The Serbian champion, Red Star, made one of the biggest upsets in the Champions League history, as they defeated Liverpool this Tuesday with 2-0. The hero of the nation was Milan Pavkov who netted twice, in the space of just seven minutes, freezing Jurgen Klopp and his boys.
“My impressions are not summarized yet. I am overwhelmed with joy because of this big historic win. I was aware of the first goal when I scored it, but the second was amazing and I didn’t have time to celebrate it. I just took the ball, went for goal, and some of my teammates might have been in better positions, but I haven’t seen them, I just wanted to shot, and there it went, everything ended well.” Pavkov told to the Serbian media after the match.
Liverpool’s Huge Mistake
It appears that the Reds underestimated the Serbs, since they canceled all the workouts on the day of the game. The visiting team was very pale in the first 10 minutes, and it was obvious that they weren’t focused on this event. Anyway, Liverpool had a chance to strike first, when Daniel Sturridge missed the entire goal from inside the six-yard box. He was totally alone without anyone near him except Red Star’s goalkeeper, but somehow, Sturridge sent the ball way up high.
From that moment on, the momentum went to the Red Star’s side. Al Faradou Ben forced Alisson to react well some few minutes later, and after that strike, the horror for Liverpool started.
Marko Marin took a corner from the right side, and Pavkov avoided all the defenders, and from a nearby put the ball behind Alisson. Seven minutes later the same guy made a fabulous strike from some 25 yards, provoking an explosion of emotions at Rajko Mitic stadium.
After that Red Star started defending and protecting its goal, waiting for their chance in counter-attacks.
Adam Lallana, who was one of the worst players in Liverpool’s lineup had a chance to cut the lead of the Serbs instantly, but his header was diverted to a corner kick.
Until the end, Liverpool attacked, but they simply couldn’t find a proper key to unlock Red Star’s fantastic defense. Mo Salah had three chances, once even hitting the woodwork, but the Egyptian striker didn’t have any luck tonight.
Klopp Starting “Operation PSG” Right Away
Jurgen Klopp stated after the match that his team had many mistakes and that he knows where they went wrong. The German also mentioned Sturridge’s miss, which was the milestone of the entire game.
“If – big if – we had scored early the game would have changed but we didn’t.” ,and continued, “We tried to change in the second half, we had some situations. Very dominant, didn’t give a lot of counter-attacks away but we had moments we had ‘nearly’ chances but the biggest chances were in the last two or three minutes.
He then started to speak about Liverpool’s problems with scoring on away matches in the Champions League, and that he and his staff are going to have to analyze the current situation and find the adequate solutions for this issue.
For Klopp, the preparations for the match against PSG are already starting from tonight.
“We have to make sure in Paris that we do better. We will talk about that but tonight we can’t change it.” former Borussia Dortmund coach concluded.
At the moment the situation in Group C is both exciting and dramatic. Napoli and PSG clashed tonight in Italy, and in the end, the game concluded without a winner, 1-1. The Italian team tops the table with 6 points, same as Liverpool who is behind them PSG has 5, and after this sensation, Red Star also jumped into the race for the next stage. They have one more game to play in Belgrade, and it is against the Saints from Paris, but before they have to travel to Naples. Liverpool is going to Paris in two weeks time, and after that, they will close this stage against Napoli at Anfield.
There is no doubt that we are ahead of one very fierce and rough fight, because all teams have a chance to reach one of the first two places.
Nikola Velickovic is a sports journalist who loves to write and read on all sports. Nikola contributes both news updates and functions as a sports breaking news writer at WagerBop.
Email: nikola@wagerbop.com
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