win on Saturday, the story will become the sort of history talked of alongside 2005’s miraculous run. The squad by almost any measure is better this time,but for all the times it’s felt they’re nearly out, in some ways it has been just as miraculous.
We start with the group stages, where Liverpool were drawn into this year’s Group of Death. Finals opponents Tottenham drew their own very difficult group with Barcelona, Inter Milan, and PSV, but UEFA’s coefficients said that Liverpool had it even worse.
Fans might have been quick to talk up Liverpool’s own strengths, but deep down everyone knew that making it out of a group with Paris Saint-Germain, Napoli, and Red Star Belgrade was no sure thing.
Liverpool 3 - 2 Paris Saint-Germain
Things got off to a good start as French giants PSG arrived at Anfield for the opener—and headed home with a defeat thanks to a stoppage time goal by Roberto Firmino. And while PSG boss Thomas Tuchel complained the scoreline didn’t reflect the game, Paris needed a pair of controversial calls to go in their favour for the game to be level late.
First, Daniel Sturridge made contact with a loose ball in the penalty area, reaching it before the goalkeeper and with the ricochet falling to Mohamed Salah. But the goal was waved off—Sturridge made contact with the goalkeeper with his follow-through and it was judged to be interference. Then, PSG striker Edinson Cavani was offside in the buildup to their first half leveller.
Liverpool ended the match with nearly double PSG’s shots, shots on goal, and expected goals. The scoreline might have been close, but a win was a win—and the performance that went with it suggested this Liverpool side might be able to dominate their group of death. Also, it was the match that gave us James Milner destroying Neymar. So it had that, too.
Napoli 1 - 0 Liverpool
Then, Liverpool headed to Italy and put in a display of ineffective lethargy for the ages. Napoli may have left it until the 90th minute to score their goal, but the Reds were never in this one, managing zero shots on target and a measly 0.1 expected goals while conceding the bulk of possession to Napoli.
Playing a cautious game on the road against a strong team was one thing, and setting up to defend and try to hit them on the break might have made sense in theory, but as it played out Liverpool mostly just sat back and did nothing. Napoli didn’t look especially dangerous themselves, making for a nigh-on unwatchable match, but when their goal did come it was impossible to say that they hadn’t been better than a Liverpool putting in what at the time was their worst performance of the season.
So much for any talk of dominating their group of death.
Liverpool 4 - 0 Red Star
Perhaps, everyone told themselves, Napoli was a blip. After all, that game came right before Liverpool faced Manchester City in the Premier League. On the road, in Italy, against a very good opponent—perhaps Liverpool had set up to conserve energy and earn a point and just barely missed on doing it.
Because this, this looked like Liverpool at their flying best. This looked like the Liverpool side that had for long stretches run riot against Porto and Roma and City in Europe the previous season. This was Firmino and Mané and Salah—twice—scoring goals. It was more than 20 shots and holding the ball for two-thirds of the match. It was dominance, and it meant that Liverpool hit the half way point of group play on top, with six points to Napoli’s five and PSG’s four.
Red Star 2 - 0 Liverpool
Then, disaster. The return leg against Red Star. The Marakana. One of the most imposing atmospheres in European football. Xherdan Shaqiri being left behind in Liverpool over fears of violence from crowd after the Swiss-Albanian winger had celebrated by flashing a hand signal for the Albanian double eagle when scoring against Serbia at the previous summer’s World Cup.
And it wasn’t even that Liverpool played badly. They had the ball nearly three-quarters of the time, more even than at Anfield. They again took more than 20 shots. Something about the mood and tone of the match, though, of Milan Pavkov’s two first half goals and the Reds’ inability to craft actual quality chances—of those 20-plus shots, only four were on target—made it feel worse than perhaps it was. And, by any measure, it was bad, a loss to the presumed fourth side in a group of death.
Still, with Paris and Napoli drawing in their match, Liverpool were still in the top two with six points along with PSG. That was the positive Liverpool fans were clinging to after a deflating loss, but even then they had lost any breathing room.
Paris Saint-Germain 2 - 1 Liverpool
From being in control of the group to being in the thick of a three-horse race to falling behind, after the fifth round of the Champions League group stage Liverpool had one foot in the Europa League, and at the time that honestly looked about the best they deserved as PSG came out of the gate flying and Liverpool soaked up pressure and soaked up pressure and soaked up pressure. And then conceded a goal. Then a second.
The Reds were lucky to end the first half and the game having lost just 2-1 to a PSG side that, for at least one game, looked to have finally clicked into proper gear in Europe. Liverpool were outplayed, second to every ball, and Neymar and Kylian Mbappé looked to have too much skill and speed for them to handle. If the opening group game at Anfield had been a case where Paris were lucky to end up with a scoreline that made it look like they were in it, the same could be said here about Liverpool—but even more so.
It wasn’t just the defeat or that they fell to third while Napoli beat Red Star and moved past them in the group standings and PSG established themselves at the top of it that hurt, it was the manner of it. A close loss to Napoli on the road before the City match could be explained, but add in a road loss to Red Star and now an absolute hammering at the Parc des Princes, and even if Liverpool in theory still controlled their own destiny, it hardly felt it.
Liverpool 1 - 0 Napoli
Napoli headed into the final game with nine points. Liverpool had six but knew that any victory would give them the edge in the tiebreakers. Still, with how the first game in Italy had played out and with how Liverpool’s Champions League campaign had seemed to have crumbled, it was hard to feel anything like confident.
If many fans weren’t feeling all that confident, though, the players didn’t get the memo—and for their part, the Anfield crowd did what they always seem to do on big nights in Europe. Liverpool came out hard, pinning Napoli back from the opening minute, playing a suffocating high press and creating chances. Finally, in the 34th minute, a Napoli side that had appeared to have shown up targeting a draw cracked as Salah bullied his way past one defender and ghosted around a second before nutmegging the goalkeeper to put Liverpool up.
Eventually, though, with Liverpool unable to get the second that their play deserved, Napoli woke up—a goal would be enough for them to advance—and the sides traded chances. Salah could have had his second. Then Sadio Mané had an opportunity to put the game to bed and didn’t. Then, in the dying minutes, Arkadiusz Milik had Napoli’s best chance of the night, clear in on Alisson and with the chance to send Liverpool down to the Europa League, but the Liverpool goalkeeper made himself as big as he could and rom point-blank range Milik had nothing to shoot at.
Napoli, and not Liverpool, were going down to the Europa League. Liverpool, somehow, had survived—not just the Milik chance but their own misses against Napoli at Anfield and their lethargic showing against them in Italy and their disastrous road outings against Red Star and PSG. Liverpool went from in control of the group to having one foot out of the Champions League and somehow, with a Salah goal and an Alisson stop and a little help from Anfield, instead they were into the knockout rounds.
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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