7:53 p.m. local time, Tuesday evening at Anfield. The hour to sing Gerry and the Pacemakers’ “You’ll never walk alone”, the moment that people from Singapore, Hindustan and Los Angeles travel to the old English port city to experience, and they were not disappointed that evening either. The song is also sung movingly elsewhere, but it is at home here, the original can be heard here. The Bayer Leverkusen players also took note of it in the tunnel that leads onto the pitch.
This game was considered a definitive endurance test at Bayer, a class above the previous games won at Feyenoord Rotterdam and against AC Milan – as they say in Liverpool: “This is Anfield. This means more.” The test result after 90 plus three minutes was not good, Bayer only held out for an hour, then the German champions were more or less overrun by a professional Liverpool FC. The hosts ultimately celebrated a 4-0 win, perhaps a bit too high, but the unmistakable result also expressed the class difference that evening. Liverpool didn’t have to overexert themselves; for the English team it was their fourth win in their fourth Champions League game. Or as Leverkusen midfielder Granit Xhaka put it in a TV interview on Amazon Prime after the game: “You learn from the best.”
At half-time there was still cautious applause from the stands and confident chants from the Leverkusen block (“SVB rules here!”). The guests didn’t dominate, but they didn’t allow themselves to be dominated either. However, the latter was not necessarily in the interest of Arne Slot (celebrated as “Slot Machine” on LFC fans’ banners); he had prepared his team to wait and wait. Bayer was allowed to have the ball and move up and then make mistakes. But Bayer didn’t do the Dutch coach the favor.
Even Xabi Alonso had not programmed his team specifically for offense. Jeremy Frimpong was always on the move on the right wing, but he rarely got the opportunity to get started. Bayer preferred to protect with precautionary passes before launching an organized offensive. First of all, it was also about overcoming the shyness that befell one or two Bayer professionals in the face of Anfield. Florian Wirtz experienced a journey back in time to junior status during the first few minutes; it took a while until he found his first, energetic action.
With Exequiel Palacios and Aleix Garcia alongside Granit There were only a few hints of such scenes in the first half; the home team occasionally upset Jonathan Tah’s defense, but things rarely got really bad. Piero Hincapié dealt with Mo Salah, and he did it well; Alonso couldn’t have found anyone better for the job.
Florian Wirtz, the key figure in the offensive, tries a lot, but he seems to lack the courage
A shot from Cody Gakpo, which Lukas Hradecky routinely blocked shortly before half-time, was initially the most prominent goal scene. On the other side, Frimpong demanded a penalty after a duel with Virgil van Dijk, which Danny Makelie didn’t give – a Dutch episode on English turf.
But in the second half, Liverpool gradually got going, and under pressure, Bayer began to make mistakes and dangerous ball losses increased. The 1-0 by Luis Diaz had the corresponding background: Curtis Jones returned the ball in midfield with a brilliant through ball to the top, and the Colombian international remained as cool as Lieutenant Kojak when finishing (61′). Before Bayer 04 had collected themselves, Liverpool immediately made it 2-0. Cross from Salah, header from Gakpo (63′). That was almost the final stab in the back, even though Victor Boniface could have hit straight away.
However, there was no real rebellion from the guests, instead Diaz scored again to make it 3-0 (84th) – and finally to make it 4-0 in stoppage time. There was always a little too little of the possession football that made Bayer champions that evening. The otherwise powerful Boniface suffered from acute weakness in duels; Wirtz, the key figure in the offensive, tried a lot, but he succeeded in little. Often there was simply a lack of courage. He felt: This is Anfield.
