Liverpool 2-1 Atletico Madrid
by Gene Sylvester
at Anfield 

LIVERPOOL opened their 26/27 Uefa Champions League campaign at home to an Atletico Madrid team who are now pretty familiar with Anfield with this being their third visit in the last five seasons, and another corker was served up as with the previous three games.

Marcos Llorente inevitably opened the scoring to put the visitors ahead, with his fifth goal in his last three visits to Anfield, but Andoni Iraola’s reds recovered well with goals from Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister to gift Iraola a win on his managerial Champions League debut.

Mac Allister’s 49th minute winner came following the Argentine’s comments in the pre-match press conference regarding his disappointment at not being offered a new contract by the club as of yet. 

Many commentators had suggested that any new contract should be earned on the pitch rather than in a press conference and the former Brighton midfielder made a strong case for himself with a commanding display in the middle of the park which was capped off with a sublime goal to put Liverpool ahead just after the break.

“Yes, it was a lovely goal from Alexis. It’s good that midfielders can add goals” responded the Liverpool boss when asked about his midfielder’s performance strengthening his claim for a new contract, whilst skilfully sidestepping the contract part.

It was the Argentine midfielder that was at the heart of the build-up too as it was his ball out to the tricky Rio Ngumoha that saw the young winger lose his marker Llorente for the first time in the match with a feinted cross before driving towards the byline. 

His left footed low cross took a couple of deflections along the way before dropping to the edge of the box where Mac Allister stepped onto the ball with his weaker left foot before slamming a controlled drive just inside the left upright and past the diving arm of Jan Oblak in the Atletico Madrid goal.

It was the quick start to the second half that the home side needed after going behind to a well worked Atletico goal after 16 minutes.

Julian Alvarez, the subject of one off the summer transfer sagas with his desired move to Barcelona seemingly being blocked by his club, was the architect of the opening goal, when the Argentinian striker chipped the ball over the high line of theLiverpool defence into the path of a Llorente inverted run from the right-hand side. 

The Atletico Madrid right-back went through on goal with just Alisson Becker to beat and showed the poise of a seasoned striker with a calm chipped finish past the Liverpool goalkeeper to put the Spanish side ahead.

Alvarez could have doubled the lead for Diego Simeone’s side ten minutes later, but his shot from the edge of the box was well saved by Allison, with the Brazilian keeper diving full stretch to his right to palm the ball around the post for a corner.

Liverpool found their equaliser five minutes before half-time through Szoboszlai after his countryman Milos Kerkez dispossessed Pablo Barrios in the middle of the park.

The Hungarian left-back progressed up the pitch before trying to find Florian Wirtz on the edge of the Atletico Madrid penalty box but his wayward pass instead found Bradley Barcola whose shot was saved with the ball falling to fellow summer signing Ronald Araujo who back-heeled a pass to Szoboszlai, with the number 8 finishing calmly into the bottom corner of the net.

At the end of the match, Iraola expressed his delight at making his Champions League bow as a manager, whilst also beating Diego Simeone for the first time in five attempts.

“I really enjoyed it. You cannot think too much about the atmosphere because you are in charge, but the people [in the stadium] helped us a lot, and I am very thankful yes.”