THERE is a period of time between Dortmund’s equaliser and the pinball in their penalty area finishing where Philippe Coutinho has the ball in their area for what seems like forever.
In that period of time the big bang happens, galaxies are born, dust becomes matter, life climbs from the oceans, something becomes upright, language is created, the dark ages, middle ages and modern era occurs. The Americans elect Cruz or Trump. Human life becomes extinct. Coutinho still has the ball in their area.
I may never get over that period of time.
I’ve had a lovely day. Spoken to loads of Dortmund people and they have been sound. New friends. A great set of lads. They have had an edge to them though. They expected to win the game. They liked themselves. They backed themselves. They are right to, you know that now. They are right to because they are good. Very good.
Coutinho still has the ball in their box by the way. I close my eyes and that is all I see. Liverpool with the ball in their box. They can be good. We have the ball in their box and we will do until the end of time.
But we are good too. We are good. We had an edge to us on and off the pitch tonight, an edge which has been lacking. We needed a bit of luck. We were always going to, but then they needed a bit of luck too. This Liverpool side is cheaply and easily disparaged. They say our days are numbered.
Our days may or may not be numbered. Who knows? We are all immortal while Coutinho has the ball in their box. Locked in the moment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XFAUi1dV4Y
That first half there was Liverpool finding their way through the game and Liverpool roaring defiance in the stand. There was communion. That is the key thing. There is that moment that clicks a team and a support together. Gnarl.
Shall we talk about the football and what it felt like? Scary, uncertain and then explosive.
Liverpool could go in 5-3 down. Liverpool should go in 0-2 up. Liverpool go in 0-1 ahead. Football is a series of moments — loosely linked moments, moments that have some context but so often are just one lad trying to do something good against another.
Liverpool had a first half full of good moments, good instances, and Liverpool realised that they were in a contest they more than deserved to be in.
That realisation and how Liverpool coped with their moments thereafter was the most important aspect of the game from our point of view. Split seconds. Mamadou Sakho throwing himself in front of the ball; Dejan Lovren’s last-ditch tackle. Alberto Moreno winning his battles.
Split seconds and all eternity — the nature of football, never more summed up. Singing, shouting, jumping and demanding, moments that last forever, moments that flash past you. Footballers making decisions and doing their best.
The last 30 is about graft and shape and digging each other out. Dortmund are a good side and good sides can beat you; Liverpool have a 50-50 chance at Anfield. Dortmund have two goals in them. They have four goals in them.
You know what? So do The Reds.
Dortmund, for a side so highly spoken of, seem strangely vulnerable. They seem to have a rick in them — not alone there — and they seem to have space behind them.
They come to Anfield needing to score but that is the least of their problems. I’d be surprised if they didn’t score. They are so potent. It will come down to split seconds. It will come down to eternities.
Coutinho has the ball in their box, Liverpool have them penned in. Having screamed my head off for 45 minutes I found myself drained once the galaxies became dust and our period of pressure finished.
It was draining because it meant and felt like everything. Football matches which are, and feel like, everything. God bless them. What a Europa League run this has become.
Heart pounding, throat aching. Worrying, worrying, worrying. But the Reds saw us all through to set it all up. Don’t worry about a thing. Every little thing is going to be alright.
There’s an old standard. You got your education from the Kop. Just saying. In a bit.
Up the gnarly bastard Reds.
Still can’t believe we didn’t score from that passage of play,
Great response to conceding,
That save from the big German lad though,
Worldie.
The first save was a joke..legit one of the best saves you will see.
What kind of top coach bounces round in a shiny, bubble coat. This isn’t a serious man.
@TomM: Germans aren’t necessarily renowned for fashion, but glad you are not in charge of recruiting managers. He is one of the best together with Weinzierl and Klopp.
Btw, you must have been in charge at Hamburg, because they refused Klopp due to his missing suit & tie (no joke) and went for Martin Jol instead! :D
(They also refused Tuchel, btw – must have been the bubble coat.)
German style, fashion and music are still being led by the Hoff’s performance at the Berlin Wall, in 89. Post-war Germany was finally born that day.
The awakening had nothing to do with the wall itself. In fact, the rubble just inconvenienced DH, as he made his way to the stage from the tour-bus, while tucking into a bag of beef jerky.
The Hoff is Red Dwarf’s Lister, as God of the Deutsche Katzenmenschen.
Phew, you just put me though it all again
I can’t believe this performance. I felt, pre-match, the way I did at half-time in Istanbul…
It was a bit like hanging on to the dorsal fin of a Great White Shark and thinking to yourself, “You know what? I think I can ride this bastard!”
Brilliant!
We looked pretty comfortable on that shark for the last 30 min, though of course with the caveat of what a shark can do to you in 5 seconds.
Origi looks a totally different player after he scores a goal.
You are spot on..lol
I told you Coutinho exists outside of our own sense of space and time.
Coutinho is made from dark matter. We can not explain him we can only observe his gravitational effect.
I’d never thought of Coutinho as a living example of Schroedinger’s cat before – the goal is alive, the goal is dead in that tectonic passage of time and space.
Great piece of writing Neil!
Bloody brilliant.
This is what I saw last night. Well afternoon. Anfield Nights have always been slightly before dinners for me. Not to say some of them dinners weren’t fantastic. Or that I wasn’t famished. But this felt like one of those nights again. This was Madrid 2009 at Anfield to me. Tight as a drum about to feel the symphonic pain of a Dave Grohl solo. Fucking ecstasy man. We matter again for sure and it feels bloody good. We have special players in this team, but we’ve got that German wallflower Klopp too.
I’ve been spending far too much time locked in my head doing maths these last few days. Blame Moneyball and how much information is out there and having to function in 7 hour segments of time but all these maths running through my head has made me realize that I fucking hate player ratings. Seriously, terrible idea. Let my mum do them she used to cheer on both sides back when I played in school. High school. Yeah I was 16 and my mental mother is charging up and down the other side of the field yelling her head off about how everyone needed to be having fun. IPhone confessional here sorry because there’s a slim point here, slippery as mercury so I’m gonna hold this train of thought.
Oh yeah, fuck maths. They are utterly meaningless when I’ve been listening to Jeff Mangum live bootleg tracks and drinking Jameson all night. But here’s why; the punch.
Klopp takes a 5.5 and turns it into a 6. Coutinho has a 6 today but really we’re slaying him at least a full point over seeing two almost simultaneous world class saves. Coutinho has a 6. That even sounds wrong.
Is wrong.
Maybe it’s just as simple as these are very good players who have met a man who inspires Milneresque work rates into them. Maybe Adam Lallana is suddenly giving 25% more and now he looks the proper player.
That’s a dangerous thought. It’s beautiful. It’s the kiss of life and the hope of falling in love all over again.
I fell in love with Rafa’s Liverpool. We played like that Liverpool but it was more faster harder and far more frenetic. It was Klopp. It was sixes becoming sevens and we had more firepower on the bench.
Anfield Firmino and Daniel Sturridge yet to be properly introduced, give them a round of applause for me lads, tell them to make magic. Let the world know we’re back on the stage, My neighbor sure as hell will, appreciated or not.
Absolutely nailed it with those numbers mate. Saw lots of Twitter asking “who was your MOTM” last night and I couldn’t see anything beyond solid sixes and sevens for everyone. Apart from Moreno, perhaps, who just absolutely boils my piss. Cannot stand watching him headless chicken and Kung-fu kick in a red shirt. Had enough. They all played well, the only one springing to mind as the best performer for me was Mignolet. Just looked really assured last night for a change.
For those who are still wondering whether Jurgen Klopp has improved this Liverpool team: you’ve got your answer. Brendan, god love him, could never has set a team up to a do a job like that in Europe in a thousand years. That was an old school Liverpool away performance tonight, uber professional. Clyne, Lovren, Sakho, Can and Origi were excellent. Joe Allen was good too. We could still end up on our arse in the second leg because Borussia Dortmund are an excellent side, but it’s heartening to see a Liverpool side set up to compete so well in Europe.
Respectfully disagree. Klopp could call on Origi, Sturridge, and Firmino. Rodgers had Balotelli, Lambert, and Borini. We created plenty of chances in front of goal, but were toothless and nervy – exactly like Klopp’s Reds during the injury crisis.
If Sturridge had remained fit last season, it would have been a very different prospect. Through Origi or Firmino into the mix, as well, and I have no doubt we would have progressed.
No point in the comparing managers operating under different conditions. The players from last season have had a year to settle and are a year further into the their youthful development. And Joe Allen has a beard.
Rodgers was awful in Europe. Even when he had Suarez he went out against likes of Zenit.
It’s not about the players, Walter, Brendan, who I had a lot of time for, didn’t know how to set us up in Europe. Ask Dejan Lovren…..
I had both the pleasure (and discomfort) of being sat with the Dortmund supporters during the match; close to the corner where our support was. They expected to win and the first half chances to Dortmund only strengthened that belief. I’ve never had to work so hard not to celebrate anything in my life like I did when Origi scored that goal!
Those I had spoken to earlier had been hugely disappointed and a bit insulted by Spurs sending a 2nd string team and I think they appreciated that LFC didn’t do that. They’re passionate about their club and it’s fair to say that Ref won’t be getting a Christmas card from Dortmund this year.
Whilst the tie is in the balance, the away goal gives us so much to work with. It’s going to be a huge night at Anfield and I hope the supporters play their part and roar the Reds on to victory.
Up the gnarly Reds!
yellow wall my arse.
Thought we were nervous at the off and are into it. They look a lot more mature in the style of football they play and we looked like the new kid on the block at times performing a nervous impersonation of them.
Once we got into the game thought we did well in being compact and stagnating them. Although given the quality in their side they were always going to create decent chances.
Thought they were great at splitting the lines and finding Mkhitaryan in the first half, seemed a mistake to shift him outside where he was less of a threat, bar the ball for the goal.
Some quality defending by us although felt we struggled to keep the ball and move up the pitch at times.
Origi considering he’s only 20 did exceptionally well took his goal well and could with a bit more composure could of had another. Seems to remind me of the player we thought we were buying for 32M. Going forward with him though shades of Drogba perhaps. Think he could develop into that type of player.
They certainly seemed to run out of ideas towards the end along with their fans.
Game on for next week
No-one wants to yellow wall your arse, Brian.
Dortmund are a very good team who we managed to stifle for large parts or at least defend better than we have done at times recently. We also had them on the back foot a few times which is encouraging for the 2nd leg, can’t wait!
Kudos to their fans, cracking atmosphere throughout. Although, I’m not a fan of their version of YNWA…sounds like a wedding band doing covers. YNWA gives me goosebumps usually but not last night. The away lads might say otherwise due to the sheer volume?
Special mention for Divock, we’ll in lad. Rough diamond but I think Klopp has plans for him. Not sure if Studge is in them though, interesting summer ahead…
Thought that was a great, mature european away performance last night.
Up the mature Reds.
Dortmund are world class – going forward.
They are dodgy enough at the back. If we hold our shape at Anfield and take our chances when they come, we will beat them by a goal. Their defence is not solid, but neither is ours.
My favourite moment as a Liverpool Football Club fan was in the Spring of 2014 when Liverpool Football Club drew 3-3 with Palace.
True it meant our league ambitions were cruelly ended but I have never been more proud of the gang of lads in the Red shirts playing football for Liverpool Football Club.
They tried valiantly to win by such a huge margin that in our final game against Newcastle, Liverpool Football Club would have been in with a fighters chance of overturning City’s goal difference.
Failing is more beautifully heroic than winning sometimes. As fans of Liverpool Football Club we would have been in Excelsis Deo.
What a thing. A great set of lads.
Agree. Like Gerrard miscontrolling a simple pass before he turned to chase, the fact we partly blew a 3-0 lead because we were trying to win 8-0 seems to have vanished from the narrative.
I think Dortmund realized this wasn’t going to be like beating a B side version of themselves when they saw Adam Bloody Lallana was going in on their keeper just as hard as Lovren. Like Flanno steaming into Sterling it told them we knew their names and still came to play.
For however much praise the hipsters give Dorrmund (and I admit they deserve some credit) – we are Liverpool Football Club. That name is so much more dominant in the annals of history – and so much more meaningful to so many, across the globe
Let’s get into these at Anfield. Let’s play like the Gang of Lads that you or I would want to play like – let’s get that Liver bird singing from her perch again