Liverpool travelled to Spain to face Girona in the UEFA Champions League and won 1-0, but found it harder than they have found their last five matches.
A Mohamed Salah penalty in the 63rd minute ensured that they kept their 100 percent win record in the league phase and their fans breathed a huge sigh of relief after watching their team struggle against Michel’s team.
Arne Slot, meanwhile, has given his honest thoughts as to what he saw and how he perceived the win.
“If you ask me about all the six games, I’m really pleased with all the results, I am really pleased with the five [other] games with the way we played,” he began.
“I’m far from pleased about the performance tonight.”
‘[I didn’t like] a lot, but especially two things. If you play against a team that has such a good idea about football, knows how to bring the ball out from the back – like some other teams we faced recently, like [Manchester] City or Real Madrid – then you need to be so intense if you want to make it difficult for them.”
“But if every time you are waiting a few seconds before you press, and if you do press you are so easily outplayed, then this team can cause you a lot of problems. That’s what they’ve shown throughout the whole Champions League campaign, except for [against] PSV Eindhoven away. I almost feel sorry for them because they deserved so much more in this Champions League campaign than the three points they have until now. But we have an incredible goalkeeper.”
“The other part was every time we lost the ball we were not aggressive enough, so every time we lost the ball they could almost every time go all the way to our goal, having a shot or a blocked shot, and then we could attack again. Hardly any control at all over the game; maybe the second half was a bit better, but then I am trying to be positive.”
As Slot alluded, Alisson Becker made his return to action in the Girona match after nearly three months out injured. He was a key reason why Liverpool stayed afloat and the Dutchman had words of praise for his performance.
“I said a bit of a joke that maybe the players wanted to see how fit he really was, so to give him so much work,” Slot said in his praise of Alisson. “But, of course, that was not our plan.
“He showed again today why I said so many times that he’s our first goalkeeper. That has nothing to do with Caoimhin [Kelleher] – he did so, so well. But Alisson has been so important for this club for so many years, for his country as well.
“[He] showed today that he’s probably one of the best, in my opinion the best goalkeeper in the world. And let’s hope he can keep continuing to bring these performances. Let’s hope even more that he can stay fit.”
