Powerful Lovren, Effective Milner – The best and the worst-rated players as Liverpool endured 0-0 draw with Porto
With one foot already into the quarter-finals of the Champions League, the second-leg against Porto was always going to be a bit of an anti-climax for Liverpool. They had done the business in Portugal as the Reds dismantled the opposition and won 5-0.
We might have seen a number of defensive lapses from the team throughout the season but last night was not going to be one of them, despite the fact that Jurgen Klopp had mixed his team around since our opponents on Saturday will be Manchester United.
Klopp rested Virgil van Dijk, Andrew Robertson and even key man Mohamed Salah was brought on as a late substitute. The game never really took off, given that the onus was on the Portuguese side to return home with some sort of pride.
The match might have ended 0-0 but the real story was that we are back big-time in the Champions League and will now have to wait and see who our opponents will be in the next round. There were run-outs for a number of players that might not be playing at United over the weekend and here are the ratings for the Liverpool stars from the match.
Liverpool Player Ratings
Loris Karius – 6.5/10
Another game, another clean sheet for Karius. There wasn’t much to do for him to do except keep a couple of shots out.
Joe Gomez – 6/10
Gomez did alright as the right-back and had a couple of great crosses into the box. But that was pretty much it for the young defender.
Joel Matip – 6/10
It almost felt like a training game for us and Matip did his bit of passing the ball around and not causing any mini heart attacks for the fans.
Dejan Lovren – 7/10
Lovren has looked much more calm with Van Dijk beside him but today, even with Matip playing beside him, it was an easy outing for the Croatian.
Alberto Moreno – 6.5/10
It was nice to see Moreno getting a game and the Spaniard did pretty well but Robertson is expected to be back in the next game against United.
Jordan Henderson – 6/10
Hendo didn’t really have to step on the gas to change the game up and seemed to be going through the motions against Porto.
Emre Can – 6.5/10
Can also put in a decent shift without really doing much in the middle of the park.
James Milner – 7.5/10
Possibly our best player of the night, Milner was everywhere trying to get a goal and even almost got an assist as Sadio Mane hit the post in the first-half.
Adam Lallana – 7/10
Lallana played the full 90 minutes of the game as part of the front three. Getting the minutes under his belt was important as he looks to return from his injury-plagued season.
Roberto Firmino – 5/10
Nobody really knows why Firmino was played in this game as the Brazilian didn’t really do much for the hour or so that he was on the pitch.
Sadio Mane – 6/10
Mane might have scored the first goal of the game when his shot came off the post but overall, he did alright and the main focus will be on Old Trafford on Saturday.
Substitutes:
Danny Ings – 6.5/10
Ings almost broke the deadlock but Casillas saved well from his header. This was a good showing from the English striker as he looks to come back from his unfortunate streak of injuries.
Mohamed Salah – 7/10
It was a surprise that Salah was given a run-out in a dead rubber but he did have a couple of great moments in the game.
Ragnar Klavan – 5/10
Klavan was brought on as a late sub for Can and didn’t really have much to do in the game.
