Steamroller Liverpool
There are few better teams than Liverpool to play with the score in favor. The whole «network» knows that at a given moment, with spaces, it will have occasions. And that usually takes advantage of them. As the quarter-final match faced him with the advantage of the first leg: 2-0, a treasure. That's why he did not get nervous when the Portuguese crowded in the first few minutes. If he scored Porto, he got into the tie. And he really looked for it, in all the ways: with physical effort, with the ability of Corona, with the strength of Manega ... But his attempts went away. By far, like almost everything Marega tried, more boisterous than cash; or almost, like the shot of Alex Telles.
It was a comfortable match for Casillas, who did not have to intervene at all, but the first one that arrived, inside. And he could not do anything. He received Salah in the area and managed to turn around to assist Mané, who entered the race to score at his pleasure. There was suspense because the position was very fair, but from the VAR they told the Dutch referee Makkelie to go ahead. It was the typical celebration a posteriori so usual since the technology has been definitely installed in football.
The moral blow for the Portuguese team was tremendous. He had done well, and the prize for it was a goal against and have the tie too uphill already. Thinking about scoring four goals and not receiving any more was little more than believing in miracles, now that we are at Easter time. In soccer miracles happen, but they are not usual. And Liverpool, far from relaxing, punished even more a rival thrown definitely up, with two strikers. Blood made the team led by Klopp, more comfortable in the second half. He ran better in the spaces and had no mercy: Salah, in a counterattack, made the 0-2, Militao scored in a corner as much deserved for Oporto, but Firmino came back to score the third head. The Brazilian had not been a starter, but the first part should not like his coach too much and he did not take long to put him to play.
Liverpool showed in Do Dragao all that is and all the danger it has: they were four goals, one of each of his trident and another of his best defense, Van Dijk, in a corner. Beyond their attackers, the English team has shown in the quarter-final to be able to handle a lot of records. In the first leg he beat Oporto by crushing, with possession and with a high rhythm of the match; when he took advantage, he calmed down. In the return he took refuge and took advantage of the counterattack to win again.
Casillas did not make any stop as such throughout the match. He could not do any. Liverpool had four arrivals: they were three goals and one shot off Mané after having dribbled the goalkeeper. The fourth goal came in a strategy action. The Spanish goalkeeper is the player with the most matches in the history of the Champions League, with 181, and he is not going to stay there, because at 37 he has renewed with Porto until 2021.
