Liverpool overwhelm Spartak Moscow in Champions League

Liverpool’s superior pace and skill were way too much for Spartak to handle.

Liverpool attacked Spartak Moscow early, aggressively, and often, and that paid huge dividends in the form of a dominating 7-0 Champions League win. Philippe Coutinho scored a hat trick, Liverpool kept a rare clean sheet, and the Reds won Group E in front of a raucous and excited Anfield Road crowd.

The scoring opened up quite quickly, with Mohamed Salah getting dragged down in the box in the opening minutes to create a penalty that Coutinho put away easily. Coutinho wasn’t done, though, combining with Roberto Firmino on a breakaway counter, making a run behind the attention of Spartak’s defense and coolly slotting home a pass from his fellow Brazilian to give Liverpool a 2-0 lead just 15 minutes into the match.

Firmino wouldn’t wait long to get on the scoresheet himself, this time taking the finish of a counter-attack himself instead of sharing the glory, banging home a beauty of a shot to give Liverpool a huge three-goal lead before 20 minutes had gone by in the game. Liverpool would easily control things for the rest of the first half, though their celebrations were marred a bit when Alberto Moreno suffered an ankle injury when his foot appeared to bend back awkwardly when he went to block a shot late in the first half.

Moreno would be replaced by James Milner just before the halftime whistle blew, and just after the second half began Milner popped up in a big way, sending in a cross that Sadio Mane met with an absolutely sensational volley to score Liverpool’s fourth goal of the match.

Liverpool weren’t done, though — Coutinho completed his hat-trick with a deflected shot after a burst into the box a few short minutes later, then in the 70th minute Mane scored his second in the match. The rout was well and truly on, and Spartak had no answer them, which was starkly evident when their defense more or less gave up late in the match to allow Mo Salah to score, giving each of Liverpool’s potent foursome of attackers a goal on the day.

At the end of the day, Liverpool had seven goals, Spartak Moscow had none, and Liverpool were easy winners of Champions League Group E. It was a terrifying message for them to send whoever they’re drawn against in the first knockout round, while Spartak Moscow are slumping down to the Europa League with a lot of questions to answer and potentially with their confidence taking an absolutely brutal blow after this match.

Liverpool: Loris Karius; Joe Gomez, Dejan Lovren (Trent Alexander-Arnold 60’), Ragnar Klavan, Alberto Moreno (James Milner (45’+1); Georginio Wijnaldum, Emre Can, Philippe Coutinho; Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino

Goals: Coutinho (pen. 4’, 15’, 50’), Firmino (18’), Mane (47’, 76’), Salah (86’)

Spartak Moscow: Alexander Selikhov; Andrey Eshchenko, Serdar Tasci, Salvatore Bocchetti, Giorgi Jikia (Mario Pasalic 60’); Denis Glushakiv, Fernando; Roman Zobnin, Luiz Adriano, Quincy Promes; Ze Luis (Lorenzo Melgarejo 51’)

Goals: None

Three things we saw

Don’t try to figure out Liverpool’s formation

While LIverpool’s squad was listed as a 4-3-3 before the match, when it was actuall in action during the game, it was a constant shifting nightmare for fans and Spartak players alike to figure out. One minute it would be a 4-3-3, the next a 4-4-2, the next a 4-1-5 with Georginio Wijnaldum pushing way up, and at times we’d even see something like a 3-5-2 with Emre Can dropping deep and the fullbacks pushing up.

That constant flux of shape made Liverpool very difficult to predict tactically, a fact that they took advantage of early and often. Their constant shifting of shape and where players were coming from made them very hard to defend against, and that was evident on each of their first five goals goal, as Liveprool’s shape and approach coming into each was unique. It was an impressive display of flexible attacking play — and it even helped defensively as well, as Spartak struggled badly to figure out where potential lanes to attack through would be.

Spartak made a very bad mistake

There’s been one thing teams have had to keep in mind this season when facing Liverpool: never, ever, ever give their attackers space to work with. Give them space, and they will punish you every time, but close them down aggressively, deny them time to breathe and move on the ball, and you can at least have a chance to keep them contained.

Spartak gave them space.

Instead of closing Liverpool down, Spartak dropped deeper, and deeper, and deeper. They didn’t press, they didn’t harry, they didn’t harass. They gave Liverpool’s fearsome attacking quartet all the space they needed and then some to pick their runs and passes and shots, and Liverpool punished them dearly for it in the form of an absolute thrashing. It was a mystifying tactical decision from manager Massimo Carrera, who has otherwise done fairly well with his planning in the Champions League this season, and it cost his team any faint hope of making the Champions League knockout rounds.

Don’t overlook Georginio Wijnaldum

He may not have gotten onto the scoresheet with a goal or assist, but that doesn’t mean that Wijnaldum didn’t play a huge part in Liverpool’s win. He was a constant menace to his opposite numbers in Spartak’s midfield, making disruptive supporting runs that pulled attention away from other Liverpool attackers — Sadio Mane’s volley had acres of space partly because of a Wijnaldum run — and he made several key passes to help spring important attacks.

But the Dutch midfielder did a lot defensively as well, coming up with several big interceptions of passes that could have started dangerous attacks for Spartak, and the constant pressure he put on both Denis Glushakiv and Fernando kept the Russian side from ever doing much to build steady possession to calm themselves down and get back into the game.

It was an important performance from Wijnaldum, but one easy to overlook in the middle of the torrent of goals that they scored. He deserves a lot of credit for how incredibly good he’s been, especially since he’s been at the heart of some pretty dark moments for Liverpool since he signed with the Reds — but he’s made some huge strides of late, and that bodes well for the rest of Liverpool’s season.