Red Star Belgrade 2-0 Liverpool
This is definitely not the kind of Champions League result a lot of SBOBET fans were hoping for.
Liverpool came into this game as the established favourites, the Premier League giants that participated in last season’s Champions League final. With the quality of players at Jurgen Klopp’s disposal, it wasn’t an odd decision to back Liverpool ahead of this match.
However, what transpired during the 90 minutes was a surprise demolition of the Reds. Belgrade defied the script and played like the European giants that terrorised the Champions League decades past. Meanwhile, the Reds looked like a helpless bunch of players as they couldn’t afford to score a single goal.
This match will definitely make plenty of Champions League 2018 highlights articles and videos for a good while.
Highlights of the game
The most curious pre-game highlight was Klopp’s decision to bench Roberto Firmino and Joe Gomez in favour of Daniel Sturridge and Trent Alexander-Arnold. Some may think of this as a way for Klopp to rest some of his first-team players, while other Belgrade fans might have seen this as an indirect taunt from the Reds.
It seemed like the gaffer’s early decisions was paying off as the two impressed during the game’s early minutes. Sturridge was especially eager to impress and gain his place in Klopp’s Starting XI. However, his early efforts were regularly denied by a resolute defence.
Belgrade were eventually able to find their groove and started making their presence felt. Marko Marin and Vujadin Savic called Alisson Becker and the rest of the Liverpool defence to action after making dangerous attacks past the 10-minute mark.
The game went into a deadlock as both teams were struggling to find their groove on the attack. Mohamed Salah, who some pundits think is still a tad bit from being a world-class player, was struggling to get things in motion as his corners and attacks were seemingly going nowhere.
The first blow was finally struck in the 22nd minute, but Liverpool weren’t the ones celebrating. The entire Stadion Rajko Mitic roared to life instead.
Marko Marin launched a fantastic cross into the box, and Milan Pavkov lost his marker and jumped to head the ball towards the goal. Not a single Liverpool man in the box was paying attention and failed to compete for the ball. Becker was too far from the ball to make a save.
Andy Robertson said that the Reds were ready for Rajko Mitic’s vibrant atmosphere, but their body language after the shock goal was far from confident. Salah and Sadio Mane tried forcing the issue on the attack, but at least three Belgrade shirts were surrounding the Liverpool aces to stop them from fully expressing themselves.
Their suffering would expound when Red Star Belgrade pulled off an incredible moment. Milan Pavkov was all alone with the ball in the Liverpool half and ran towards the goal. He whizzed past defenders and fired in an awkward spot where the Liverpool defenders weren’t able to close him in. The ball bulleted towards the top-left corner. The fans were understandably in ecstasy after such a fantastic goal.
Klopp knew that such a result is an utter disappointment after an action-packed draw against Arsenal have frustrated them during the weekend.
The Reds got forward more throughout the remaining minutes of the first half as Adam Lallana and Giorgino Wijnaldum were now involved in the attack. However, Vladan Milojevic told his men to turtle it all and defend with all they’ve got. That was exactly what they did until the half-time break.
The German seems to have realised that the odds are against them now and decided to pull out the ineffective Sturridge and Alexander-Arnold for Gomez and Firmino. However, it seemed like the change was made too late as their hosts were doing everything they can to keep the score.
Mane and Salah still had their moments on the attack, but Belgrade set up camp at the penalty box and refused to make anything easy for Klopp’s prolific attackers. The game ended after the Reds weren’t able to turn their fortunes around.
Klopp will have a lot of adjustments to make. Their ticket to the knockout stages isn’t that secured, after all.
Key statistics
The two fantastic goals scored by Pavkov sealed the team’s decision to hunker down in the second half. During the reset, they were more than happy to let Liverpool make all of the shots they can: the Reds fired 13 second-half shots while having 72% possession.
Liverpool’s ineffectiveness in front of goal was also noticeable. Of the 22 shots they had throughout 90 minutes, only three of those were actually on target. Ten of those shots didn’t even threaten the goal, while nine others were blocked by the defence.
What’s next?
Liverpool now have worse Champions League 2018 odds after losing to Belgrade. Things aren’t going to get better as they will face PSG at the Parc des Princes at the end of the month. However, they have to secure their spot in the Premier League by beating Fulham and Watford.
Meanwhile, Belgrade will be facing Dinamo Vranje and Radnicki Nis in the Serbian Super Liga before playing Napoli in the next Champions League match. With the way things ended against Liverpool, they should have confidence ahead of this big clash.
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