Arne Slot says avoiding Champions League play-off round more important than being top
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Liverpool manager Arne Slot was pleased with the quality and work rate of his players in the 2-1 Champions League win over Lille on Jan 21.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON – While Liverpool narrowly missed out on clinching top spot with a game to spare in the Champions League despite a 2-1 win over French side Lille
Liverpool’s victory guaranteed the English Premier League leaders a top-eight finish and a berth in the last 16, thus avoiding the two-legged knockout phase facing the teams who finish ninth to 24th.
Barcelona, who staged a dramatic 5-4 comeback win over Benfica with a stoppage-time goal by Raphinha, are snapping at Liverpool’s heels, three points behind with one round of the league phase to play.
“If in tennis you are the No. 1 seed, it is better to face the No. 24 than the 12, but it is a ranking based on years,” Slot said.
“Now we are in a new format when some teams are high in the league table because they had a lucky draw and some teams are low because they have a very difficult draw. It is far off to say it is an advantage to be one or two.
“You might be lucky, you might be very unlucky. For me, it doesn’t tell me anything. The most important thing is we managed to skip a round.”
Mohamed Salah scored his 50th European goal for Liverpool and substitute Harvey Elliott sealed the victory in the 67th minute at Anfield after Jonathan David had levelled for Lille.
The Reds set a club record for their longest spell without conceding a goal in European competition, with 599 minutes elapsing between Christian Pulisic’s goal for AC Milan in the opening game and David’s strike on Jan 21.
In between, Liverpool kept clean sheets against Bologna, RB Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen, Real Madrid and Girona, and topped the 572 minutes without conceding in the 2005-06 season under Rafael Benitez.
“Very pleased. Where I put everything down to, first of all, quality of the players and, second, these players have a quality work rate,” the 46-year-old Slot said.
“If you combine those two things, it is very difficult to score against the team. The nice thing for me is we keep clean sheets not by defending a lot, we keep clean sheets by attacking a lot.”
The Dutchman also added that patience was required against a Lille side who maintained their composure even after being reduced to 10 men in the second half, showing why they had been unbeaten in 21 successive games across all competitions.
“They don’t have the best players in the world (but) it is how disciplined they are, how hard they want to work. We didn’t force the pass, we kept the ball for as long as we could. The only thing I wasn’t happy about was it was one chance for the other team,” Slot said.
Lille coach Bruno Genesio said that while he was frustrated by the loss, “it’s a feeling that is mixed with pride as well. I think the display we put on, particularly the second half when we were one man down, I was pleased about.”
Lille’s Ligue 1 rivals AS Monaco fared better on Jan 21.
They ground out a 1-0 home win against Aston Villa in the Champions League, denying the Premier League side the chance to all but book their spot in the round of 16.
Wilfried Singo’s early header was the difference between the teams as Villa tasted defeat for the first time in six outings in all competitions.
Monaco, in 10th spot ahead of a round of fixtures on Jan 22, had won only two of their last 11 matches, including back-to-back defeats in the Champions League, but now have their eyes on securing automatic qualification.
The defeat dropped Villa from fifth to seventh provisionally. They can qualify automatically for the last-16 with a top-eight finish.
“It was my mistake when we played with two strikers because we lost positioning. We lost control of the game. We were very weak in the middle,” Villa boss Emery said.
“We were horrible in set pieces, we were horrible. We had seven corners and not one close to scoring.” REUTERS, AFP
