Liverpool earned a 3-0 victory over Marseille in the Champions League.
Arne Slot gave special praise for the performance of Joe Gomez in Liverpool’s victory over Marseille.
The centre-back was handed a rare opportunity in his favoured position amid the absence of Ibrahima Konate. Gomez has been a bit-part player this season, with Konate being the preferred defensive partner for Virgil van Dijk.
But with Konate absent because of a family reason, Gomez was given the nod. Liverpool’s longest-serving player was excellent as a 3-0 win in the Champions League was secured.
Marseille have scored more goals than any other team in Ligue 1 this season but the Reds delivered a fine defensive display. And speaking at his post-match press conference, Slot made sure that he lavished Gomez with compliments. The Liverpool head coach said: “The one I want to take out [and highlight] is Joe Gomez because he hasn't played a lot in the last one and a half years. He suffered sometimes from injuries, sometimes I didn’t play him when he was fit. A few times when he played were moments in League Cup and FA Cup. Tonight he had an outstanding performance with an important role in our 3-0.”
Dominik Szoboszlai gave Liverpool the lead in first-half stoppage-time with a clever free-kick that went under Marseille’s wall. After the interval, the Reds doubled the advantage when Jeremie Frimpong’s cross was inadvertently steered into his own goal by keeper Gerónimo Rulli. Then in stoppage-time, Cody Gakpo produced a composed finish off the bench.
The triumph moved Liverpool up to fourth in the Champions League table. A win over Qarabag next week at Anfield will ensure the Reds book their spot in the last 16 of the competitions.
Slot added: “You know it is always very difficult to play against Marseille because of the passionate fans they have and the quality of the players. What makes it even harder is they have such a good manager, who always lets his team play so well. We were prepared for that. I think in the first half you could see we took the ball three or four times off them in very promising situations, but we couldn't find the player that was completely free. We were in four versus three situations a few times and the one time we did find the player, it was fractionally offside.
“On the ball, I think we were controlled - although I maybe better not use that word because it has been [misinterpreted] a few times lately - but we could find players in between the lines, we could bring our attackers into promising positions. It took a while before we scored the second because I think we had chances earlier on to score the second. The thing that was different for the first time this season than all the other games was that the moment we were having a big chance to score the 2-0 that hit the post, 10 seconds later they had a big chance. Usually this season this ball goes in and we're all complaining, but now the ball went over, and we extended our lead to 2-0 and 3-0. The performance is still the same but the perspective of how people probably talk about us is completely different.”
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