Michael Owen makes ballsy double Liverpool brag after CL elimination

Michael Owen had some words of comfort for Liverpool after witnessing the defence of their Champions League crown come to a premature end at the hands of Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night.

Liverpool’s reign as European champions came to an end at the hands of Atletico Madrid as a 3-2 home defeat saw them exit 4-2 on aggregate after extra time.

In a tale of two goalkeepers, the LaLiga side’s Jan Oblak showed why he is one of the world’s best by single-handedly holding the visitors at bay in the second half as shots rained down on his goal with the tie level on aggregate at 1-1 after Georginio Wijnaldum’s opener.

By contrast Adrian, the goalkeeper who did not have a club in the summer and who was standing in for the injured Alisson Becker, had a shocking nine minutes in extra time with his error leading to Marcos Llorente’s goal after Roberto Firmino’s first at Anfield since April had put Liverpool ahead in the tie for the first time.

Not that Jurgen Klopp was blaming him afterwards.

The Spaniard then seemed slow to react to Alonso’s long-range effort, which left Klopp’s side needing two goals in the final 15 minutes.

For once Anfield could not deliver one of its famous comebacks as Klopp lost his first two-legged tie as Liverpool manager at the 11th attempt, as well as his first European tie at home, despite having 35 shots, with Alvaro Morata adding a third in the 120th minute.

A somewhat bitter Klopp was left to admit he was a “really bad loser” at full-time as he made a jibe at Atletico Madrid.

However, former Liverpool striker Owen had some words of comfort for the Reds after the game by claiming they are still the “best team in Europe” and their exit ‘will have been welcomed by the rest of the sides left in the competition’.

 

 

Owen told BT Sport following the match: “There’s no question whatsoever that every single big team around Europe has just breathed a huge sigh of relief, Liverpool are out, and I’ve got no doubts that they are the best team in Europe at the moment.

“Yes, they’ve been beaten over two legs but they are still the best team in Europe and they were absolutely outstanding for 90 minutes.”

Owen also claimed the result would have been completely different had Alisson, rather than Adrian been goal, with the Brazilian ruled out before hand through injury.

“If Alisson plays, Liverpool win,” he added. “As Rio [Ferdinand] said, the difference between the two sides was the goalkeepers.”

 

Klopp adamant Liverpool will bounce back

Liverpool, meanwhile, will now turn their thoughts towards securing Premier League glory, with Klopp saying insisting afterwards the defeat would not shake their confidence.

“Nothing, no impact,” was Klopp’s assessment.

“Come on, we tried everything. For two-and-a-half years we had an exceptional ride in the Champions League, we had party after party after party pretty much.

“The boys delivered a super game, fought hard, played well and scored wonderful goals but we lost. That’s it. No impact on anything.

“Now we have more time to prepare the Premier League games, we will see how the season will go on – nobody knows that in the moment exactly, obviously.

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“We were lucky in moments in the Champions League, when we went through for some reason. Usually we really deserved it but there were lucky moments as well.

“We are (now) out. Atletico won both games, they are deservedly in the next round so from now on we will watch the Champions League instead of being part of it.

“But everybody knows we will come again and go again. Thank you to everybody who helped us on that ride. But now it’s over, I cannot change that any more.”