We go again!
Well that was a tough one to take last night, both on and off the pitch as we were beaten by a very average Madrid team on the pitch and our fans were beaten by an incompetent French police force off of it and we already have the cover up and victim blaming in full flow from the authorities. Sounds horribly familiar Liverpool fans, doesn’t it? Scum.
On to the game itself then. I said before the game that the only way I could see is losing would be if the long season finally caught up with us, as it’s shown signs of doing our last couple of games and I felt second half, we struggled to find the intensity and energy levels to really trouble Madrid. Saying that, we still had our chances, only to find their keeper in inspired form. Mane created a chance for himself first half, forcing Courtois into a world class save and Salah forcing another from the big Belgian second half but in truth, we struggled to create clear chances and while the game was in the balance, you knew the threat of the sucker punch was on. One lapse of concentration from Trent at the back post and it’s 1-0. I’m not going to labour the point though. We never lost last night due to chances conceded as they were few. We lost because we couldn’t turn our dominance into goals, especially first half. Our crossing and set piece delivery was poor from both flanks and we just couldn’t find that killer pass through the middle as Madrid always seemed to have someone in place to block or intercept.
I was concerned about starting Konate (McMOTM) over Matip but I thought he was excellent on the night and controlled Vinicius brilliantly and Benzema was kept quiet for the most part.
Jurgen rang the changes and so often his subs come on and change the game but in truth Bobby and Jota struggled to make an impact. It’s unfortunate that both Salah and Jota’s goals dried up at the same time of the season. Jota now has no goals in his last 13 games and Salah with only two goals from open play since February, however I’m sure both players will come again next season.
A disappointing end to 21/22 but it’s still been an amazing season. We’ve come within two games of winning the lot and in some ways I wonder if we’ve been the victim of our own success by going all the way in every competition. Guardiola pretty much sacrificed the FA cup with the team he put out against us in the semi final and I wonder if the league had been over a couple of weeks back, we could have rested more and our team may have been in better shape than they were last night but we’ll never know. We’ve still put two trophies in the cabinet and we’d all been moaning for a number of years about our poor showings in the domestic cups so we’ve got that monkey off our back and the manager has completed the set of winning every trophy there is with the club.
All eyes will now be on the summer transfer market. Some will be demanding we sign an out and out CF after failing to score in 3 finals this year but I don’t pay much attention to that. Madrid and Chelsea are two of the best organised defences in Europe and we had our chances in all the games. These games are decided by fine margins. Any incomings will depend on outgoings in my opinion but there will be plenty time to talk of transfers later.
The lads will be disappointed but I hope they get a great reception at the parade today. They’ve done us proud this season and even though we’ve missed out on the big two, they’ve still delivered some amazing memories and deserve all the plaudits they get.
Klopp’s teams have always bounced back well from adversity and I’m sure the disappointment of missing out on the league and CL right at the last will only make them more determined than ever next season. There’s nothing else for it, we go again! Walk on!!
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