That first goal was great. The anticipation of Suarez made something out of nothing. Really, the guy is slightly overweight (at least for a top level player), he's not amazingly quick, I don't think he really has any physical attribute that others don't - but he has this unbelievable killer instinct for goal. Some goals you can moan about the defenders or whatever but that first one which really came out of a period when neither side was on top - in fact arguably Liverpool were shading it - was an unstoppable goal. The pass and the finish were just sublime. Liverpool had to say to themselves; you just have to accept that that was a moment of genius and we couldn't deal with it and we have to hope they don't produce more like that - and they did everything right, put it out of their heads and got more and more possession in increasingly dangerous areas, created better and better chances. Had more possession than Barca in the Nou Camp(!), got the crowd worried... and then failed to take their chances. With hindsight the Milner chance - which, you know I would have scored - was the turning point. A crucial miss and although the second goal was lucky in the way it bounced around, there is always that danger with a team that good. And then Barcelona did produce another moment of genius. And then Salah made that incredible miss which could have wiped that out and left a bit of life in the tie. Oh well.
Agreed....though van Dijk should maybe have been less static on the first. While I love him as a player, all the crowing about 'best defender in the world' was premature, given that he hadn't faced Messi or Suarez. But in general, Liverpool can do little but concentrate on their misses, because you can't account for genius.
Yep, you would have scored the Milner chance, tis true.
From the first ten mins, I thought Salah was going to write his name all over that game - it looked like a rewind to last season. I think Liverpool still have a small chance in the second leg if they can go 1-0 up early on and get the crowd going. If they can then sneak a second by any means necessary, then Barcelona do wobble, as in Rome last year (plus that memory will be sharp for Barca).
Also, while I think Messi is the greatest who ever did it, then the hagiographic newspaper reaction today is testing even my patience. The idea that Messi never goes missing on the big stage is just not true...no-one can bend every game to their will. He just manages it much more than most. Plus hanging out with Suarez has introduced a cynical edge to his game (the excessive reaction to a foul, and sly smile to camera) that I really don't think used to be there