Liverpool – Atlético Madrid: Atlético Advance With Unlikely Heroics From Llorente (2-3)

The game played out largely as most predicted it would, with Atlético in a low block 4-4-2 shape fending off Liverpool wave after Liverpool wave. Strong goalkeeping and emergency defending from Atlético kept them in the game, but Liverpool were able to take it to extra-time thanks to Georginio Wijnaldum’s goal. Chaos then descended as Firmino’s extra-time goal was followed by a brace from substitute Marcos Llorente before Álvaro Morata capped off a 3-2 win for Atlético. 
Tactical analysis and match report by Josh Manley. 

Atlético Madrid arrived at Anfield with a 1-0 lead from the first leg. In that game, Atlético had managed to score an early goal before sitting back in Diego Simeone’s trademark compact 4-4-2 shape and limiting Liverpool’s scoring chances to relatively little.

Since then, Atlético managed a win over Villarreal before draws against Espanyol and Sevilla saw them slip to sixth in LaLiga. Liverpool in the meantime had endured their first Premier League defeat of the season against Watford, as well as being knocked out of the FA Cup by Chelsea. 

Jürgen Klopp made two changes from the team that started in the first leg. Firstly, he replaced Fabinho with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Jordan Henderson was now fielded as the deepest midfielder in their 4-3-3 system, with Oxlade-Chamberlain and Georginio Wijnaldum either side . . .