Liverpool’s excellent 3-1 win over Benfica ensured the club set and equalled some impressive records from years gone by. The result means the Reds have won eight consecutive away games for the first time ever, with the run including two Champions League victories and a pair of wins at the Emirates Stadium.
Having previously won at Porto, Atletico Madrid and both Milan clubs, Liverpool’s triumph on Tuesday also meant they had won five successive away matches in Europe’s premier club competition for only the second time, after Joe Fagan’s side did so across 1983 and 1984.
Ibrahima Konate became the 20 th different player to score for the Reds this season – they only had more in 2015/16 – and coincidentally it was his 20 th appearance for the club. Having yet to taste defeat with Liverpool, he drew another step closer to equalling Ray Houghton’s modern era record of a 23-match unbeaten start with the club.
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Records such as these are wonderful to have, and nicely illustrate the fabulous vein of form Liverpool are in as they tackle the run-in of 2021/22 with an eye on securing three more trophies. But such achievements are only trivia to be looked back upon fondly in years to come. In the here and now, equalling a recent Champions League record for a vital statistic arguably carries more weight.
At the Estadio da Luz, Jurgen Klopp’s side fashioned eight chances of suitably high quality that Opta deemed them to be clear-cut. These are the moments when you would expect the attacker to score, when they are clean through or striking from very close range.
Mohamed Salah set the ball rolling with Liverpool’s first big chance, though that was saved, before Konate got his goal from the Reds’ second. Naby Keita was unable to steer a header on target shortly after that, then the Guinean played in Luis Diaz with a through ball, but the Colombian’s effort was kept out by Odysseas Vlachodimos. The very best attacking sides tend to average around three clear-cut chances per match yet Liverpool had amassed four in the opening 24 minutes.
It only took 10 minutes for their next one to arrive, and when it did, Mane gave the goalkeeper no chance, stretching the lead to 2-0. Salah then saw another clear-cut chance saved shortly before half time, but the visitors had still amassed six of them before the break.
And though it took until the 87 th minute for their next one to arrive, it was worth the wait as the Keita-Diaz axis combined once again to put Liverpool 3-1 up. There was still time for Jordan Henderson to provide Diogo Jota with a clear shot at goal, but it was saved to ensure the Portuguese team travel to Anfield next week with the tiniest sliver of hope if nothing more.
Nine different men in yellow either created and/or shot a clear-cut chance and only three of the outfield starters did not. The phrase ‘team effort’ will have rarely carried so much weight in an attacking sense.
Eight clear-cut chances are not the most Liverpool have had in a Champions League game. When beating Red Star Belgrade 4-0 in 2018, Klopp’s men mustered nine, though as two of them were penalties, their efforts against Benfica were arguably still superior.
It’s not unheard of for other sides to fashion so many ‘should score’ chances in a European game either, though nobody else did in the season in which the Reds last became Champions League winners. And when it does occur, it tends to be in a group stage mismatch, not in the knockout phase. For instance, the only team to have at least eight clear-cut chances last season was Barcelona in their 3-0 win at Ferencvaros.
But since Liverpool returned to Europe’s top table under Klopp in 2017, there has only been one previous instance of a team having eight clear-cut chances in a knock out game, and that was when Bayern Munich memorably beat Barcelona 8-2. That took place behind closed doors at a neutral venue (coincidentally the Estadio da Luz), not away home from home in front of a raucous crowd.
While it could rightly be argued Benfica are not the toughest opponent, they’re still around the 30 th best from across the continent depending on to which assessment model you refer. To have eight clear-cut chances in such a fixture is a remarkable achievement and bodes well for the tough away games which lie in wait for Liverpool this season.
