Though it was straightforward in the end, a narrow victory ensuring Liverpool qualify top of Group D, for the best part of an hour Ajax looked the more likely to be heading into the last round of matches in the boss seats.
Liverpool found themselves in this difficulty after resting key players in the home fixture against Atalanta at Anfield a week ago. Not a single shot on goal in that fixture, which in the context of the Jurgen Klopp vision was flat out dereliction of duty. At least, as Michael Owen acknowledged pre-game, it introduced a degree of jeopardy into a fixture that would have been a dead rubber.
Indeed so. Ajax passed up a hat-trick of quick-fire chances at the start of the second half before 19-year-old Curtis Jones sealed a night of personal triumph with the only goal of the game and Caoimhin Kelleher iced the cake on debut with a brilliant reaction save late in the piece to deny Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.
Though there were four changes from the selection that drew at Brighton on Saturday, two were enforced through injury. Significantly goalkeeper Alisson was one of the victims alongside the less critical James Milner, tender hamstrings doing for both.
Klopp vouched for Alisson’s chosen replacement, 22-year-old Kelleher, hailing his footballing ability. He would hardly have to be Pele to justify his inclusion ahead of Adrian. Nevertheless, he was the first to get a hug from Klopp at the end.
Liverpool had never lost to Dutch opposition at Anfield in European competition and might have gone ahead twice in the first ten minutes, Jones curling one shot into the keeper’s hands and smacking another against a post. Left foot, right foot, at 19, Jones is a hell of a prospect with the potential to carve a career at Anfield that might yet twinkle in the same spectrum as other celebrated tyros from the Scouse school.
Jones apart, the red shirts were scrambling for the rest of the opening half, inviting the question when Roberto Firmino might appear. Firmino didn’t start against Atalanta either. No matter how well Diogo Jota has settled since his summer move from Wolves, it is in contests like this, with Mo Salah and Sadio Mane uncharacteristically marginalised, that we appreciate better Firmino’s capacity to knit together Liverpool’s attack.
Ajax arrived on a run of 17 away matches without defeat. Sure this was a consequence of their dominance of Eredivisie, a division they lead having amassed 27 points from their opening 10 matches averaging more than four goals a game. The home match against Liverpool in this group was evenly contested and the harvesting of possession by Ajax in the first half here spoke of the confidence that so concerned Klopp.
Needing only a point to progress Liverpool would have been happy enough to head to the break all square without too many scares. Kelleher dealt with the one shot of any potency, leaping acrobatically to his left to palm away Mazraoui’s extravagant, 25-yard strike.
Ajax would not have been too disappointed either. With Atalanta losing at home to Midtjylland at half time a draw would not have been a disaster for the Dutch either. Had they been more clinical at the start of the second half they might have put the game beyond Liverpool. Davy Klaassen steered a point-blank header wide from a cross by David Neres, who in turn hit the side netting and a post in the space of five minutes.
That old truism about taking chances when they present or pay the price echoed around the stadium as Liverpool went up the other end to take the lead with the softest of goals. Andre Onana misjudged a speculative cross from Neco Williams allowing Jones to stick out a boot at the far post and guide the ball into the Ajax net. The empty space at the Kop End could have sucked the ball in such was the scale of Onana’s blooper.
Poor Edwin van der Saar watching from the stand as the great Ajax project unravelled under its own steam. Ajax are remarkable in their ability to recycle a team built for sale. From the side that reached the Champions League semi-final two years ago, Matthijs de Licht, Frankie de Jong, Hakim Ziyech and Donny van de Beek have been replaced by a combination of promoted interns and Brazilian imports, cleverly scouted like Neres and Antony.
The addition of experienced recruits like Dusan Tadic and old boy Daley Blind provides the necessary wisdom when the ball does not bounce in the team’s favour. Ajax were thus no less ambitious having fallen behind, though in chasing parity they did encourage Liverpool to drive into the gaps.
A goal to the good, Klopp sent on Firmino for Jota to restore a familiar equilibrium to the Liverpool attack. It got worse with the news from Italy that Atalanta had equalised to leapfrog Ajax into second place in Group D with one round of matches to go. To qualify Ajax must beat Atalanta in Amsterdam a week hence.
Follow i sport on Facebook for more Liverpool news, interviews and features
More on Liverpool
- The conversation that convinced Werner to reject Liverpool and sign for Chelsea
- Meet the £11.75m star signed by Liverpool to act as Robertson’s understudy
- ‘The Kop went wild!’: Remembering when Liverpool last won the title
- Barnes exclusive: ‘Could I have played in this Liverpool team? Great players fit into any era’
- How Liverpool’s homegrown champion normalised his own brilliance
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3mGgoEQ
Post a Comment