Liverpool went in at half-time against Bologna with a 1-0 lead in their Champions League clash on Wednesday night, but it was far from smooth sailing for the Reds.
After an excellent first 20-25 minutes during which Alexis Mac Allister scored, the home side lost their way at Anfield amid repeated instances of playing themselves into trouble with moments of sloppiness at the back.
Vinny O’Connor has been providing live updates on the match for Sky Sports and, after Dan Ndoye struck the crossbar for the visitors on the half-hour mark, the reporter warned that LFC were in danger of shooting themselves in the foot.
He posted (20:31): “Biggest threat to Liverpool at the moment is themselves. Playing out from the back giving it away and the deflected shot hits the bar. At the other end Nunez blazes over from the edge of the box. It’s little details at the moment that Arne Slot won’t be happy with.”
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There was indeed a 10-minute spell during the first half in which Liverpool were fortunate not to find themselves pegged back by Bologna.
Aside from that Ndoye shot off the bar, the Swiss forward had another effort shortly afterwards which struck the post, while Alisson Becker was also forced into a good save to deny Kacper Urbanski after Trent Alexander-Arnold had been pickpocketed on the right.
Those chances weren’t necessarily moments of brilliance from the visitors, but rather presented to them by unacceptable sloppiness from the Reds.
As O’Connor said, Slot can’t have been happy with how Liverpool went into kamikaze mode for a few minutes, and thankfully they got away with it by the interval. At the time of writing, LFC will need to tighten up on that casual nature if they’re to come away with victory tonight.
