Liverpool and Klopp prove Guardiola right in San Siro win

Matt Stead

Inter Milan were the better team for long periods of their Champions League last-16 first-leg tie with Liverpool, yet stare at elimination.

 

It seemed for over an hour that Pep Guardiola had identified his chief proctologist. The Manchester City manager watched his side decimate Sporting Lisbon but complained of “a pain in the ass all the time” after the game on Tuesday evening. Inter Milan probed and poked but in the end could only crack under Liverpool pressure.

There is no shame in that. The hosts gave a phenomenal account of themselves, from Milan Skriniar keeping pace with Virgil van Dijk in the ludicrously imperious defensive stakes, to Arturo Vidal inhaling the vaguely chaotic nature of this bout and using it to sustain his lifeforce. Ivan Perisic and Hakan Calhanoglu might similarly be wondering what more they could have done.

But they are not Liverpool and Simone Inzaghi is not Jurgen Klopp. As good as he and his team are, they faced and fell to a ruthless machine that bounced off the ropes to land two knockout blows.

Liverpool certainly had wobbly legs at numerous points throughout. Calhanoglu hit the crossbar. Denzel Dumfries ought to have scored from a second-half header. Lautaro Martinez came devilishly close to finishing one of Perisic’s many searing crosses. Edin Dzeko ran the channels but came up static when needed most.

Inter’s two forwards seemed frozen with fear in separate first-half battles against Van Dijk: Martinez had the chance to dribble at him one-versus-one and instead slowed down before stumbling over his feet in a sort of Yaya Toure against Roger Johnson role-reversal; Dzeko found space in behind on the stroke of half-time but even after a fine first touch, was palmed away as Van Dijk recovered his stride. The Dutchman and Ibrahima Konate formed an impermeable barrier.

Those two moments typified Inter, whose approach play was genuinely sensational at times, yet constantly undermined by a lack of composure or finesse at the final moment. Liverpool had the opposite affliction: their passing was often quite sloppy and haphazard but their two most presentable opportunities were maximised. It took until the 75th minute for either side to have a shot on target, with the only other such attempt following in the 83rd. The visitors scored from both.

Yet it was a captivating, pulsating and intensely engrossing game, the sort that was envisaged by those European Super League bods and which should provide the entirety of their pitch when the idea inevitably creeps back into the conversation. It helped that Liverpool and Inter had only played four times before and not recently, but the standard of entertainment was remarkable.

And for so long it was Inter who had the best of it, but Klopp’s substitutions swung the game. The introduction of Luis Diaz, Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita on the hour, combined with Inter’s reluctance to make any such change, reinvigorated Liverpool. It came at a time when they really ought to have been behind on the balance of play. But Henderson and Keita helped reestablish midfield control, while Diaz was a livewire.

As strange as it was to see the excellent Fabinho withdrawn so soon alongside Sadio Mane and Young Harvey Elliott, it made sense in that glorious glare of result-centric hindsight. Those three had put in quite the shift – and the latter was making his first Champions League appearance. From the start. At the San Siro. Against the Italian champions.

The most important switch was that of Diogo Jota for Roberto Firmino, however. The Brazilian’s no-look header from an Andy Robertson corner gave Liverpool a foothold from which they would not slip. Mo Salah doubled that lead soon after and within minutes could be found tracking back to cover for Trent Alexander-Arnold in defence.

“Pain in the ass” sounds about right. It must be a nightmare to play against, although that sharp agony of having shot themselves in the foot might last longest for Inter.

F365 Says