Liverpool turned in a superb performance on Wednesday night, beating Inter Milan 2-0 as Ibrahima Konate caught the eye of Jamie Carragher.
The Reds headed to Italy seeking a first leg lead and something of a double having beaten AC Milan in the very same stadium earlier this season.
Jurgen Klopp’s men got exactly what they wanted, taking a second-half lead as Roberto Firmino’s beautiful glancing header found the net.
Mohamed Salah then did what he does best, firing a left-footed strike past Samir Handanovic to secure the 2-0 win.
Liverpool already appear to have one foot in the quarter-finals, and Klopp will be delighted that one of his big decisions paid off.
Whilst Klopp could have gone with his tried and tested partnership of Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip at centre back, he went with Ibrahima Konate over Matip.
Konate has been in and out of the Liverpool side this season, emerging gradually after his big move from RB Leipzig last summer.
The Frenchman turned in a huge performance against Inter though, helping keep an all-important clean sheet.
It will go unnoticed, but Konate also did well to get himself out of the way of Salah, allowing the Egyptian to find the net.
This may now be a glimpse of the future for Liverpool, with Konate taking Matip’s place and nailing down a role next to Van Dijk.
Liverpool fans will have loved Konate’s performance, and former Reds defender Jamie Carragher has now taken to Twitter to react.
Carragher used just one word to describe Konate’s display, branding him ‘excellent’ – and we could now see Konate kick on and feature regularly between now and the summer.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
