Match report
FULL TIME: Liverpool 4-2 Hoffenheim (agg: 6-3)
Nope! That’s your lot! Liverpool join Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, Manchester United and Celtic in the group stage of the Champions League! Klopp flashes a wide smile. They were the better side over both legs, but were pushed hard by an excellent Hoffenheim, who kept this tie alive longer than the scoreline suggests. “We’re delighted to get through to the Champions League, where we know Liverpool belong,” says their captain Jordan Henderson, who also has the good grace to laugh as he admits the defence might still be something of a work in progress. Anfield celebrates, and looks forward to an exciting, if sometimes nerve-wracking, autumn of fixtures on the continent.
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90 min +2: Zuber wins a corner off Gomez out on the left. Time for a late consolation?
90 min +1: There will be three added minutes. Wijnaldum nearly works some shooting space just inside the Hoffenheim area, but he’s crowded out.
90 min: Hubner bundles Salah over by the right touchline. It’s a common or garden foul, but Hubner is unhappy enough with the decision to talk himself into the book.
89 min: Liverpool just happy to sit back and hold their shape. Hoffenheim finally out of puff.
87 min: Mane wanders down the left. He slips the ball inside for Wijnaldum, who keeps it going towards Firmino on the right. The Hoffenheim old boy steps inside the area and lashes hard into the side netting. And that’s the last act by Mane, who is replaced by Klavan.
86 min: Space for Firmino down the right. He’s got Salah in the centre, desperate to score, but the cross is too near Baumann.
84 min: Kramaric curls another cross into the Liverpool box from the left. Wanger leaps, and is beaten this time by Lovren, although not particularly convincingly. Anfield is nervous. Liverpool have been the better side tonight, but they’re contriving to make a meal of this.
83 min: Wijnaldum buys a cheap free kick in the midfield, allowing the clock to run down, an ersatz Didi Hamann tribute act. “I concede the argument on Yakety Sax (67 min),” writes music scholar Sam Metta Bexar. “But I might add it perhaps works even better if the song is played on a kazoo: they’re just that nutty sometimes!”
81 min: Henderson shanks a simple clearance straight into the air. A few nerves betrayed there. Anfield is feeling it again.
GOAL! Liverpool 4-2 Hoffenheim (Wagner 79); agg 6-3
Have we spoken too soon? Well, Hoffenheim just need three goals now, because Kramaric swings a gorgeous cross in from the left. Wagner rises on the penalty spot, and plants an unstoppable header into the left-hand portion of the net!
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78 min: Uth, with his back to goal on the edge of the Liverpool D, slips a ball to the left for the excellent Demirbay, who shoots low for the bottom right. Mignolet does well to get down and parry.
76 min: A couple of determined runs by Toljan down the right. Neither come to anything. The away support show their appreciation anyway. They’re making the majority of the noise right now, determined to enjoy the rest of their second-ever European tie.
74 min: All a bit scrappy in the midfield now. Hoffenheim keep on pressing, admirably so given the jig is pretty much up.
72 min: A calmness descends on Anfield for perhaps the first time this evening. Liverpool stroke it around in the centre circle, letting the clock do its thing.
70 min: The two-goal hero Can is replaced by Milner.
69 min: Demirbay and Kramaric spin and combine down the inside-right, the former nearly releasing the latter. But Lovren sticks out a peg to hook away.
67 min: Can dribbles at slow speed down the right. He eventually slams a cross along the corridor of uncertainty, with many a red shirt in the Hoffenheim area. Baumann does very well to claim under extreme pressure. “I’m obviously a little more low-brow than Sam Metta Bexar (54 mins),” admits Phil Sawyer. “When it comes to supporting Liverpool, I find that for something that sums up the will they/won’t they score more goals by attacking furiously/concede more by defending hilariously, Yakety Sax does the trick nicely.”
65 min: Firmino rather marvellously celebrated that goal by loosening the cord on his shorts and dancing so his breeks slowly fell down in the comic fashion. Toljan comes on for Kaderabek, while Alexander-Arnold limps off lightly, Gomez coming on in his stead.
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GOAL! Liverpool 4-1 Hoffenheim (Firmino 63); agg 6-2
Demirbay, near the centre circle, passes back to Vogt. It’s a hospital pass. Henderson challenges, blocks, and tears clear. He selflessly lays off to his right, Firmino slotting into the bottom right from the edge of the area. Relief around Anfield. This is surely over now.
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62 min: Hoffenheim decide to lump it high into the Liverpool box, with Szalai lurking. Matip and Mignolet get in each other’s way, and the keeper needs not one but three attempts to claim the dropping ball. He eventually completes his task.
60 min: Alexander-Arnold channels his inner Garrincha and dribbles from the right touchline into the Hoffenheim box, past a couple of challenges. He’s eventually stopped in his tracks, though Wijnaldum wins the ball back and returns it to the young full back. Alexander-Arnold bursts again, then slips the ball inside to Wijnaldum, who hits a rising shot that’s well parried by Baumann.
58 min: That was Gnarby’s last act of the evening. He’s replaced by Szalai. Mane again bursts with purpose down the left and earns a corner kick. The resulting set piece is a nonsense.
56 min: Gnabry slips the ball wide right for Kramaric, who strides into the box and hits a shot-cum-cross that bobbles across the face of goal and harmlessly out of play to the left. That was neither one thing nor another, but Liverpool were again unpicked with relative ease.
54 min: Wijnaldum and Salah flick dainty passes at each other down the inside-right. The one-two has released the former into the box. He’s just got to lift the ball over the outrushing Baumann ... but hooks it high. And with perfect timing, here comes Sam Metta Bexar: “I’m reading the MBM while listening to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for Modernism class, and suddenly it struck me that the weird, atonal, sometimes ugly, and occasionally powerful music is like theme music for Liverpool, who are sometimes frighteningly weird, occasionally powerful, and sometimes awful, but you can’t stop watching!”
52 min: Mane turns on the jets to earn a corner down the left. Matip meets the set piece with a header. Matip sends the header harmlessly wide, as he does so often. He’s brilliant at getting on the end of corners, Matip. Just not so good at guiding them home. His scoring rate should be higher, really, the chances he sniffs out.
51 min: Firmino turns on a sixpence in the centre circle and runs at his old club with extreme prejudice. He’s crudely checked by the shoulder of Vogt, who has taken a booking for the team there.
50 min: Hoffenheim do like a high line, don’t they. Firmino flicks a ball down the inside-right channel, releasing Salah from just inside the halfway line. The Liverpool winger is correctly flagged offside, albeit not by much.
48 min: And we nearly get one, though it’s Liverpool who threaten to score it, breaking upfield from the corner five on three. They’re uncharacteristically ponderous, though, and the move peters out. Alexander-Arnold tries to get it going again by fizzing a cross into the box from the right, but nobody takes a chance on a decent delivery and Baumann will take a goal kick.
47 min: Wagner earns a corner for Hoffenheim down the left. Another goal now would set us up for quite the second half.
46 min: Salah glides in from the right, then switches to Mane on the left. Firmino and Wijnaldum race up to get involved, but it’s too intricate in the Hoffenheim box, and the chance of an early second-half goal - which burned brightly for a nanosecond with the ball at Firmino’s feet - is gone.
OK, here we go again! Liverpool get the ball rolling for the second half, kicking towards the Kop. There have been no changes. “Two goals in two games ... Liverpool can’t handle the Uth.” Jim Morrish there, ladies and gentlemen, making a late bid for the 2017 Edinburgh comedy awards.
Half-time reading: Catch up with the latest from the League Cup.
HALF TIME: Liverpool 3-1 Hoffenheim (agg: 5-2)
Liverpool could have had five. Then again, so could Hoffenheim. What a marvellously entertaining half of football. It should be over. But you know how Liverpool roll. It’s not quite over yet. The second half should be a blast.
45 min +1: Henderson miscontrols in the midfield, and stands on Demirbay’s boot as he desperately attempts to retrieve the ball. A booking. He can have no complaints about that one.
45 min: The corner’s cleared by Moreno, who puts in a no-nonsense block on Gnabry. Liverpool fly up the other end, Can very nearly springing Mane free down the middle. But Mane’s gone too soon, and the flag goes up.
44 min: This has been a wonderfully open half of football. Kramaric strides down the centre of the park and slips the ball wide right for Uth, who lashes low towards the bottom right. Mignolet is forced to tip round the post. It was going wide, but at such a speed he couldn’t take the chance.
42 min: Now it’s Liverpool’s turn to miss by a whisker. Matip, striding up from the back, causes some bother down the right. He drifts infield and lays off to Mane, who in turn shuttles the ball wide left for Can. Can’s got a hat-trick in mind, and sends a first-time curler towards the bottom right. Baumann’s nowhere to be seen, but the ball bobbles wide of the post.
41 min: Gnabry cuts in from the left and, from the corner of the area, unleashes a curler towards the bottom right. That’s in if it’s on target, Mignolet never getting there, but it sails just wide right of the post.
40 min: Gnarby is very lively. He skedaddles down the left, reaches the byline, and is only stopped from sending in a very dangerous low cross by some excellent tracking from Matip. The resulting corner comes to nothing.
38 min: Kaderabek is booked for standing on the back of Mane’s calf. That’s a red card, a very dangerous challenge, but he’s got away with that one. Mane is OK, and soon enough is up and about orchestrating some crowd song, having been given the bird by the away support.
36 min: From the set piece, the ball’s worked back to Henderson. From deep, the Liverpool captain sprays wide right to Salah, who sidefoots first time to Alexander-Arnold. The ball’s fired inside for Firmino, who should slam home from six yards, but sees his shot parried by Baumann. Liverpool come again with another phase, but Mane’s low curler from the left is easily gathered by the keeper.
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35 min: More space for Mane down the left. He hooks inside. Can thinks about volleying goalwards, with a hat-trick in mind, but opts instead for feeding Alexander-Arnold on the overlap. The young full back earns a corner.
33 min: Some very ponderous play by Wijnaldum in the midfield allows Geiger to tear up the other end. He feeds Uth, who loses control with options ahead. Matip is able to whack clear. Liverpool have totally lost their rhythm.
31 min: Gnabry tears clear down the left, reaching the byline and firing a low cross into the box which Lovren can only half clear. The offside flag goes up. Another goal for the Germans would make this quite interesting.
30 min: Klopp stands on the touchline, screaming at his players quite a lot. They’ve inexplicably switched off as a whole, and allowed the visitors a glimmer of hope.
GOAL! Liverpool 3-1 Hoffenheim (Uth 28); agg 5-2
Once again Liverpool fail to clear their lines. Lovren with a lax prod upfield. The ball’s slipped out to Uth on the right-hand corner of the box. He takes a touch inside, then threads a wonderful ball across Mignolet and into the bottom-left corner! That one had been coming. This tie should be over, but it’s not. Not quite. Not yet. Crystanbul really did jigger the collective central nervous system round Anfield way.
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27 min: Wagner makes a nuisance of himself in the Liverpool box, nobody in a red shirt bothering to clear the ball. For a second, it looks as though it’ll fall to him, and he’ll slam home from six yards. But eventually Mignolet takes charge. There are palpable nerves around Anfield, despite it all.
25 min: Thing is, Hoffenheim could easily have scored a couple themselves. Kramaric, in the middle of Liverpool’s half, slips a gorgeous pass down the inside-left channel for Gnabry, who is clear on goal! He draws Mignolet, but then snatches at his shot, the ball rolling harmlessly across the face of goal and out on the right. He had to score.
24 min: Hoffenheim may as well go for broke, and they throw on their goalscorer from the first leg, Uth, in place of the defender Nordtveit.
23 min: Mane goes on yet another run down the inside-left. He’s bundled over on the left-hand edge of the D, and should really be getting a free kick. But the referee takes pity on the visitors, whose heads are addled.
GOAL! Liverpool 3-0 Hoffenheim (Can 21); agg 5-1
Liverpool are rampant. Mane races down the left. He draws his man by drifting inside, then backheels wide for Firmino, who is in acres. Firmino chips long to Can, free at the far post. Can jumps and bangs a sidefoot into the net! Party time at Anfield.
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20 min: Wagner and Gnabry exchange crisp passes down the middle. The latter breaks into the box, and goes down under pressure from Alexander-Arnold’s outstretched arm. The referee isn’t having a bar of it, though again, you’ve seen them given.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 Hoffenheim (Salah 18); agg 4-1
Moreno slides a pass wide to Firmino wide left. The Brazilian dribbles into the area, makes for the byline, then pulls back for Wijnaldum who opens his body and sidefoots for the bottom right. His shot comes back off the base of the post. Salah is there to slam a sidefoot of his own into the bottom right, Baumann with no chance!
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16 min: Moreno has been effervescent in attack so far. He troubles Hoffenheim again down the left, earning another free kick, off Kaderabek. He takes it himself, looping long for Matip at the far post. The big defender can’t connect properly with his header.
14 min: Liverpool stroke it around the back in the 1970s style. A roar: the home crowd are enjoying the spectacle. A long way to go, though, and plenty of time for tides to turn.
12 min: Liverpool continue to press hard. They’re first to everything, and Hoffenheim look a bit shell-shocked. The visitors should take succour in the move they put together just before the goal. They certainly need to settle.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Hoffenheim (Can 10); agg 3-1
Firmino sends Mane free down the inside-left channel again. He’s stopped on the edge of the area by Nordtveit. He checks, drifts infield, then backheels to Can overlapping on the outside. Can enters the box, opens his body and aims for the top right. But his shot deflects off the sliding Vogt, and into the top left! That opener had been coming. Anfield erupts!
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9 min: Liverpool bounce back from that breath-bothering Hoffenheim attack by launching a couple of their own. First Moreno crosses from the right, Salah slamming a shot from the edge of the box straight into a white shirt. Then Alexander-Arnold is bundled over out on the right. His free kick, swung into the box, finds the busy Salah, but the new Liverpool winger can’t get the ball out from under his feet to shoot.
7 min: Hoffenheim carve Liverpool apart! Demirbay, quarterbacking 35 yards from goal, slips wide right to Kaderabek, who fires low into the area. Gnarby must score, but shanks it wide right. Turns out he was offside anyway, but Liverpool were pulled all over the shop there.
5 min: It’s a fast start by Liverpool, and Mane has another look down the left, winning a corner. From the set piece, Demirbay kind of shoulders the ball away at the near post. The referee thinks about awarding a penalty, and you’ve seen them given, but decides against it. Then there’s a brief kerfuffle in front of the Hoffenheim goal, and Mane tries to scissor kick one into the net from six yards. But he can’t connect.
4 min: And another chance for Liverpool, as Mane is sprung free down the inside-left channel by Firmino! He should tuck that away, but his flick towards the bottom right from the left of the D is kicked away by a spread-eagled Baumann. Great save, but that goes down as a big miss.
3 min: Alexander-Arnold attempts to flick over the wall and into the top left. His effort pings off the wall and flies away to the right, dropping to Salah on the right-hand edge of the six-yard box. It’s a chance, but he clanks it wildly over the bar. Not much time to think about that, but still.
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2 min: Liverpool get a feel of the ball for the first time this evening. Moreno has a tear down the left but has to check back. Then he has another go down the inside-left channel, and is bundled over to the left of the D by a clumsy Kaderabek. Free kick, and time for Alexander-Arnold to do his thing!
Hands are shaken, coins tossed, pennants exchanged ... and we’re off! The visitors get the ball rolling, and they’ll be kicking towards the Kop in the first half. So Liverpool will face that way in the second, just how they like it. Wagner pressurises Matip down the Hoffenheim left, but the Liverpool centre back is up to the first test.
The teams are out! Liverpool are wearing their famous all-red garb, while Hoffenheim take to the pitch in second-choice white as opposed to first-choice blue. It’s Anfield’s first European night since the Reds faced Villarreal in the Europa League semis last May, so the atmosphere in a packed stadium is pretty much as you’d expect it to be. The away fans contributing plenty too. Time for a swaying rendition of a Rogers and Hammerstein showtune, then some Uefa-sanctioned Handel-influenced nonsense, and soon enough we’ll be off! “With a Polanski on the bench and a Wagner on the pitch, Hoffenheim definitely hold the edge over Liverpool’s Can in the artistic names category,” observes Peter Oh. Charles Antaki is also furiously riffing on the teamsheets: “Will Geiger also check if the ref’s radio is active?”
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Klopp speaks! And explains his selection at left back! “We have to be the same in both games. I thought the first game was good enough, but we need improvement, concentrate more, be more organised, more clinical. We have to fight together for our dream. Andy Robertson had a fantastic game on Saturday but he did not have a long pre-season and felt it after. Alberto Moreno had a good pre-season and played defensively really well at Hoffenheim. Both options are available!”
If It Ain’t Broke dept. Liverpool name exactly the same starting XI that impressed in Germany last Tuesday. Perhaps the only surprise is the inclusion of Alberto Moreno at the expense of Andy Robertson, who excelled on debut against Crystal Palace at the weekend. Then again, Moreno’s had a pretty good pre-season, so fair’s fair.
Hoffenheim make a couple of swaps. Håvard Nordtveit replaces Ermin Bičakčić at the back, while Dennis Geiger is counted in ahead of Lukas Rupp in the midfield.
The teams
Liverpool: Mignolet, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Lovren, Moreno, Can, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Salah, Firmino, Mané.
Subs: Karius, Milner, Gomez, Sturridge, Klavan, Robertson, Solanke.
Hoffenheim: Baumann, Kadeřábek, Nordtvelt, Vogt, Hübner, Zuber, Geiger, Demirbay, Kramarić, Wagner, Gnabry.
Subs: Kobel, Bičakčić, Rupp, Polanski, Toljan, Uth, Szalai.
Referee: Daniele Orsato (Italy)
Präambel
On balance, Liverpool enjoy playing German opposition in Europe. Sure, there have been some tough times: Reinhard Libuda’s freak lob that won the 1966 Cup Winners Cup for Borussia Dortmund; Bayern Munich legend Gerd Müller ejecting the Reds from the same competition in 1971; Gérard Houllier’s tactical meltdown during the 2002 Champions League quarters in Leverkusen. Hamann for Šmicer?! Oh Ged!
But yeah, on balance, Liverpool enjoy playing German opposition in Europe. Take your pick from the highlights: the repeated bossing of Borussia Mönchengladbach during the Seventies; the European Cup semi-final masterclass at Bayern in 1981; no less than four German sides packed off en route to the 1973 Uefa Cup; a 6-0 Super Cup rout of Kevin Keegan’s Hamburg in 1977; another Super Cup win over Bayern Munich in 2001; the cold dispatch of Leverkusen on their way to the 2005 Champions League; that heady 4-3 Europa League victory over Dortmund last April. They’ve even won a tie against a German club on a coin toss, for goodness sake, against Cologne in the 1965 European Cup quarters.
Liverpool are unbeaten in their last seven matches against German sides. They’ve lost just six in 37 meetings against clubs from Jürgen Klopp’s homeland. They’ve never lost a home game to a Bundesliga team, and that’s a sizable 14-match sample. And they’re unbeaten in nine home matches in Europe, a run which stretches back to October 2014, when Real Madrid turned up at Anfield in the Champions League groups but Liverpool didn’t. Oh, and in 33 European ties when Liverpool have won the first leg away, they’ve never subsequently been knocked out at Anfield.
But history is for preambles only. And Klopp knows Liverpool can’t get ahead of themselves, even after last week’s impressive 2-1 victory in Germany. “It is half-time. That is how I see it. It is half-time and we are in the break.” Meanwhile his opposite number Julian Nagelsmann, having watched his team create plenty of chances last week, knows it won’t take much to alter the dynamic tonight and seriously rattle the hosts: “We are going to try to take the lead and if we do that’s going to change Liverpool. We are good enough not to have to hide here. I am not in awe.”
Liverpool are hoping to make the Champions League groups for the tenth time, Hoffenheim the first. Both teams are desperate to continue their current development in Europe’s elite competition. But one will be disappointed come 9.30pm, maybe sometime after 10 if there’s extra time and penalty kicks. It could be a classic. It could be dramatic. It surely will be tense. It’s on!
Kick off: 7.45pm in Liverpool, 8.45pm for those watching back in Baden-Württemberg.
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