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Like you know to check you have the tickets in you while at first, before you drive two hours to the big game. Seriously, you had one job. Now the closest you'll get to the 50-yard line is parking lot D. Yeah, checking first is smart. So check Allstate First for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Savings vary. Terms apply. Allstate Fire & Casualty Insurance Company & Affiliates. Northbrook, Illinois. Oh, hello, good evening. Welcome to the Talking Cop. It's time for a full-time match reaction. I'm your host, Matt. I'm joined by Kev. I'm joined by Ashley. It is finished at the San Siro Liverpool 3 AC Milan 1. Our perfect record at the glorious old stadium in Milan continues four appearances for Liverpool, four wins for Liverpool. Ashley, somebody there in the chat said, "Karen B says that game is exactly what the doctor ordered after Saturday vs. Forrest and isn't that exactly correct?" Yeah, happy birthday present to Swat. I think that was exactly the kind of reaction that we were looking for and absolutely needed. And we played really well tonight. I'm pleased with that. Yeah. It started a little shaky, Kev, but we settled into it and we saw a much better response to going a goal behind, didn't we? Oh, look. That was really good. I mean, there were patches in that first half where we were absolutely outstanding. Really, really were. But for the first five minutes, look, their goal was an absolute minefield of mistakes. Like that, out of it, everyone played really well. Everybody played well. The press was unbelievable. The organization in the press, by forcing them to play into areas we wanted them to play into and then pouncing. It was reminiscent of everything good that we saw over the last few years and they were really solid in the tackle. Everything, I loved that almost all of it, but everything about that performance, almost everything. Yeah. It's much easier to do in shows after performances like that than one on Saturday. Just in response to Avo asking, this is actually a 125 year anniversary Liverpool scarf. It is not a Milan scarf. That would be absolutely sacrilegious. Come on. You know me better than that, Avo. You know me better than that. Actually, let's get right into it because if people don't know, we've got a members only call in show coming up afterwards. It's a first time that we're going to try it on the channel. If you're a member and you want to call in afterwards, Gav's going to do a show immediately following this one. We're going to be quicker than we normally are, it's easier for me to say than to actually pull off. Actually, the lineups come out. We get two changes. We get semi-cast coming in for Robertson. We get Gakko in for Luis Diaz. A couple of changes, not a ton of changes. How did you feel about it? I think a lot of people were a little bit nervous about semi-cast, and I think after about five minutes, we all kind of felt like that was a justified nervousness, but I mean Cody Gakko, he came in and really, really impressed me today. I don't know about you guys, but he was one of the top performers. I mean, they all performed really well, but I was impressed with him. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Chris Brack saying sorry is not on tonight, but he did call the 3-1 win. Yeah, he's got an unwell youngster there at home, so you've got to do what's important, Chris, and get your kid feeling a little bit better about it. I mean, Chad, we'll just get right into the nitty gritty of it, Ashley mentioned it. He's obviously not the biggest, we're not the biggest fans, of course, the semi-cast, but I mean, good God, three minutes in, they score, and there were a few players who you could lay some fault at on it, but the first one that jumped out to me was semi-cast on that, because it was the same thing that he did against Adelan to last year at home, where he just brain-dead chasing a ball down that he was never going to get, and the space that they had on the right side was ridiculous. Cost us was bad, Virgil was worse. I didn't even see where Virgil was on the replay, so. Yeah, Virgil was way worse, because he left Kanate out to dry. Cody went first, Cody went to their centre-back, the ball went to their over, over the top. Cost us went, and he was never going to get there. Then Virgil went, and left Kanate out to dry. Kanate forced Punasic to go wide and go wide and go wide, blocked off the d-angle to further the cut-back. Forced Punasic to take the shot, Alison should do better. I'm sorry, that's a really, really acute angle. You should not be beaten as a top-class goalkeeper from that angle. But as bad as Cost us mistake was, Virgil's mistake was way worse, because he could see it unfolding. He could see the danger, he could see where the danger was going to be. He knows Christian Punasic, he's come up against him before, and Cost us the easy one to kick, but Virgil for me was atrocious in that moment. His decision-making to come out for that was ridiculous. And someone with his experience and knowledge and ability should not be made. Yeah, I'm not quite as skilled as you are, so I'm going to go with the easy kick and still pile in on some cast, because it's just, I've seen it too many times before, it's, I think it's his biggest Achilles heel that he just, he's like a dog with a scent, and he's just like, "I'm going for that ball," and he's like, "You're never, ever going to get there." I mean, Ashley, you can have some thoughts on the goal if you want, but we'll move it along, because like I said, time frames, time frames. They had the run of the game for probably the first 10 or 15 minutes until we truly settled into it. Yeah, yeah, and I, the nerves were there. I was, I was real worried that we were going to have this whole kind of avalanche of people coming on after the game, saying, "Oh, we lost it at Forest, and now we've thrown it away at 10-0," and I had all the narratives playing out in my head. And I am so glad that we were able to compose ourselves, because that was a big question. Like, how does the team respond? If they do go down by a goal, like, how do they respond a second time? Because, because this past weekend, it wasn't great, but this was a much better response. Yeah, and I mean, in the 16th minute, we get Mo Salah's first Darwin Nunes impersonation, where Mo hits the bar. I mean, it was a great pass from Jada into Mo, right footed shot. It beat mainland with pace, no problem, but ricochets off the bar. And then Simic has had a good cross after that. Gackpow had a lovely back heel to play him in on the overlap, and I mean, Cody Gackpow, we can wax their goal about him. But we end up, uh, Calabria gets a yellow card for sliding in on Gackpow, and we get a free kick on the left-hand side, a couple yards in, a couple yards out of the box. And I mean, actually, the defending from A.C. Milan for this goal is so bad, and it's lovely to see Ibupanate get that, because it's been a while since he scored a goal. Since 2022, was his last goal? Yeah, yes. So he was, he was due, you could say, over two years since he scored a goal. And, uh, and Kieran B here says, you know, Kanate had another solid game. Him and Virgil, both 6 foot 5, need to be scoring more regular corners. And we see that today, but, like, a lovely flighted delivery from Trent and powered home by Kanate. And just, just what we needed, wasn't it? Absolutely. And like Trent has that ability to deliver those corners, which is why it's so frustrating when he's just slightly off. And obviously, it's an elite sport and, you know, slightly tweaking it one way or the other can make it look really stupid. But when he gets it right, it looks like he's serving it up on a silver platter, and that's what he was doing tonight. Yeah, it was, uh, it was, uh, it was a lovely finish, wasn't it, Kev? I mean, it's, we've seen, it wasn't, this wasn't exactly a corner. And when we get onto the second goal, it'll be the corner. But I know you've noticed it as well, as I'm sure all of us watching the matches, certainly us doing the post matches, that we seem to have completely changed up our strategy, at least in the first hats on corner kicks. It's in swinging balls, and we put the center halves on the goalkeepers, and we crowd them out. And we haven't seen anything off until today. Yeah, I mean, look, that first, our first goal was really basic. You know, from a Liverpool point of view, it was a float across, and a center back who runs gets a good leap, nods at it. It's as basic a goal as you're, you're ever likely to see. It was badly needed because we were really dominant. And at that point, and we needed to score while we were on top, you know, because if we didn't push our advantage home, then, then there's that kicking in for me. You know, I thought we controlled the game after they scored. We pretty much controlled it. Bare a couple of balls through our midfield did really well. But from a land point of view, Mike Manjan must be absolutely fuming that nobody saw the big, the big huge center back. And thought, you know what, I'm going to stop him running. Yeah, that's all he did. He got, he got about three steps and a leap, but that was enough. Yeah, you ever watched someone take like it when you watched basketball, three steps and slant, that was it. It was literally that. And, you know, it was like Shaq coming in, you know, you ain't stopping the guy, you know, and I'd love to see more of it. I honestly think that our set pieces really do need to improve because with the quality of delivery that we have within the squad, be it Trent, Robertson, Simeka, stomach sabbas, like, you know, there's four players that are three of them are almost always going to be on the pitch. And we've got big, tall players, you know, we're really generally are a physically big, powerful side. We don't score enough set pieces. If we should have a lot more balls than what he has. And it was exactly what we needed. And, you know, it wasn't a case of deep breath. And right, let's just relax down and see how the game pans out. Wasn't it was straight back on the front foot and go again, get the lead. And just it was that's how the momentum really kept going up until halfway through the second app. We just kept we were on it and forcing the game and wanting to play on our pace and our terms. And Milan just couldn't live with us in the end. Yeah, yeah, there's a couple comments about exactly that. Zane Hanif here says, I think we started slow, in my opinion, but grew into the game and then dominated thereafter. And Karen B said, we look super fast compared to Milan. The Italian League is slow can't handle Premier League teams. And I mean, you kind of see that with the number of like, you know, players that didn't pan out at Chelsea that are doing pretty well for AC Milan. And actually, all across the Italian League, it's like a semi-retirement home for players that couldn't quite handle it in the Premier League. And they seem to do quite well with it. But I mean, Ashley, the pace of that, and it comes down to the press and you had, you got some stats here for us about grab and birch making 600 sections against Milan, the most by Liverpool player in a Champions League match since Trent against Man City in April 2018 on it. But the whole midfield, and I missed the comment, I missed saving it from earlier. Somebody said like, our midfield three were were excellent today. And they dominated. And shortly after the goal, I mean, there's a turnover in the midfield, McAllister, lovely little layoff to Jada. He goes near post with it. Probably should score, shouldn't he? I mean, there's so many times over the course of this game that we probably should have scored. I mean, it's like five minutes later that Salah hits the bar again, isn't it? Yeah. We were peppering them with balls toward their goal at that point. And it was great. It was great to see them like going for the throat. That's what we were looking for. We were in the chat saying, you know, using the dominance, like, well, we're on top, like actually, you know, steal the deal kind of thing. And we did. And that was that was so refreshing. It was so refreshing to be able to kind of like enjoy the rest of the game after that point. Yeah, it's settled back into the pattern that we saw in the first three games of when we were on top, we just kind of started to suffocate them. And I mean, before we get on to the second goal, Kemp, I got to, I got to point out, I mean, Trent Alexander Arnold against Raphael layout before the match. To me, that was one of the key 1v1 matchups because Raphael is a player, like, and you saw it with the one, the one first he had in the second half where he made two or three players miss before you could not take him back and save the day for us. But I thought Trent did excellent against layout pretty much the whole night. I don't know really layout had up on toast once, but we get, we get a corner. And I mean, this one is Cus the Simicass's redemption arc because for as much as I and many other people will malign his inability to defend or his ability to just absolutely suffocate our build up plate with when the ball comes to him at his feet. The boys got some delivery on him. And I mean, for as routine as the first goal was, I think the second goal was even more schoolboy, like, if you're a Milan fan, you have to be tearing your hair out at that because that defending was that from Milan. When you look at it from, I mean, the ball that came in was absolutely perfect. It was there to be one. If when you get a chance to watch the replay of it, watch Ruben off the cheek, he's literally looking at the ball all the way along. Vergil goes back, pushes landers out the way, comes around the keeper, holds off Pavlovitch to stop him from getting back. All the while, Ruben off the cheek is in arm's length away, watching it, and he's just like, "Oh my God, there's big birds. Oof, bad goal." You know, it was shocking to think, but it was brilliant movement from Van Dyke. Just to step back, riders get out of the way, whole Pavlovitch, not a ball in. It was so subtle, so clinical, but it was all about the delivery and the movement. It was really routine. It was really simple, and it was executed perfectly. Yeah, I mean, like I said, casters will get sticked for the goal, absolutely. He had 92% passing accuracy. He got forward more than anyone else. He had three recoveries, an interception, all in all, other than his cock up for the first five minutes. He had a good game. If anything, he could have put a ball in the net. He could have had a hat for it today. Well, it's he could be on the right foot, but it's not just him. It's crazy how often our left backs, because Trent never gets in those positions from the right because he talks into midfield, but it is crazy to me how many times you see Robertson and Simikas in those positions, and it's not just the last four games. It's it's over the last three. It's over the last three years. If either of them could score half of the chances, a quarter of the chances that they get over a season combined, they're being double figures for goals. No doubt in my mind, you know, it's mental, but he's got the engine to keep going and keep putting himself in there. And overall, I thought he had a really good night. Bared the first five minutes, but he's recovering from that first five minutes. Can't fault them, man. Yeah. It's easy for him to go into a shell at that at that rate, and he didn't. Yeah, I think that's that's only fair to point out and say that they, you know, that Simikas responded from that. There was another one where Milan hooked the ball high across the field, where he had an easy header to send Gacko in, and he just played it out for a free kick. But at that point, I was, I was still a little salty about him for the goal that we conceded, but Emmett was questioning me about the layout made his run on 47 minutes and Kanate was, he's so much faster than I think a lot of us give him credit for because of the size of him. Like he's such a physical specimen, but he's got so much speed and he was ahead of layout shoulder to shoulder. And not only have we got to give Simikas his flowers, actually, I thought the referee tonight was pretty much excellent. When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping Kroger for thousands of appetizing ingredients that inspire countless mouthwatering meals. And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices plus extra ways to save, like digital coupons worth over $600 each week and up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with points. So you can get big flavors and big savings Kroger fresh for everyone fuel restrictions apply. Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my hundreds mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no. Honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month. How are there still people paying two or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at midmobile.com/save whenever you're ready. $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speed slower above 40 gigabytes of CDTails. Ah, such a clutch off-season pickup Dave. I was worried we'd be bringing back the same team. I meant those blackout motorized shades. Blinds.com made it crazy affordable to replace our old blinds. Hard to install? No, it was easy. I installed these and then got some from my mom. She talked to a design consultant for free and scheduled a professional measure and install. Hall of Fame Sun. They're the number one online retailer of custom window coverings in the world. Blinds.com is the goat. Shopline.com's prime time kickoff event save up to 50% off-select styles plus doorbusters. Rules and restrictions may apply. He was great. I think that was his fifth performance in the Champions League overall. That was like the fifth time he's ever refereed at that level. And I mean between the calls that he made, I think the yellows were consistent on both sides. I think he definitely had a few advantage plays that I was really impressed with. He didn't buy any of Maratha's shit because he was going down like a sack of flour. I don't know what you want to call him, but he was trying to buy everything. He was trying to get Virgil sent off. He was trying to buy a penalty for nothing. So yeah, I think, you know, it's not very often we get to give a referee his flour, but he did really well. Yeah. Yeah, Kate, Fagan, and Karen be agreeing with that there. At least on my feet, they pointed out that I think he was 37 or 36 years old or something like that. He could have a big future in refereeing European matches because you're not going to see a Norwegian team in the later stages of these competitions anytime soon. So I mean, yeah, good on them, good on them. And Kev, we get into halftime and that's a good halftime. That's a good halftime field, I think. You go down early, you don't like conceding a goal, but a great response from the team. And then from from about 10, 12 minutes on to the halftime whistle, we had kind of dominated the game. I don't know if Milan had even an attempt. Alison had one save to make. He made one save from a shot inside the box in the whole game. They had shots in the second half. They had one effort in the first half in total that they scored from. And in the second half, look, they threw the kitchen sink at it, but, you know, between players getting in blocks and interceptions and forcing bad shots, you know, they we defended brilliantly in the main. There was a couple of times where Leo got in. I think grab and birds made a brilliant cover tackle in the second half. I love the celebration that they they did afterwards. Yeah, like the defenders, that was great. Yeah, I put two stars beside that one so that we didn't forget. I was in the 73rd minute. It was that's the sort of stuff that for a player that's learning a new position and we're trying to mold him into our number six. That is exactly what we want to see out of Minecraft. It's not so much making the tackle. Making the tackle is one thing. That's fine. It's sensing the danger that it might happen. You know, that was that was to me was exactly what you want to see. He did sense danger. I said, look, he was really, really good tonight. You know, we did. It's one thing I noticed throughout the whole game. We didn't really try to force it too much through the middle. You could see how narrow they were and we tried a couple of times. One time Virgil in the first half made a really lazy pass into midfield, into the middle. Yeah, yeah, it got cut out and we defended it well over. But other than that, the switch was on all night long. And either Virgil was trying it. Dominic Sebastian, I tried it a few times Trent tried it a fair few times as well. And for once it was nice to see us open the pitch wide, you know, and Gacko hugged the sideline. Salah hugged the side. Salah will play a dozen games this season a lot worse than this and he'll come away with a brace or hatchet. Yeah. You know, I thought tonight for 70 minutes of that game tonight, he was absolutely brilliant. He was on play a bit. I made no mistake. Thiornanda's, I said it last night in the show, Thiornanda's is the best left back in the world. And I'm not having any debate on it. He's without doubt the best set left back in the world. Watch him for France, watch him for his previous clubs and watch him as he develops with Milan. The link up play between Thiornanda's and Raphael is a threat to anybody in the world game. And I thought we handled that so well. We sniffed out the danger. Canate it. Canate it tonight was ridiculous. Yeah, monster. It was an absolute monster. I thought overall defensively tonight is like, right, that's the blueprint. That's the blueprint for the rest of the season. No more bullshit, no more family blowing around. That's how you want to defend for the rest of the season. No messing. Yeah. And it goes along with everybody's concerns about Canate. It's never been a skill thing since he's come into Liverpool. It's always been a fitness thing. But Ashley, just to break away from my strict chronological order that I like to stick to it and go with what Kev was saying there about, about Thiornanda's because he is like, he's unquestionably one of the best. I think you could have some debate. I mean, maybe if we wanted to, somebody here was asking, oh, scouts repeat was wondering where grumpy Kev is gone and what I've done with them. It's nothing to do with me. It's all about the Reds. It's Chris. Chris is Chris. So I'm having a night off. That's right. Yeah, it's not me. It's bracky that that brings the grumpy Kev up. But actually, you know, Kev's mentioning that that left hand side of theirs with with Thiornanda's and Rafael lay out and whoever's the left sided midfield player for them is there strength. But there was really nothing that came from that. And I think a lot of credit has to go to our players on that right hand side, whether it's Trent Alexander Arnold, who I thought did well one we won against lay out. Dominic Zabazlai, who Emmett Holyberg, the second points out, that's his man of the match because he ran over every blade of grass sport and kept his moving forward. But the one I would like to have you speak on actually is I feel like Mo Salah is putting in a lot more of a defensive shift for this team. I think that's what slot demands. I think there was a quote from him earlier this season. I don't know if it was from him or from one of the players, but it basically said if you don't track back, you don't play in a slot system. And I don't think that slot would threaten that and not follow through. I think he would because you saw it with Nunez too. I mean, there was there was one time toward the end of the game where Nunez made a fantastic tackle. Yeah, oh, 20 yards out. Yeah, it was fantastic. And and that's what's keeping us safe because when we do bomb forward like last season, we would have seen those players staying up toward the top of the pitch. And now we have them coming back and we have this insurance policy and they are working so hard to do that press. I mean, it's it's like night and day to what we were seeing last year where they were cutting like teams were cutting through us like a hot night through butter. And yeah, I agree. I think Mo Salah is definitely putting in the yards and showing that he still has the fitness, which I mean is incredible for his age. And he is he is like the peak of fitness. It's amazing. Yeah, I mean, let's let's not pretend we haven't seen the pictures of him without a shirt off. Well, let's be serious. I mean, Jerry Tan echoing the same saying trends that a massive start to the season offensively and defensively. Sam Tandy says we've actually defended brilliantly every game so far just our attacking play overall was very sluggish against fours, which can happen. I just hope we Nick them kind of games one nil rather than losing them, which is which is correct. I mean, at halftime, there are no changes. And there are also no changes in terms of our charities answering that we're doing this year, which is the Lighthouse Cafe and Dublin and fans supporting food banks and Liverpool. If you follow the channel at all, you know that this is what we're we're here for. We're here to talk about Liverpool and raise money for charities. So we've we've got our ongoing campaign going. The link will always be in the description, whether it's on a podcast or whether it's on YouTube or any of the talking pop social media. Please if you can donate, please help us get to our fundraising targets for these two wonderful, wonderful charities that are doing great work for some of the most at risk people in the communities and go Dublin and in Liverpool. And we can get on with that. But there were no changes made it have. And I don't know why Paulo Fonseca didn't realize that his goalkeeper wasn't going to be able to continue. Because I think it was under a high cross, maybe from even Kanate's goal, where it looked like he went down heavy on his left ankle. But you watch them coming up the stairs at because I showed the young kid warming up the young goalkeeper who ended up coming on, they showed him warming up and I thought, Oh, okay, man, yeah, it's not going to be coming out. And then the Milan team came out and he wasn't with them. And I thought, okay, that's it. And then he came out on his own. And he was limping coming up the stairs. But then he makes a great save and has to go on. Yeah, I think they want to do everything possible to keep him on the pitch. I mean, Mike Manjan is a top top keeper. And you could see the difference. It was a narrative, not only an experience in the fact that the kid is 19 years of age. For a modern young, young keeper, he's not very good but the border is free. And the way they play around the back, they do an awful lot through the keeper. So I think you wanted to do everything humanly possible to keep Manjan on the pitch. And I think if I even think if it wasn't for that shot save from Jota, because Jota went in, it wasn't his fault. It was just his follow through in the shot, Lando and his knee. And he cut his, he actually cut his thigh as he wasn't for that. I still think he'd have stayed on. I think he'd have done everything humanly possible to keep him on the pitch. But it was, we started the second half and it was more of the same. You know, the press forcing them into areas in midfield. The press that came from midfield was brilliant. And it was like everyone, everyone came in. There was one bit in the second half. I think it was early on where Canate charged it and won the ball in midfield from, I think it was a ball from their left back into the high ball into Reinders. And Canate came in over the top of it. And I was like, I was loving it. I was loving that aggressive nature. We haven't really given license to charge into the field and cut the ball out. Yeah, I mean, the thing, the flip side is what happened early doors and the way we conceded that goal, the gaps are too big. But if you get it wrong, that's what can happen. You are taking a huge risk, but the reward is you're winning the ball high up the pitch and you can really go after them and really get at them. And it will pay off over the season, I'm sure. You know, yeah, we will probably concede a few goals here and there by doing it. But over the course and distance of a long season, I think we will score a lot more than we concede by doing it. But I love that pattern again. Absolutely love it. Yeah, it's something that I've picked out in the first four games before this one that it really seems like they've got that that slots given them that license to just. One thing on Mo Salah, to Edis to Ashley's point about his tracking back, Mo Salah won six out of seven ground drills tonight. So it's not clear when he tracks back and he's tracking back to just show. Yeah, I look at me. I'm coming back. Aren't I a great team there? He's effective when he does it and be that up higher at the pitch when he's pressing or when he comes back to try to neaten the ball and get the ball off on the counter. It's it's that unselfish work that he does. And when he comes back, he's effective when he does it. So la mea continue. Yeah, well, I mean preaching to the choir on that cab, obviously, obviously. I actually, we get around the 60 minute mark. It felt like the game was getting a little sloppy around 62 minutes. It seems like both teams were having a competition to who could have the most dangerous giveaway in midfield. Teo Hernandez, Kev's undisputed number one best left back in the world, who's in a great last ditch interception to keep Mo Salah from going out on a breakaway. And then Alexis McAllister puts a lovely bow into Salbas like he keeps it alive after a save by Toriani tees it up to the exact last player you want getting the ball in the box, which just costs a semi-cast. And people ask well, well, why? But then we get the third goal and a player who deserves some time to be talked about. And that's Cody Gackho does all the hard work to set up that third goal, doesn't it? Yeah, I mean, sorry, Kev, you go ahead. No, no, you go, you go, you go. Okay. Um, I mean, now that could have been like a goal of the season contender if he had finished that off because he was holding off players left, right and center. And how timely was it for Salbas like to finish that goal off after slot kind of singled him out in his press conference asking him to score more goals. So it was, it was genuinely like a really perfect combination. And it was just like, I'm so happy to see Gackho get that chance to succeed. Like I said earlier, like he was, he was just incredibly eye-catching today. And I think this past weekend, we talked endlessly about like, what are these subs going to do without rhythm? And I, you know, I'm going to hold my hands up and say, you know, he looked like he had rhythm. He looked fantastic. Yeah, you really did. And I mean, you had put some of the stats up here for us. I mean, 18 to 22 passing 82%, two chances created, one big chance created and assist three shots more than Milan had in the entire game, four out of seven dribbles, six out of 10 ground duels. I mean, Kev, there's another one, six out of 10 ground duels from our left winger. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he showed it last season that he could play in midfield. You know, he's just a really good footballer first and foremost. He can play through the middle. I had him last time when we were picking our starting 11, I had him playing through the middle, you know, but he needed to play first and foremost. But there was a part in that goal where he slowed the centre back up to go past it. It was outrageous. It's a skill in itself that you don't. It's an old school winger trick that really quick wingers used to do, you know, where they slow them up, slow them up and then go again. Just wrong foots a big centre half. And there's nothing, there's nothing they can do about it. And the pace that the cross came came at just made the finish. Priscilla is like a simple one, you know, all he had to do was guide us. And he did. And it was a deserved goal. It was a really good break that initially, I think started with grab and birch, not taking the soft, easy decision to go backwards, but take the ball under pressure and play forwards. And Gatto made a brilliant run cross and finish. And 3-1, it was game over for me at that point. Yeah. It would be remiss of me not to mention, because I put it in and started in my notes that the third goal came from the work of Ryan Grabber. Again, another one of his interceptions. It was a four pass by Milan in the midfield, but Grabber gets the ball. He immediately plays it to Saba Sly who plays his pass out the gakpo and then the ball ends up in the back of the net. And it's just it's so heartening, so heartening for the soul to see Ryan Grabber do that because honest, I'll hold my hand up and say after watching him last season, I didn't think he had that in his locker. And he's, he's just showing so much growth under that. And it's lovely to see that with a little bit of confidence from the coaching staff from Arnes Lot to say, you know, here's the keys. You go out and drive that he is, he's driving like a Formula One driver in that sixth position so far. I mean, actually after that, it becomes until about the last five minutes or so where it's a little harem scarum in Milan seemed to be kind of throwing the kitchen sink at it. But it was fairly controlled after that, wasn't it, Ashley? Yeah, I mean, it was definitely a case of like them coming at us just trying to claw something back. But I really appreciated how we would recycle the ball and kind of take the pressure off. And we weren't, we weren't doing anything stupid, which in years past we might have done. And we were just kind of letting them have the ball in areas that weren't really dangerous. And you saw a few goals or not goals, but a few shots go wide and post. I think the only dangerous thing was at the very end. And I would have loved to see a replay was that I think saved from Ali off of that Leo shot at the very, very end. They said it went off the bar, but I'm pretty sure Alison got a touch on it at like 96 minutes. But that, that was their most dangerous moment. Otherwise, I think we had them kind of at arm's length the whole time. Traveling to see your fav sports team is cool. But traveling with Amex Platinum for the big game is even better. Right this way. With access to dedicated card member entrances at select events, you can skip the line. There's one. And with access to the centurion lounge, it shoots a three. You can catch the next game on the way home. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms apply. Learn more at americanexpress.com/with Amex. Card member entrance access not limited to Amex Platinum card. Hey Fidelity. How can I remember to invest every month? With the Fidelity app, you can choose a schedule and set up recurring investments in stocks and ETFs. Oh, that sounds easier than I thought. You got this. Yeah, I do. Now, where did I put my keys? You will find them where you left them. Investing involves risk, including risk of loss, Fidelity brokerage services LLC member NYSE SIPC. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how you felt about the end of the game, but it's taken me a couple of games. I mean, obviously forest was an outlier because we were losing and chasing the game in one of the strangest manners possible. But in the other three league games, just this we've got the lead. We don't need to do anything. I'm getting kind of used to it. I think I can be okay with it. It allows me to get my thoughts in line for doing a show afterwards. Like, it's not like this anything can happen in the last 10 minutes of a match. No, I missed the last minute, so I didn't see that. But it was, look, the forest game aside, because that I'll still never understand that version of a back three. But in general, we've tried to play as much controlled game as possible. I think at times, we can be guilty of forcing the ball through midfield when it's not on. But tonight, I think, was a classic case of the opposite. You increase the quality of the opposition. You raise your game to that. And we did tonight. We had to get the forest result and performance out of our skin and out of our system. Players will probably have a day off tomorrow, back in Thursday for preparation for Bournemouth on Saturday. And it's literally just go, go, go. And you know what, on that point, I'm glad we use subs. I'm glad he pulled some subs in. Like, I know that we only saw Endo and Kia's at the very end, but I'm glad that he rotated because I was worried that he was going to stay kind of true to his word and not too many changes this game. So I'm glad he rotated from the start. And I'm glad he put players in that haven't even seen minutes. Like Joe Gomez got some time. And I'm happy to see that. Yeah, yeah, it was nice to see Gomez get his first minutes of the season. It was obviously nice to see Kia's to get his first run out for Liverpool. I was kind of hoping that he wouldn't touch the ball. And then in his next appearance score with his first touch, so it would be some weird statistical anomaly where he scored with his first touch, but in his second appearance. But I'm going to come to both of you on Man of the Match. But before that, I'm going to zip through some of the post match comments that Ashley's gotten up here for us. Because like I said, we got Gav doing a members only call in show. I'm not sure if it's a members only show. Yeah. Okay. So if you're a member and you want to have your two cents on the match, about five, 10 minutes or so, Gav will be coming back on the channel to do a call and show. Please don't be afraid. If you want to put on a costume, you know, a funny wig or something like that, it's all well and good. But let's get through some of these comments here. Virgil Van Dyke says, I'm very pleased with the win. I'm pleased how we bounce back after a difficult start and a disappointment at the weekend. We put in a good performance with him without the ball. Goes on to say about him and Kanate, when there's a set piece, we try to be important. The delivery was special. Yeah. No doubt. And on Kiazaa Van Dyke says, so far what I have seen, a very good boy, a very good player. He wants to fight for the club. He will get his chances and be important. I'm very happy he made his debut. Arnis lot on Ryan Grabenberg says he took the occasion of playing at a stadium that's had some unbelievable Dutch midfielders. He played an unbelievable game. On the San Zero itself, Arnis says, many great Dutch players played here to win it like we did on my first Champions League night with Liverpool is a memory I will take home. Of course he will. Slock goes on to say, I like how they played more than the way they sang for me. Yeah, that's good. He says, I think we were a bit disappointed with the forest result and then getting eight corners and not scoring. We felt with all the work we put in for set pieces, someone would get their reward. We were comfortable on the ball, hit the bar in open place. So we needed set pieces and he finishes up saying, I was standing next to Seidor and he asked about Grabenberg and Gackpo. You can pick these two, but plenty of the others played well too, which I didn't even plan it that way, but what a segue into asking the man of the match. Ashley, who is man of the match? Oh, I think it's a toss up between two and it's they're both Dutch players. So I'm going to take Grabenberg. I think he really is starting to establish himself. I think if he was signed this summer and I've set it before, we would be absolutely raving about him. Everyone would be raving about her. Across the league, across the Champions League coverage, everyone would be raving about him. And I'm glad that we had him to nurture him and kind of like drip bait him in last season, but to see him get this chance to actually settle into the sixth role, he's just thriving. And I'm so happy for him. Keb, what about you? Kaid Fagan agrees with Grabenberg? Yeah, I wouldn't argue with Grabenberg. So I'll tell you as a man of the match comfortably. Honorable mention for me would be able to answer. Genuinely, I thought that was probably one of the best performances he's put in a Liverpool shirt in a long time. Defensively, everything you want in a center half commanding, quick, decisive, good decision making. So overall, we're really, really good. I understand the goals for Gack, but I think the only thing I'd say about Gack, but there was one in the second half, where he forced a good save on a manion. But that's a shot I expect him to hit the salud netting with. I expect him to score because that's his spot. And it just wasn't, it was too close to the keeper. You nitpicking. Overall, he had a really, really good night, a really good night for his first star. Yeah, really, really good. But there was a lot of good performances tonight, it really was. Yeah, Emmett Huyberg, the second says, subble, subble, subble, so sweaty, which is, which is absolutely great. Sam Tandy wants to give the man of the match to Endo, just for rattling Tammy Abraham over absolutely. I don't know what that was about. I mean, if you want to, if you want to pick a fight with somebody, don't fight the guy that's wearing a mouth guard. I mean, out of all the people, that's probably the last guy. I'm not going to be afraid to get punched. No, exactly. I really wish, I really wish Endo was wearing his big Japan mouth guard and literally just smiled. That's all I wanted to see. I was like, big cheesy grin with a big red dot in the middle of it. Yeah. Scouser Pete gives man of the match to Kenny Cunningham for his brilliant analysis, saying grab first. Nothing couldn't play through the role. Gavin Walsh, Grabenberg's going to need a bigger cabinet for a man of the match awards the way that he's going. Sam Tandy, man of the match to Grabenberg. Archie Doulan is agreeing with you, Kev, for Ibu Kanate, Avo, couple of days after his birthday, Salbasire Gacko for me, Andrea Gilea, Kanate, it seems to be those three. I personally would have given it to Gacko just specifically because it was his first start. I think that was, it was a really strong showing, and it'd be hard to supplant Louis Diaz in the starting 11 because Louis Diaz has started this season extremely well. But if you're going to do it, today's performance was one way of doing it from Cody Gacko. So for me, I would give it to Cody Gacko that way. So hey, that's just about our 40 minutes right there. So hopefully all of our members are nice and ready to give Gab a few calls because if you don't call in, he's never doing a members call him show ever again. So you open warm, open warm, like where you wear your masks, wear your sunglasses, the funnier, the better, like we get a kick out of it. If you like bring everything out, dress in costume, yeah, or you don't even have to turn your camera on. If you want to just do audio, like, no, no, turn your camera on and get your funny glasses on. And I want to see who's got the best, who's the best book in Liverpool fashion show. Give an award, actually, for who has the best costume of the night. Well, the award is going to be a weekend at your beach house there, actually. So be careful what you wish for. Just be careful what you wish for. So yeah, I mean, if you're not able to call in, that's completely fine. Just hopefully you can donate to our two charity partners. Like, I will always continue to say because that is what is truly important. Any last words, Kev? Nah, just get, give it five minutes, go and get the kettle on, make coffee, come back, and go be here. Best costume wins. We're waiting. Let us know how you guys all saw the game tonight. Yeah, absolutely. We've heard enough of most rabbit and none about it. That's, that's what I'm really hoping to see is, you know, all the members and people that come and join us on YouTube after every match, they're used to hearing our takes on it. And you can get involved in the chat, which is always great. It's where all, you know, where all of us came from is from the chat. You've now got your opportunity to make yourself YouTube famous. So yeah, best costume hottest take wins. So that's been it for us. Again, Liverpool, go to the San Cyril. We win again. It's a happy hunting grounds for us. Four wins from four there, but I think somebody said we're third in the Champions League table. I have no fucking clue what that means because this new format is all very, very confusing. I mean, we're only third because Byron scored nine and Aston Villa didn't get scored against. So, okay, okay. Oh, Ashley, how did everything do? Oh, they lost. It's always close on a happy note. So yeah, get yourself settled, come back in a couple of minutes, call in member show, have your own say on it. But other than that, thank you very much to Kev. Thank you very much to Ashley. Liverpool lead the San Cyril with the 3-1 win, first game in the Champions League. Happy birthday, Arnie Slott. Thanks for joining us. See you after the next match. Bye. Bye. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. [BLANK_AUDIO]
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Matt hosts Chris, Kev and Ashley as they bring you instant match reaction to AC Milan and Liverpool at The San Siro in The Champions League.
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