Inter Milan 0 Liverpool 1
VAR steals the show yet again in a big game. It goes without saying that VAR in Europe leads to some of most baffling decisions you can see in football. It first got involved for Ibrahima Konate’s goal in the 32nd minute where the ball hit Ekitike’s arm before going to Konate who headed it past Sommer. VAR then took nearly 5 minutes to disallow the goal deeming Ekitike’s arm in an unnatural position as the ball hit his arm, whether you agree or disagree with the final decision this goal would have certainly have been given in the Premier League due to the higher threshold in regard to handball, the 5 minute wait for the final decision is riduclous and something UEFA still haven’t sorted out since VAR has been introduced.
It’s never a penalty. Getting onto the winning goal that comes from an absolutely ridiculous VAR intervention yet again where they deemed that Bastoni committed a holding offence that was enough to bring Florian Wirtz to the ground and award a penalty. You can clearly see that Bastoni’s hold on Wirtz is minimal and instant where Wirtz is actually stationary when he goes to ground. The referee actually didn’t give it on the pitch understandably but of course VAR feels the need to intervene and send to the referee to the monitor who as always agrees with the VAR’s decision and gives the penalty which Dominik Szoboszlai slots away for the winner. I don’t know why VAR in Europe always feels the need to re-referee matches when the referee on the pitch has a perfectly clear view of the incident and doesn't give the penalty, of course when they show it in slow-motion it looks worse but the VAR should be there for clear and obvious errors and this obviously isn’t one in my opinion.
Much improved defensively from Liverpool. As of late Liverpool’s defence has been nothing short of disastrous but they looked like the Liverpool of last season in this game. Coming up against an Inter side who’ve scored 9 goals in their last 3 games and with Marcus Thuram and Lautaro Martinez in good form many presumed that Liverpool’s defence would yet again look shaky but I thought they looked confident, composed and largely limited Inter to very few good chances. The reintroduction of Joe Gomez has been crucial for this in my opinion as although he’s limited going forward he offers the defence balance that they otherwise don’t have down that right-hand-side.
Inter’s form against the big sides is worrying. This is yet another game where Cristian Chivu’s side has lost against a ‘bigger side’ and Inter fans will be worried about the ongoing trend when Inter play against the bigger sides. So far this season they’ve lost to Milan, Napoli, Atletico Madrid, Juventus and now Liverpool and it makes you wonder if Chivu can coach this side at a high enough level against the best sides in the world. Inter haven’t had a problem so far in the Serie A against the weaker opponents leaving them 1 point of the top but if they continue to struggle against the big teams in Europe and in Italy it’s going to be hard for this team to win the biggest trophies.
Can Liverpool sneak into the top 8 in the Champions League? As we saw last season it is pivotal to finish in the top 8 in the Champions League table to avoid any potential banana skins in the playoff round. Liverpool are going to want to avoid those two extra games in February and with Qarabag and Marseille in their next two fixtures Liverpool will probably have to take all 6 points if they want to finish in the top 8 this season. With the Premier League out of sight I wonder if Arne Slot will end up prioritising the Champions League come February and March to try and bring a 7th Champions League to Anfield, I suppose time will tell.