Liverpool head coach Arne Slot was not too downbeat at not locking down prime spot within the Champions League with a match to spare as his precedence was to safe direct passage to the final 16.
The two-1 win over Lille, extending their one hundred pc document to seven matches, seemed like giving them an unassailable lead on the prime of the desk to render subsequent week’s journey to PSV Eindhoven tutorial.
Nonetheless, second-placed Barcelona‘s dramatic 5-4 comeback win over Benfica, scoring twice after the 86th minute, means Slot’s facet need to get a degree in his homeland to ensure prime spot.
“I feel 18 factors would have been sufficient to complete prime eight however with 21 there isn’t any dialogue,” stated Slot.
“If in tennis you’re the primary seed it’s higher to face the quantity 24 than the 12 however it’s a rating based mostly on years.
“Now we’re in a format when some groups have a fortunate draw and a few have an unfortunate draw. It is likely to be a bonus, it is likely to be a drawback.
“For me crucial factor is now we have been in a position to skip a [play-off] spherical.”
Liverpool 2-1 Lille
Mohamed Salah opened the scoring to turn out to be the primary Liverpool participant to attain 50 European targets.
“Particular, that’s the phrase to explain Mo’s efficiency at this membership, he has been excellent at this membership for therefore a few years,” added Slot.
“Right this moment a fantastic aim. When Mo goes on a one-v-one there’s a nice likelihood he’ll rating.
“However this aim tells you a lot concerning the work price of the gamers who received the ball again earlier than Curtis (Jones) passes to Mo.”
Lille equalised via Jonathan David with their solely shot on track, which ended Liverpool’s run with out conceding within the competitors at a club-record 9 hours and 59 minutes, earlier than Harvey Elliott struck the winner.
“Very happy,” stated Slot on surpassing the document of Rafael Benitez’s facet of 2005/06.
“I put every little thing all the way down to initially high quality of the gamers and second, these gamers have a high quality work price.
“If you happen to mix these two issues it is vitally troublesome to attain in opposition to the staff. Other than that, there are additionally video games, after I look again at Girona for instance, they created various probabilities and Alisson was unbelievable again then.
“So the great factor for me is we preserve clear sheets not by defending loads, we preserve clear sheets by attacking loads.
“I favor it like this and I feel the followers favor it like this as nicely.”
