Marseille 0 – 3 Liverpool
Marseille: X’
Liverpool: Szoboszlai 45+1’, Medina 72’ (OG), Gakpo 90+3
Pre-Match
Salah’s back! Please be good Salah and save this team from mediocrity. Thanks. No pressure. Love you.
First Half
Joe Gomez records Liverpool’s first shot of the evening, winning a header off a corner, which I am disappointed—but not surprised—to report that it was nowhere near the target.
Liverpool appear to open the scoring with what would’ve been an excellent counterattacking goal. But Hugo Ekitike cannot hold his run, and his goal was rightfully chalked off. It was a very pretty move though!
Alisson comes up big halfway through the first half, getting called into action to stop a powerful shot. It’s from a tight angle, but he still does well to push it away at full stretch.
Dominik Szoboszlai scores his second free kick of the season! This time it’s with a cheeky little shot under the wall after Gravenberch won a free kick just outside the box.
It wasn’t a great half from the Reds, but they did look the most likely to score and managed to get their reward just before the halftime whistle.
Second Half
Liverpool very nearly got in on goal in the opening minutes, but have been decidedly on the backfoot in the 10 minutes since. The hosts aren’t going down without a fight, and it looks like Liverpool will have to suffer for a bit and possibly try to hit them on the counter.
Hugo nearly scores again, this time rattling a great chance off the crossbar. This game has really opened up here in the second half, and is much more end-to-end than it was in the cagey first half.
Frimpong makes it 2-0! Or at least it’s his pass that turns into an own goal to make it 2-0! Still counts! He gets the ball out wide, drives to the byline, beating a defender before putting in a cross. The ball just needed a touch—any touch—to send it goalward, and that it got!
As the clock approaches the 80th minute, Slot brings Ekitike and Wirtz off for Curtis Jones and the slumlord. Ekitike was excellent tonight, despite not scoring. He was constantly dangerous, a good outball, and great at bringing his teammates into play.
Gakpo makes it three. Did he take an extra touch to cut it back onto his right? You betcha.
Final Thoughts
It’s another impressive European away from The Reds, making this season all the more baffling and frustrating. Regardless, The Reds are now up to fourth, and are in a great position to not only get an automatic berth in the knockout rounds, but also as one of the higher seeds.
