The ManicaPost
SO it proved itself yet again who the real deal in Europe’s premier club competition are.
Congratulations are, therefore, in order to Real Madrid on the occasion of their winning a recording-extending Uefa Champions League Cup — third consecutive and 13th overall!
But this instalment is not about how real Madrid are in this tournament but where Liverpool can pull it together and come alive again, why their fans — the Kopites — should cope.
For the uninitiated, Yours Truly is a bonafide Liverpool fan, a Kopite of supreme persuasion, among whom other millions he numbers.
Now, going into this final I had posited and posted to those within the circle I compare notes and share experiences on the game with. “The 2018 Uefa Champions League final, Liverpool vs Real Madrid: this is one game that shall get to be defined by very fine margins. No much room for error.
The one team that wants it the most will get it. MuFace wangu Sadio Mane zvake zviya zvekuti he converts one in three to four chances apa hazvisi kudiwa-ba. I think we will watch fine, attacking football from both ends tonight. Goals will come and it may come down to who outscores the other!
While Madrid have all the experience for games of such a magnitude and appear the favourites, this will not be decidedly a one-sided affair. Each team is capable of hurting the other, which leaves it a finely balanced proposition. May the best team on the night carry the day and let the game begin. #You’llNeverWalkAlone,” was my humble submission, as though on the cue of a premonition.
Not far off the mark a prediction by this armchair critic.
I will not play a football quack, however, ardent reader, and attempt to proffer expert dissection of this match, which, naturally, had some major talking points.
Madrid skipper Sergio Ramos’ cynical challenge on our talisman Mohammed Salah (Ramos would later target Sadio Mane after Salah’s withdrawal, the Reds goal-scorer playing right into the hands of the sly defender as he got cautioned).
‘Keeper Loris Karius’ calamitous and atrocious mistakes, gifting the champions with a fortuitous lifeline for the crucial first and cushion third goals. Shades of John Terry and Steven Gerrard — two decorated former captains of their respective clubs, committing almost similar uncharacteristic slip-ups in huge games, at momentous moments and with an awfully lot at stake — perhaps? Maybe, but for Karius a single error would have been negligible, not repeating a gaffe.
Gareth Bale’s smashing stunners — the sublime second and glorious winner.
Then, of course, the Los Blancos’ quality and “been there, done that” sense.
Well, we, as Liverpool, had incredibly pulled our weight all the way to the final but, sadly, could not drag ourselves over the finishing line.
Pulling through the play-offs against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. Our front three of Salah, Mane and Roberto Firmino at one time breaking the record of the goal-scoring exploits of the fabled BBC (Bale, Benzema, Cristiano) trilogy in the competition.
The competition’s top-scoring team. James Milner providing the most assists. Our attacking trio making the list of the competition’s five top scorers.
This all with an average team and laughably under-fleshed squad. Cold comfort or scant consolation it may sound, ardent reader, but it is not.
I am one Kopite encouraged by the team’s ostensibly tangible progress under coach Jurgen Klopp’s stewardship.
The German geezer, in his first full season in charge of the Reds in the Champions League has championed a run to the final of the competition, agonisingly coming short again as he did five seasons ago with Borussia Dortmund. Finishing fourth in the English Premier League this past season, we have qualified for another shot at the prestigious tournament for the second season running — playing proper football, while we are at that, although our defensive deficiencies sometimes get us fretting.
Importantly, this is the gospel according to our ex-manager Roy Evans who once famously remarked that “Liverpool without European football is like a banquet without wine.”
Interestingly, after the heartbreak at St Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland in the aftermath of the abortive Europa League final against another Spanish opponent Sevilla, Klopp had declared that we would be back again. And here we were.
We can only get better if we improve our squad and have strength in depth.
If we muster that we can be masters again. With that will we can find a way and get going again.
Because even as our dreams get blown in the wind and tossed in the rain, we still walk on with hope in our heart because at the end of the storm is a golden sky.
YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE
If it is about football that you care let’s share the cheer because we are made for the game, mad about the game!
Feedback:
Our Premiership strikers should sharpen their skills. As fans we enjoy watching goals at games and our strikers must improve on that aspect. I believe rewarding a top goal scorer who fails to hit the 25-goal mark per season would be celebrating mediocrity and failure. —
Tawanda Mhlanga.
Perfect story. Dynamos are a very big club and their brand, therefore, needs to be run by people with competent managerial skills; people who know what good results are and how to get them. We also need a good coach in charge like Rahman Gumbo who has done well with Highlanders as well as in Malawi and Botswana. We need the glory days back like when I started supporting the team in 1985. — B. Machingambi, Gaborone, Botswana.
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