Looking at Liverpool’s best and worst performers at Euro 2024 and Copa America
After one month of riveting football action, Euro 2024 and Copa America reached its conclusion on Sunday evening. Spain defeated England 2-1 in Berlin to win the Euro 2024 while Lautaro Martinez’s extra-time winner helped Argentina beat Colombia 1-0 in Miami and retain the Copa America title.
Throughout the two massive footballing events, we have witnessed plenty of fantastic encounters, individual performances, goals and saves. Liverpool had many players with their national teams in the recently concluded Euros and Copa America, and their displays were a mixed bag.
Alexis Mac Allister was a crucial cog in Argentina’s title-winning squad, but his club teammate Luis Diaz ended on the losing side with Colombia in the Copa America finale. Alisson Becker performed well between the sticks for Brazil but they failed to go past the quarter-finals stage. Liverpool defenders Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez were part of Gareth Southgate’s England squad that reached the Euro 2024 final.
Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch’s Netherlands were controversially beaten 2-1 by England in the semi-finals. Diogo Jota was used as a substitute mostly by Portuguese manager Roberto Martinez. Andy Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai had disappointing Euro tournaments with Scotland and Hungary, respectively, while Ibrahima Konate didn’t feature at all for France.
Amongst these 13 Liverpool players, we take a look at three stars and three flops in both tournaments combined.
Stars:
1. Alexis Mac Allister
He may have only clinched a Carabao Cup winner’s medal despite initial dreams of a quadruple in his debut season at Anfield, but Alexis Mac Allister’s winning streak for Argentina remains intact. The central midfielder has an unbeaten record in finals, a run he stretched on Sunday by guiding his nation to a 1-0 win over Colombia to bag the Copa America.
Barring being an unused substitute in the 2-0 group-stage win over Peru, the 25-year-old started every game for Argentina. Mac Allister masterfully bypassed opponents in the middle of the park with graceful turns and subtle twists, using his lower centre of gravity to great effect while bagging two assists in the tournament. He was substituted seven minutes into extra-time in the final against Colombia. The central midfielder was easily one of the most consistent performers across the Copa America.
2. Cody Gakpo
Let us put it this way: the Netherlands would not have come as far as the Euro 2024 semi-finals without Cody Gakpo. They perhaps wouldn’t have gone past the group stages.
After a hot-and-cold season with Liverpool, Gakpo headed into the European tournament as a first-choice forward for the Netherlands and proved his worth. The 25-year-old shone in his natural left-wing role, bagging three goals and an assist in six games. He started every single game for the Dutch national team and won the Golden Boot award for his efforts, sharing the prize with five other players.
Interestingly, all of Gakpo’s strikes came from open play, demonstrating just what he is capable of doing in the right position and system. Liverpool fans will be desperate to see this version of the Netherlands star in the upcoming 2024/25 season.
3. Darwin Nunez
Darwin Nunez hasn’t exactly set the world alight during his two years at Anfield, although he certainly benefitted from Marcelo Bielsa’s coaching methods and the defined role he had within his compatriot’s set-up in Uruguay. He operated as a key goalscoring outlet for an aggressive, physical Uruguay side at the Copa America.
The 25-year-old scored two goals in back-to-back games against Panama and Bolivia to kickstart the tournament strongly. While goals dried up as he missed several gilt-edged opportunities in the following games, Nunez was a constant pest for the opposition defenders with his directness, pace and physicality.
Uruguay bowed out of Copa America against Colombia in the semi-finals, and the lesser said about what happened after the game and Nunez’s off-field actions the better! He did end up with the Bronze medal thanks to ex-Liverpool star Luis Suarez’s decisive penalty in the shootout against Canada.
Flops:
1. Virgil van Dijk
Virgil van Dijk headed into the Euros buoyed by a strong season with Liverpool—a third-place finish in the Premier League and the Carabao Cup success. He started each of the Netherlands’ six games, leading the side from the back.
However, the recently-turned 33-year-old wasn’t at his imperious best in the tournament. Van Dijk made errors in judgement with and without the ball and barely made any significant contributions from set-pieces. The Liverpool star wasn’t convincing with his overall defending—perhaps signs of age catching up?
After the controversial 2-1 semi-final defeat to England, Van Dijk sparked a degree of concern amongst the Liverpool fans in an emotional and exhaustive interview, stating that he will carefully consider his future at both the club and international level.
2. Andy Robertson
Ahead of the Euro 2024 curtain-raiser against hosts Germany, Scotland skipper Andy Robertson talked about creating history and qualifying for the knockout stages of a major tournament for the first time. The words coming out of Scotland’s leader’s mouth felt perfect and it was all about putting those into action. Well, going up against Germany in the opening game was never going to be easy and the 5-1 smashing in Munich knocked the stuffing out of Scotland.
As a result, Robertson and his teammates never recovered after that game. While there was improvement in the 1-1 draw with Switzerland, Steve Clarke’s men were eliminated at the group stages following the 1-0 loss to Hungary. The Liverpool left-back, in particular, failed to bring his consistent performances on the floor and struggled to live up to the pressure of leading his nation.
Operating as a left wing-back, the 30-year-old made no contributions going forward. As Scotland’s skipper and one of the most experienced members of the squad, this was an extremely disappointing tournament for Robertson.
3. Dominik Szoboszlai
The Euro 2024 was a tournament to forget for Hungary, and one has to wonder why Marco Rossi’s side were so lacklustre in their opening two group-stage games against Switzerland and Germany. They did win the final match against Scotland courtesy of a stoppage-time winner from Kevin Csoboth, but it wasn’t meant to be as Rossi’s side bowed out early.
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Things may have been different for Hungary had Dominik Szoboszlai as a skipper done a lot more than just producing an assist in three games. He played every minute of the tournament but looked off-colour for the majority of the competition in Germany. The 23-year-old missed a great chance to showcase his qualities on the big stage, which the whole world witnessed along with new Liverpool boss Arne Slot.
