Going by the Liverpool stats v Real Madrid, Jurgen Klopp’s side shoud’ve won the Champions League comfortably last night.
Instead, Real Madrid edged out the Reds 1-0 in Paris to deny the Premier League outfit a seventh European Cup success – and second under their German manager.
According to BBC Sport, Liverpool had 54 percent of the possession and 24 shots compared to the Spanish giants’ four – nine of which were on target.
Unfortunately for the Merseysiders, they ran into a Thibaut Courtois in the form of his life as the Belgian pulled off a string of stunning saves at Stade de France last night.
On another day, Liverpool might’ve won comfortably – which was Michael Owen’s pre-match prediction – but when Klopp’s side did have opportunities, they were somewhat wasted.
Like on 80 minutes when Naby Keita – on for Thiago Alcantara, who was passed fit to start against Real – blazed over the bar from the edge of the area following a brilliant cut-back ball from Roberto Firmino.
And Chris Sutton, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, said: “It was a horrible effort. He would have been better suited to go with his left foot.”
Sutton is right. The opportunity favoured a natural left-footer, but this is a £52 million player and even though he is right footed, he should be confident enough with his weaker leg to have a go.
Of course, you can’t entirely blame Keita for this, because Liverpool had better opportunities that were either wasted or saved by the Real Madrid goalkeeper, but the Guinea international definitely could and should’ve done a little better.
Liverpool stats v Real Madrid illustrated that the Premier League runners-up should’ve probably won, but Carlo Ancelotti’s side had the only statistic which mattered – the goal, scored by Vinicius Junior in the second half.
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