Got to say as much as that 1st half was absolutely frightening, 100mph, breakneck, heavy metal football, I loved the control in that second half. Especially from a team who are not all familiar with each other. Took the fizz right out of it but at the same time could have scored an extra 2 or 3.
Shoutout to Lovren who, after an early mistake, redeemed himself with some fine defending and a fantastic assist. Shoutout to Shaqiri who has emerged from the shadows (and injury) to put in a fine 90 minutes. Shoutout to Henderson who came on and put in a fine cameo imo, bringing even more control to that midfield.
Big big big shoutout to Divock Origi who just keeps reminding us of why Jürgen has kept him around. Not just the goals, which were fantastic in themselves, but his all round centre forward play was F***ing fantastic. A cult figure to some but that performance there gives Jürgen something to think about. Really really proud of that performance and made up for that guy.
But...
Man of the match has to be Sadio Mane. That performance in the first half was absolutely different class. I mean he really relished being the main man there and showed us a different aspect of his game with 2 special assists. The goal was just what we have come to expect from him; he really has turned in to an accomplished goal scorer. By god he could have made that last 10/15 minutes more comfortable after missing 2 sitters, but I don’t think I’d change this man for anyone in world football. He is that good.
Logged