Liverpool fell behind early at Anfield in their Champions League opener but goals from Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister turned the game around, beating a defensively set Atletico Madrid 2-1.
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In development circles we often say how a player handles adversity shows you their ceiling. Today it wasn't one name that stood out to me but how the whole team stayed calm after going behind. What's left five years from now depends on how many matches like this a team stacks up.
The turning point was late in the first half. Conceding in the 17th minute felt bad, but Szoboszlai's equalizer in the 40th and Mac Allister's go-ahead goal in the 50th flipped it. Looking at the full 90 minutes, Liverpool simply outran Atletico in the second half, and that showed up in the scoreline.
Atletico lining up close to a back five was a shape they hadn't shown in recent matches. Structurally, Liverpool were nearly trapped by it in the first half, but they regained control through Wirtz as a central outlet after the break. Whether it's repeatable is something I'd rather judge after the next match.
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