Liverpool well and truly kept the towering Zlatan Ibrahimovic on an extremely short leash in Tuesday’s Champions League clash with AC Milan.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool completed a perfect group-stage campaign by winning all six of their outings in Europe’s primary competition.
The Reds recorded an impressive 2-1 victory away to the Italian giants, in spite of the fact that the German manager made a number of changes.
Klopp rested centre-back partners Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip, fielding Ibrahima Konate and Nathaniel Phillips in central defence instead.
But Ibrahimovic barely got a kick throughout the entire 90 minutes, with Konate, in particular, shackling the Sweden international brilliantly all night.
Here’s what Jim Beglin, co-commentator on CBS Sport, said live: “He must be fed up with Konate. He’s pretty much intercepted everything! He’s kept the big man in order.”
Totally bossed
Indeed, Konate, who signed for Liverpool this past summer, really showed Ibrahimovic who the boss was last night.
According to WhoScored, Ibrahimovic only managed 31 touches in 90 minutes – and had two shots, zero on target.
Ibrahimovic has been one of Europe’s most-feared marksmen down the years but, it has to be argued that he looked a declining force against Liverpool.
Having said that, the man is 40 years old and therefore a decline is inevitable.
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