It was a quick turnaround for the Reds on Wednesday night as play in the Champions League resumed. Arne Slot elected to go with a strong lineup, making several changes from the weekend’s victory over Chelsea at Anfield. Alexis Mac Allister returned to the midfield to replace match-winner Curtis Jones, while Kostas Tsimikas replaced Andy Robbo, who went the distance on Sunday evening. Darwin Núñez took the place of the injured Diogo Jota at striker. The hosts came into the game in good league form, sitting second in the Bundesliga, only behind Bayern Munich. European nights on the road are rarely straightforward, and I had a strong inkling that this evening would be no different. Despite RB’s league form, they had lost their first two games in the Champions League and would be desperate to get out of the blocks in front of the home support. The traveling Kop got settled, the Champions League anthem sounded, Ryan Gravenberch pulled on his Ruud Gullit mask, and away we went.
The first half began at what felt like walking pace, and away from Anfield on a European night, this suited me just fine. Unlike the game at AC Milan, we weren’t trailing 120 seconds into the match. Although Leipzig enjoyed some good spells in the opening exchanges, ultimately resulting in a thunderbastard fired into the roof of Kelleher’s net by an offside Luis Openda, I didn’t have any serious qualms with how we had begun the match. The Reds slowly grew into the game, as I was confident they would, and on 27 minutes, Mohamed Salah—I mean Darwin Núñez—found the opener. A lovely one-two on the left wing saw Kostas combine with Cody Gakpo before the Greek Scouser floated a lovely ball to the back post in the direction of Mohamed Salah. The ball floated beyond a stranded Castello Lukeba and onto the forehead of the Egyptian King, who powered a lovely header across the face of the Leipzig goal that looked to be nestling in Gulacsi’s far post. Before it could do so, a chaotic blur of red crashed the 6- yard box and stabbed home from all of six inches. The nature in which Darwin had scored left me hopelessly anxious that he had come from an offside position—a fear that was immediately allayed after seeing the replay—and the Reds found themselves one to the good following a Darwin Núñez finish that was nearly identical to his goal against Napoli in front of the Kop two seasons ago.
The first goal seemed to be what the Reds needed to kick on. A relentless wave of Liverpudlian pressure followed, a tide that seemed to crash until the first half whistle sounded. Shortly after the opener, Darwin and the Redmen were again denied what appeared to be a stonewall penalty (shocking), and the former Liverpool Academy player turned Leipzig goalkeeper, Péter Gulácsi, began a goalkeeping masterclass in reaction saves. Darwin was again denied by the Hungarian following a well-placed and powerful header that was arrowing to the top corner, shortly before a Virgil van Dijk header from a corner met the same fate. While overall satisfied with the first half performance, I began to fear that the failure to stretch the lead to two might come back to haunt us in the second half.
While we threatened on several occasions throughout the second half, the only offensive action worth truly discussing is Alexis Mac Allister’s effort that came off the bar. The team play and buildup to the effort from the Argentine—featuring a series of delicate backheel flicks between himself and Dominik Szoboszlai—nearly brought me to climax; it genuinely would have been one of the best goals we have scored in the last decade. Down the other end of the pitch, it was our Irishman’s turn to show his worth between the sticks. On the rare occasions that Leipzig did find a way through Big Ibou and Imperious Virg, the blonde hair of the man in black proved to be the only tell that Alisson was absent. A brilliant denial of a leveler from Sesko at close range, followed by a sprawling palm that an acrobat would be pleased with, helped to see the game out for Arne Slot’s men. While we could have perhaps controlled the game better in the closing stages, I’ll never moan about three points away from home, and I’ll gladly take a clean sheet any day of the week. 1-0, 9 points from three, six away wins on the bounce, and the Reds continue rolling. Roll on Sunday.
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