Liverpool fans praise summer signing after win over Marseille
Liverpool fans praise summer signing after win over Marseille
Liverpool fans heaped praise on Milos Kerkez for his performance during their UEFA Champions League clash with Marseille. The left-back delivered a solid performance as the Reds ran out 3-0 winners in France.
Hugo Ekitike thought he had given Liverpool the lead after 23 minutes, but his strike was chalked off for an offside in the buildup after a VAR review. While Marseille had most of the ball afterwards, it was Liverpool who found the breakthrough when Dominik Szoboszlai’s low free kick beat Geronimo Rulli on the stroke of half-time.
The hosts put on a much-improved performance after the break but found themselves down by two goals with 18 minutes left to play after Geronimo Rulli inadvertently turned the ball into his own net. Cody Gakpo sealed the win for the Reds with a clinical finish in the third minute of added time after being played in by Ryan Gravenberch.
Kerkez, who played the full 90 minutes, silenced his critics with a brilliant display on the night. The former Bournemouth man made four recoveries, won seven of ten duels, and received a match rating of 7.2, according to Sofascore. After the match, fans took to X to laud his showing, with one writing:
“Best game I've seen Kerkez play, he's been brilliant tonight #MARLIV.”
Another tweeted:
“This is the Kerkez I thought we were buying.”
A third added:
One remarked:
“How much Kerkez has improved over the last two months has gone under the radar massively, he’s been fantastic.”
“Give Kerkez his flowers today he’s been brilliant,” a fan chimed in.
“We had to be good today” – Arne Slot on Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Marseille
Liverpool boss Arne Slot said his team had to be at their best during their visit to Marseille and claimed they deserved their victory. However, he added that they weren’t clinical enough in the counterattack and didn’t create as many chances as they did in Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Burnley. He told TNT Sports post-match:
“It could have been a tricky place to go and it is because of their fans but also because of their players and manager. We had to be very good today and we were. We should have done better in the counter-attack. On the ball we were very positive again today but we generated less chances than Saturday. Now we scored three, then everyone probably is much more positive than when we create five times as much chances on Saturday but only scored one.
The Dutchman added:
“In the last 13 games unbeaten, we've only been 54 minutes behind. We had many earlier chances to win it today. Today, we probably deserve what we got. We weren't unlucky like we've been so many times this season.”
The Reds now sit fourth in the UCL standings and will face Qarabag in their final game of the league phase next Wednesday.