JURGEN KLOPP'S Liverpool side recorded a 2-0 away win at the San Siro last night in the first leg of the Champions League despite being second best for large parts of the game.
Late goals from Roberto Firminho and Mohammed Salah have put the reds in the driving seat for the second leg at Anfield.
𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗜𝗡, 𝗥𝗘𝗗𝗦 🙌🔴
Taking a victory back to Anfield in the #UCL last-16 👊 pic.twitter.com/QkOwWROD6V— Liverpool FC (@LFC) February 16, 2022
Inter Milan's Ivan Perisic gave Trent Alexander-Arnold a torrid time down the left flank and got the better of the full-back on more than one occasion.
Richard Dunne and Brian Kerr were both analyzing the game for Virgin Media and broke down the 23-year-olds performance.
Dunne is well known to Irish fans for his resolute defending said that Inter Milan would have deliberately targeted the full-back before the game
He explained how Simone Inzaghi’s side saw the full-back as a weak link.
“For a team to target one of your players and one of your wings is unusual at this level,” the former Republic of Ireland defender said.
“Inter, straight from the start, they thought Ivan Perisic had the better of whoever it may be coming down that right-hand side, mostly Alexander-Arnold
“Literally everything at the start of the second half came down Inter’s left and Alexander-Arnold, each time he was caught out of position he was ball-watching.
“He was in when he should have been out, he was out when he should have been in. He was all over the place and the problem for Inter was that they lacked that quality with the final ball.
“He needs to be switched on a bit quicker, he could probably be a little bit more physical in his defending at times as well.”
Inter's final ball was lacking last night and Dunne felt that the Italian side lacked the extra quality
“It’s so obviously clear what Inter have done. He should have given himself an extra yard… If Inter’s final ball had a little bit more quality, they could have scored on numerous occasions.
A good night for Liverpool.
Not a great night for Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Richard Dunne looks at how Inter targeted the right-back here.#INTLIV #UCL pic.twitter.com/JlybLnkWwB— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) February 16, 2022
Despite the patchy performance Liverpool went onto to win 2-0
Brian Kerr sitting beside Dunne felt that Liverpool got away with it".
He said: "There was a fair bit of chaos in the match. Seemingly, Klopp likes organized chaos and they got away with it at times. Defensively, they were found wanting, particularly Trent Alexander Arnold, who Perisic had a field day for a lot of the match out there against him.
Liverpool will meet Inter Milan in the second leg in three weeks and should go through barring a collapse.
However their next game will be against minnows Norwich this Saturday and the week after they will play against Chelsea in the League Cup final.
