Liverpool meekly surrender Champions League crown at hands of Atletico Madrid
In a tale of two goalkeepers, the LaLiga side’s Jan Oblak showed why he is one of the world’s best by single-handedly holding the visitors at bay in the second half as shots rained down on his goal with the tie level on aggregate at 1-1 after Georginio Wijnaldum’s opener.
By contrast Adrian, the goalkeeper who did not have a club in the summer and who was standing in for the injured Alisson Becker, had a shocking nine minutes in extra time with his error leading to Marcos Llorente’s goal after Roberto Firmino’s first at Anfield since April had put Liverpool ahead in the tie for the first time.
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Hide AdThe Spaniard then seemed slow to react to Alonso’s long-range effort, which left Jurgen Klopp’s side needing two goals in the final 15 minutes.
For once Anfield could not deliver one of its famous comebacks as Klopp lost his first two-legged tie as Liverpool manager at the 11th attempt, with Alvaro Morata adding a third in the 120th minute.
In truth it should never have got that far and would not have done had it not been for Oblak.
After Diego Costa fired into the side-netting after just 14 seconds the direction of travel was mainly towards the visitors’ goal.
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Hide AdIt was no surprise when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, produced a brilliant cross on the run from the byline for Wijnaldum to head down and away from Oblak a minute before the break.
Four minutes into extra time Firmino enjoyed a huge stroke of luck as his header hit a post but rebounded straight back for him to side-foot home.
However, a duffed kick from Adrian led to Llorente’s first and the substitute found the same corner from a counter-attack just before the interval Morata sealed it as Liverpool went out with a whimper.