SUMMARY
The night at Anfield turned out to be a very dominant Liverpool performance against a Porto side who has never won against English opposition drawing three times, losing fifteen and winning none. The very early stages of the game looked promising for Porto opening the first few minutes of the game with a couple half-chances and putting Liverpool on their heals. Liverpool before long found their footing in the match and opened the scoring in the 5th minute. Porto loses the ball in midfield and James Milner plays a lovely one-touch ball to Sadio Mane on the left wing. Mane takes it down the wing and squares it to Firmino in the box who lays it off to Naby Keita whose shot toward the left corner of the goal is deflected by Oliver Torres and sent into the opposite top corner leaving Casillas helpless. The next stages of the game saw Liverpool keeping the majority of the ball and forcing Porto to look for the fruitless longer option due to the tenacious Gegen pressing of Jugen Klopp’s men. All season the defensive tactics of the Reds has been their foundation for all-out attacking football allowing Virgil van Dijk to search for the ever-present diagonal ball or for the midfielders to play balls into the channels for the pace of their wingers. Although Porto started to find escape routes through their big Malian center-forward in Moussa Marega, Liverpool struck again in the 26th minute. The goal came from a Liverpool build-up that ended with Jordan Henderson playing a slide-rule pass through the Porto defense like a knife through butter to Alexander-Arnold who squares the ball across goal to Firmino who taps in at the back post. A sophisticated attacking move that was finished by the man who provided the assist for the first goal. Despite the deficit, Porto created a few chances by using the athleticism of Marega to escape Liverpool’s press. Their biggest chances of the half came from the Malian when a chipped ball over the Liverpool back-line from Oliver Toress to Marega was fired at goal from a tight angle, but Alisson was able to get a left foot to it to deny the Porto talisman. The second chance came from an effort from a bouncing ball inside the 6-yard area which Marega turned goalward straight at Liverpool’s Brazilian goalkeeper, in truth, he should have scored. The second-half was like a possession drill for Liverpool who created a few chances one of which was a goal for Mane which was ruled offside. Again, Marega looked the most likely for Porto throughout the half, but ultimately the game was killed off by Liverpool keeping the ball and Porto struggling to get a grip on the midfield.
GOALKEEPERS
ALISSON: Although he had very little to do in the game, the Brazilian answered the call when called upon and kept the clean-sheet. Most of Alisson’s contributions came in the form of collecting crosses with no pressure using his feet which he has appeared very comfortable with using all season and wasn’t put under much pressure in this game when receiving a pass-back. His major involvement in this game came in the 30th minute when Porto broke the press with a bit of luck and Marega was played through on goal. When the shot eventually came, it came from the top right corner of Alisson’s 6-yard area and Alisson saved it with his left foot. The Brazilian made this save look very easy by stealing space when the striker took a touch and closed the angle by taking a step forward and setting in the low breakaway stance. It was a good save in the end at a point in the game that would’ve gave Porto a lot of confidence had they scored.
CASILLAS: A legend in the game having played well over 100 games in the Champion’s League, Casillas showed his experience despite conceding two goals. Casillas could do absolutely nothing about either goal as the first came from a wicked deflection and the second came from a ball across his goal that was too far to claim and tapped in by a wide- open Firmino at the back post. Casillas was only called upon to make one significant save when he was forced to get down to his right from a Mo’ Salah volley which he gathered on the second attempt with no pressure. There were two things that I noticed about Casillas in this game that struck me note-worthy. The first was controlling the space behind his back-line. In the modern day, when we think of a goalkeeper controlling the space behind their back line we think of the long strides of Manuel Neuer sprinting out of his area to clear a through-ball. However, there is another effective method that Casillas showcased brilliantly well. Casillas is always talking to his back line giving orders on their positioning and ensuring they stay together as a unit. We see this in the late stages in the second-half when we see Casillas actually push one of his defenders up into line with the rest of the line following a free kick and letting him hear about his laziness afterward. Once Casillas has his line in place, he is very good reading and mopping up any balls that are played behind the deep line which tend to fall inside the box. His positioning is what allowed him to close down the Salah chance in the 22nd minute which came from a Porto back-pass that was intercepted by Salah, but by the time he picked up his head the goal became very small eclipsed by the figure of the Spaniard. The other thing I found interesting about Casillas in this game was his distribution. The Spaniard a pillar of the game, but is not known for his distribution in particular. Casillas was forced to go long for most of the match due to the Liverpool press, but there has been a clear progression in the drive, distance, and accuracy of Casillas’ services from the beginning of his career. He was able to drive balls into center-forwards and wingers which allowed them to flick-on or bring the ball down with facility. This, in my opinion, further elevates his legendary status as he is showing that he is able and willing to adapt his game to modern times and add longevity to his career. Although he lost the game, it was an experienced performance for one of the best goalkeepers the world has ever seen.
Safe Hands Review 