They say it’s the hope that kills you, but that’s not always strictly the case.
Sometimes, it’s Trent Alexander-Arnold. But mostly, on night’s such as these, it’s Mo Salah. Yes, Rangers may have crossed the border still high on the fumes of Brighton’s three-goal ram raid of the Kop at the weekend and fuelled by a misplaced belief that a petted-lipped, wobbly legged Liverpool might somehow be theirs for the taking.
But when reality knocked them back into their senses last night – and it didn’t take long – it was the Englishman and Egyptian who punched the stars into their eyes. It must be said, this hardly lived up to its Battle of Britain billing given Rangers were unable to fire a single shot on target until five minutes from time when subs Rabbi Matondo and Antonio Colak were denied in quick succession. By that point another three Group A points had been meekly surrendered.
The truth is, had it not been for the time-defying brilliance of Allan McGregor this latest loss would have been a great deal more savage. McGregor was the reason Rangers might even feel as if they got out of town with their dignity intact, despite hardly laying a glove of their own on the man at the other end of the pitch.
Which does beg a rather obvious question as to what on earth made Giovanni van Bronckhorst drop him to the bench for so long in the first place earlier this season? That’s starting to look like the unfathomable mistake many warned him it was from the moment it was made.
That it’s taken the manager this long to realise it, does not reflect well on his judgement, especially given the standard of McGregor’s work in back-to-back Champions League games. But there will also be questions asked of the Dutch gaffer’s approach to last night’s tie because he was tactically outmanoeuvred by Jurgen Klopp before a ball had even been kicked.
And, from that moment, the outcome was never in any kind of doubt. While van Bronckhorst rolled out a five-man defence, including teenager Leon King, Klopp tweaked his famous front three – by effectively making it a front four.
In came Luiz Diaz, Diogo Jota and record signing Darwin Nunez to team up with Salah in an ominous sign of Liverpool’s intent. Rangers found themselves pinned in and defending in numbers with Alfredo Morelos hopelessly isolated between the twin towers of Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip.
That the muscle of Morelos got the nod over Colak’s poaching instincts was another major decision and, on reflection, another one that did not work. The manager also deployed Ryan Kent and Malik Tillman on either flank in what he hoped might look like a three-pronged attack. That theory would soon become very different from the reality.
This was a counter attacking strategy which hinged entirely upon how much of the ball Rangers were able to get hold of. And how accurately and purposefully they could use it on whenever it did come into their possession.
But those moments were fleeting. And wasted. The rest of the time? It was an all-hands-on-deck defensive approach to shutting down space and relentlessly chasing after red shirts before they became shadows.
In other words, this quickly developed into an exhausting, lung burner of a shift for a group of players who had arrived on Merseyside nursing the scar tissue of beatings by Ajax and Napoli. And, evidently, Liverpool were in the mood to pile on the pain.
Klopp’s top-heavy attack came swarming at them from the opening seconds and from every conceivable angle. McGregor was forced into action after only two minutes when he kept out a stinging effort from Nunez.
At that moment the veteran might have been wondering about the wisdom of playing in a young man’s game. He most certainly would have been five minutes later when his old bones landed in a heap after he had clawed at thin air in the hope of reaching Alexander-Arnold’s magnificently struck opener.
Because at that point, it did appear as if he might be onto the hiding of his long career. And yet we should know him better by now.
He would make a total of six first-half saves and the pick of them – in 14 minutes – stopped Salah from opening the floodgates when he finger-tipped a trademark curler around his right-hand post. Had that gone in, Rangers might have crumbled.
Instead, they regrouped, reorganised and began to neutralise Liverpool’s forward surges. For a while, at least. It was only towards half-time that McGregor found himself back in the firing line when he kept out another three Nunez efforts as well as one from Luis Diaz.
That Rangers made it inside at the break trailing by only one goal was almost exclusively down to the yellow-shirted miracle worker pacing around inside his six-yard box, with an increasingly manic stare behind wide, bulging eyes. But not even McGregor could find a way of denying Salah when he was presented with his big opportunity from the penalty spot, after King had been lured into wrapping a leg around Diaz as the Colombian burst into the Rangers box.
McGregor might have saved two penalties against Napoli but Salah wasn’t about to afford him that chance again. Instead, he faked to fire one to the keeper’s left before calmly clipping the ball straight down the middle. And that was that. This contest – as much as it could be called a contest – was done and dusted.
Yes, Matondo had one cleared off the line at the end – when he ought to have squared to Colak for a tap in. And, from the corner, the Croatian finally forced Alisson Becker into a point-blank save.
But McGregor stole the show with one stunning second-half save from Jota and another at the death to keep out Salah. Of course, it might be a different story at Ibrox next week, but McGregor can’t win these fights all on his own.
