And I’m going to leave you there. You’ve been wonderful. Here’s a farewell gift – Andy Hunter’s match report from the Stadion Ljudski vrt:
And so has Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain!
I think we started with the right intensity. The manager said we can’t be complacent and we have to give our 100% effort, and the boys did that right from the off. Ultimately we got everything we deserved, and we were more clinical today and put away all our chances, or pretty much all of them. Every week it feels like we’ve got a lot of goals for us, but it’s not clicking at the final moments. If we keep creating chances and keep trying hopefully they’ll come off for us, and tonight they did.
We’re in an important part of the season. Everyone’s fighting for their place and I’m just ready for whenever I get the opportunity. I need to keep learning a new style of play and then whenever I get an opportunity do as well as I can.
Mo Salah has spoken!
I think it was a great game and we did good. I think it’s a good and important result for us. We need to keep looking forward and we have to win our next games. They gave the goal for me but it doesn’t change anything, the team did good and we had a good result, and that’s the most important thing. The most important thing for us is to improve the results in the Premier League. We need to carry on, keep looking forward and win the next games.
[Asked about recent disappointing results] We had bad luck. The last three, four games we missed many chances. We had bad luck. Everyone had confidence the good result was coming, and now we are in a good position.
That was laughably one-sided. Maribor, needing to keep things tight for a while and hope Liverpool got frustrated, conceded in the fourth minute, and for them it all went downhill from there. Liverpool kept trying to play passes to someone running down a flank who would then slam in a low cross for someone else to tap in, and most of the time they succeeded. Maribor might have coped with the width, and they might have coped with the pace, but couldn’t cope with width and pace at the same time. They also gave away a couple of goals with silly nonsense in their own half, which didn’t help. Liverpool scored seven, and could easily have hit double figures.
As it stands, Liverpool lead the group on goal difference from Spartak, with Sevilla a point behind and Maribor three points further back, now with horrible goal difference and surely destined for the wooden spoon.
The other game in the group is also turning into a hiding: it’s Spartak 5-1 Sevilla.
Final score: Maribor 0-7 Liverpool
90+3 mins: Liverpool have won this game.
Updated
90+1 mins: There will be two minutes of stoppage time, or thereabouts.
GOAL! Maribor 0-7 Liverpool (Alexander-Arnold, 90 mins)
A great last few minutes for double-barrelled players. Alexander-Arnold lets fly from 30 yards and it hits the arm of a sliding defender and screams past a wrong-footed Handanovic and into the net.
Updated
90 mins: Milner taps back to Coutinho and then turns and runs into the area; Coutinho chips the ball back into his path. It’s a lovely, lovely pass and it should have led to a goal, but Milner’s first-time cross is poor.
89 mins: Hotic gets booked for shoving Can as they both went for a header.
GOAL! Maribor 0-6 Liverpool (Oxlade-Chamberlain, 86 mins)
One last goal for the collection. Suler tries to take the ball past Sturridge 10 yards outside his area and fails, Sturridge runs towards the area and passes to Oxlade-Chamberlain, on his right, who gets into the box and scores a very easy goal.
Updated
85 mins: Moreno has another of his shots from out on the left where he really shouldn’t be shooting. This one goes very high.
83 mins: Liverpool have eight men in the final 20 yards of the pitch, and Maribor at least as many defenders. There are just too many people for any of them to be able to do anything very much. Coutinho dances to his right, but it’s so crowded there he turns around and dances left again.
81 mins: Maribor’s last change is made, and Mesanovic has come on for Bohar.
80 mins: Yet another goal in Moscow, where the scoreline now reads: Spartak 4-1 Sevilla.
79 mins: Milner chips in a lovely ball from the right to the back post, but it’s well defended and Coutinho volleys against the legs of one of those pesky defenders.
77 mins: Save! Oxlade-Chamberlain slams a low shot goalwards, but it hits Handanovic’s leg and flies to safety.
76 mins: Liverpool’s final substitution sees Dominic Solanke replace Wijnaldum.
75 mins: Maribor’s fans are still impressively loud, despite having had desperately little encouragement.
73 mins: And another update from Moscow: it’s Spartak 3-1 Sevilla.
71 mins: Liverpool are still controlling the match, but they’re just not doing anything particularly exciting. Their last move peters out when a long ball to Lovren, who for some reason is pretending to be a left winger, bounces out of play.
68 mins: Further substitutional action: Firmino is off, and Sturridge is on.
67 mins: Bohar is picked out inside the penalty area, and for a moment it looks like Karius is about to be called into action. But then he isn’t.
65 mins: I get the feeling that the final half-hour of this game might not be the most gripping.
64 mins: Another goal in Moscow, where it is now Spartak 2-1 Sevilla.
60 mins: “I think the phrase ‘Bold Citrus’ is a typo,” writes Phillip Maskell. “It’s supposed to be old citrus. Like an orange that’s been left on the windowsill for too long and is starting to turn a peculiar colour.”
59 mins: A double substitution for Maribor: Pihler comes on for Ahmedi, and Kramaric is replaced by Hotic.
57 mins: He should have scored already! Moreno crosses from the left and it dips onto Oxlade-Chamberlain’s foot, 10 yards out, but he hits over!
57 mins: This is just horribly one-sided. Liverpool have another shot, after spending a long while with the ball in and around Maribor’s area but unsure what to do with it, but it’s deflected behind. Before the corner, Oxlade-Chamberlain comes on for Salah.
GOAL! Maribor 0-5 Liverpool (Firmino, 54 mins)
Another Liverpool free-kick – since I wrote that there had hardly been any there has been a constant stream – Coutinho crosses, and Firmino flicks a header off the top of his head at the near post, and in at the far!
Updated
54 mins: Which Coutinho sends goalwards, but Handanovic pushes it clear.
53 mins: Liverpool should have scored another then, but from Firmino’s low cross Wijnaldum scuffs his effort into a defender. It did, to be fair, come to him rather quickly. Anyway, now they’ve got a free kick just outside the area.
51 mins: Liverpool win a corner on the right, which is crossed to the far post, where Morales Tavares is very tightly hugging one Liverpool player and someone kicks the ball at shoulder height and just as Lovren was about to meet it with his head. Play on.
50 mins: Peter Oh sends me the link to the page on the website of Liverpool’s club shop where they describe their third kit:
The kit is Bold Citrus in colour and is framed with a black collar and trims
So “bold citrus” is a colour now?
48 mins: There have been hardly any free kicks in this game. Firmino’s just won one, out on the right wing, but it’s a real rarity. Perhaps because Maribor haven’t got close enough to Liverpool’s players to foul them.
46 mins: The players are back out and they’ve already kicked off!
Marko Vrbranjak has been in touch with some linguistic assistance, firstly in translating that tweet from Maribor from earlier. “Google’s translation ‘Winding from the south does not start. Known songs continue to sound violently violet!’ is disasturous,” he says. “The tweet means ‘Cheering from the south isn’t ceasing. Familiar chants keep loudly inciting the violet team.’ He goes on:
Slovenians often joke about football players’ use of the language.there’s even a word for it: fuzbalerščina - a colloquial term that would translate to footie-ish (language). Common expressions are:
- we left our heart on the field (we gave everything)
- the ball is round (a usual response to any question from a journalist)
The most famous quote belongs to a former intenrational player Sebastijan Cimirotic who once aledgedly said: “I’d like to thank my parents, particularly my father and mother.
I’ve now seen a variety of slow-motion replays, and still have no idea who scored the fourth. I mean, I have some idea: I’ve narrowed it down to two potential culprits. Here they are, both doing precisely the same thing to the same spherical object at the same time in the same place:
Half time: Maribor 0-4 Liverpool
The referee awards half a second’s stoppage time for each of the four goals scored and then blows his whistle.
A good half for the Reds. pic.twitter.com/F6OPFxyLNj
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) October 17, 2017
45 mins: Martin Milec is booked for not really being good enough, and also for tugging Coutinho’s sleeve.
44 mins: Coutinho slams in a shot that Handanovic pushes out to Firmino, but the forward can’t control it smartly enough to turn it into a good chance.
43 mins: Liverpool run down the other end and Firmino nearly scores, shooting just wide from an acute angle.
42 mins: Chance for Maribor! Can gives away a free kick, which is nicely floated just beyond the back stick by Ahmedi and Suler, unmarked and eight yards out, heads wide!
GOAL! Maribor 0-4 Liverpool (Salah, 40 mins)
Liverpool keep the ball for a bit, looking like they’re not really bothered about scoring any more, but then suddenly Moreno bombs down the left and is picked out, and his hard, low cross finds Firmino and Salah competing with each other for the right to tap it in. Salah looks mildly the happier when it ends up in the net, so everyone gives it to him, though it’s unclear.
38 mins: Another Maribor shot, this time from Kabha, but it’s from 35 yards and is miserably slow. Still, it’ll go down as another effort on target.
38 mins: Coutinho runs with the ball into the area, turns back inside, tries to turn again, runs into a defender, gets the ball again and shoots, but a deflection takes all the pace off the ball and Handanovic saves.
36 mins: Liverpool pass the ball around the Maribor penalty area with casual ease. It ends, after an age, with Milner thumping a cross into Suler’s face and it flying off for a throw-in.
33 mins: Meanwhile in Moscow, it’s now Spartak 1-1 Sevilla. Liverpool still top the group.
32 mins: Liverpool haven’t nearly scored for a little while now, so Salah has a shot from 25 yards that Handanovic fumbles at first but clutches at second.
30 mins: What a night to be English: Elsewhere in the Champions League it’s Real Madrid 0-1 Spurs, and Manchester City 2-0 Napoli.
29 mins: A shot! From Maribor! Maribor have a shot! On target! It’s easily saved, mind.
27 mins: Salah is played in, but he’s a foot offside.
27 mins: Salah has another shot, trying to volley a ball bouncing over his left shoulder into goal from 18 yards and to the left of goal. It was, in short, wildly optimistic, but it was at least on target. Save.
25 mins: Nothing much comes of the corner, though the ball did drop to Salah inside the area only for him to mishit the volley into a thicket of players.
24 mins: Milner has the ball in the box, can’t decide what to deal with it, dances about a bit and then shifts it left, from where it’s worked across the edge of the box to Alexander-Arnold on the right, who whips in a fantastic cross that doesn’t pick out a team-mate, but does panic a defender into conceding a corner.
22 mins: Meanwhile in Moscow it’s Spartak 1-0 Sevilla, and Liverpool currently top the group with Spartak second.
GOAL! Maribor 0-3 Liverpool (Salah, 19 mins)
Maribor win the ball back in defence and move forward, but then they give it away again within a couple of seconds, Firmino doing well to win it back, and the Brazilian slides in Salah, who closes in on Handanovic before sliding it past him with his left foot.
Updated
19 mins: Salah attempts a pull-back, but it hits a defender’s toe and bounces up into his hand. There are some calls for a penalty from the away fans, but no interest on the pitch.
17 mins: Point of linguistic information, courtesy of Joel Smith: “Nah, he is known as Salah in Slovenia,” he writes. “‘Salaha’ simply means ‘of/by Salah’. In certain sentences, you’d be Simona Burntona.” Consider me educated.
16 mins: And nearly another! This time Moreno is picked out as he sprints into the box, and he shoots somewhat optimistically from an unpromising angle, wide of the near post.
15 mins: And nearly another! Milner crosses and Firmino, at the near post, tries to score with a backheel flick towards the back stick but misses the target.
GOAL! Maribor 0-2 Liverpool (Coutinho, 13 mins)
The first goal relied on a defensive mistake, but this was just excellent attacking, and Maribor were sliced open like some kind of footballing watermelon with a super-sharp cleaver. Salah receives a lovely pass from Firmino, approaches the area, slides a pass to Milner, running into the box, who crosses into the path of Coutinho, who hits a first-time shot from 15 yards that flies into the net.
Updated
10 mins: Liverpool have been a bit wild in some of their passing tonight. Can gives away another needless throw-in with a really astonishingly poor pass to Alexander-Arnold.
8 mins: Maribor mount a vaguely dangerous attack, though it ends with a ludicrously off-target shot from Vrhovec.
7 mins: After a corner is cleared the ball is worked back to Milner, who cuts onto his left foot and shoots low from just outside the area, but it’s an easy enough save for the keeper.
6 mins: This is not a spelling mistake: Salah is known in several eastern European countries as Salaha. Or, when he comically misses an easy chance, as he appears prone to do (though not tonight, it seems), Salahahaha.
4' Firmino je povedel goste v vodstvo po podaji Salaha. #UCL
— NK Maribor (@nkmaribor) October 17, 2017
GOAL! Maribor 0-1 Liverpool (Firmino, 4 mins)
All about Salah’s speed, which allows him to beat Suler to the ball on the right flank and then speed into the box before laying the ball across goal to present Firmino with a tap-in!
Updated
3 mins: I feel duty-bound to translate this. Google tells me it says: “With the exceptional choreography of the fans, the hymn of this prestigious competition has just been taken off. Even moments have separated us from the start of the match!”
Ob izjemni koreografiji navijačev, se je pravkar odvrtela še himna tega prestižnega tekmovanja.Le še trenutki nas ločijo od pričetka tekme!
— NK Maribor (@nkmaribor) October 17, 2017
2 min: Liverpool kicked off, and have so far kicked the ball about a bit rather aimlessly, given it away, won it back, kicked it around a bit rather aimlessly, and then given away a throw-in for little obvious reason.
1 min: The game has started!
Apparently it is orange – it has, to quote Liverpool’s website, a “striking orange colour scheme” – which given the way it looks on my screen – a king of awkward highlighter pink – suggests I really should adjust the colour on my TV.
Liverpool are wearing their third kit. I know no word to describe its colour, just that it makes you want to immediately adjust the contrast on your TV.
The players have exited the tunnel.
The teams have entered the tunnel.
Here’s Jurgen Klopp, asked first of all if Maribor’s declared intention to attack makes him happy:
I’m not here to be happy before the game. My aim is to be happy after the game. Yes, I think it makes sense for Maribor because they’re quite an offensive-minded team, they’re used to this style. We expected it actually. But it depends on us. If we are at our best then of course they have to depend and will be a little bit deeper. That’s all clear. So yes, good.
Jordan Henderson is OK, but he played now the last, pretty much all the games, so it makes sense to bring in fresh legs and rest him a little bit. Milner has had for sure enough rest and is for sure desperate for tonight.
I don’t say we have to beat Maribor. We don’t have a lot of games any more. We went to Moscow and wanted to win, and should have won probably. It’s the same today. I don’t like these kinds of disrespectful thing. They deserve to be in the Champions League. Nobody should be in doubt about our attitude and hopefully we can show it from the first second. We have to work and I’m optimistic that we will.
They appear to be playing You Win Again on the stadium PA, which is pleasingly optimistic.
In which Roberto Firmino isn’t allowed into the stadium because he left his pass on the bus:
No ID? No entry ⛔
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) October 17, 2017
Even if you are Roberto Firmino... pic.twitter.com/Z4dJJrOx80
“I am so pleased to see Milner start in midfield over Henderson,” writes Ian Copestake. “The latter’s penchant for four-metre sideways passes to Lovren (always completed, mind) as his main contribution until the final ten minutes of panicked vertical balls has seen me turn against him. It was time for a change and I am glad Klopp is open to it.” Not so much dropped as rested, I’m thinking.
So three changes for Liverpool: Milner, Alexander-Arnold and Karius are in, Henderson, Gomez and Mignolet are out.
The teams!
The team sheets have been handed in, and the names upon them are these:
Maribor: Handanovic, Milec, Rajcevic, Suler, Viler, Kramaric, Kabha, Vrhovec, Bohar, Ahmedi, Tavares. Subs: Obradovic, Billong, Pihler, Hotic, Vrsic, Mesanovic, Palcic.
Liverpool: Karius, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Lovren, Moreno, Can, Wijnaldum, Milner, Salah, Firmino, Coutinho. Subs: Mignolet, Gomez, Henderson, Sturridge, Klavan, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Solanke.
Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary).
📋Confirmed #LFC team and subs to face @nkmaribor... pic.twitter.com/8Ih7Ey2grp
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) October 17, 2017
Updated
Hello world!
Manchester United last weekend, Tottenham away this weekend. Liverpool could probably have done without a 2,500-mile round-trip to Slovenia in the middle, but at least they get it out of the way early. Maribor are currently second in their domestic league, which they have won in six of the last seven seasons, and can’t be taken lightly even if they are currently at the foot of Group E with half of Liverpool’s two points. They have, after all, gone unbeaten in their last eight European home games (even if they have never won a home game in the Champions League). Liverpool, after consecutive irritating games-they-should’ve-won-but-didn’t, need points in the bank sharpish. Asked if he would make significant changes to the team, Jurgen Klopp raged: “No chance. This is the last place to do those things. This is a decisive moment in the group – we need to be confident and brave. We play Maribor twice now. We’ve already wasted points so we have to be very good again. It’s an important moment.”
And so, the stage is set for an evening of goals (surely), nerves (possibly) and a lot of names that end in the letter C. Welcome!
Updated
