Alisson Becker delivered one of the greatest individual performances of modern times during Liverpool’s 1-0 win away to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night.
The result owed largely to the Brazilian’s heroics on goal as he pulled off no fewer than nine saves against the dominant home side, some of which were – to use Stephen Warnock’s phrasing – sensational.
Arne Slot later described the 32-year-old as the best goalkeeper in the world, and it wasn’t just what the former Roma stopper did with his hands which underlined why he’s such a special player.
Alisson plays sumptuous long-range pass in lead-up to winning goal
In the 87th minute at the Parc des Princes, Alisson picked out Darwin Nunez with an inch-perfect 70-yard pass, and the Liverpool striker then did brilliantly to outmuscle Marquinhos in their duel.
Rather than shooting for goal, the Uruguayan picked out Harvey Elliott on the right, and the substitute – who had just come on for Mo Salah – dispatched it to the net to give the Reds an unlikely victory.
Alisson excels with his feet as well as his hands
Understandably it was Alisson’s saves which made the headlines last night, but the goalkeeper also showed that he’s excellent with the ball at his feet. Even Trent Alexander-Arnold would’ve been marvelling at that pass in the lead-up to the winning goal in Paris.
To pick out Nunez from such a vast distance and with just the right amount of pace on the ball to enable the Reds’ number 9 to control it so exquisitely is something that very few players could do, let alone ‘keepers, and the Uruguay striker also deserves credit for his hold-up play and decison-making to tee up Elliott to score.
Curiously, he’s actually had his lowest success rate for long-range passing for Liverpool this season (47.2%), which is well below his career average of 59.9% (FBref), but he showed at the Parc des Princes that he’s still well capable of picking out teammates from afar.
From Louvre-worthy passing to spectacular saves, Alisson put in a complete goalkeeping performance in a memorable European victory for LFC on Wednesday. He’s the world’s best in his position and we won’t hear any different!
You can view Alisson’s pass to Nunez below (from 3:04), via TNT Sports on YouTube:
