Verdict from Paul Gorst after Liverpool’s clash with Sparta Prague in the Europa League
It’d be tempting to look at the six goals scored here at Anfield – and the 11 across the two legs – and surmise that Jurgen Klopp was very much treating the Europa League with the utmost respect.
But as the goals rained down on an increasingly bewildered and helpless Peter Vindahl in the Sparta Prague goal, it was clear the Liverpool manager was in fact treating Europe’s secondary competition with something approaching contempt.
Klopp’s side are too good for this competition and this two-legged obliteration of their last-16 opponents was their way of making that known in jarringly forceful terms. Take it seriously? This was anything but over 180 minutes. It was more than faintly farcical, in fact.
The scoreboard revealing an 11-2 aggregate victory confirmed as much but if that wasn’t enough proof, the sight of the Prague players gleefully bouncing in unison with their superbly boisterous away end at full time, after such a resounding defeat, was further evidence that the visitors were simply happy to be here, at Anfield, against this Liverpool.
With an FA Cup quarter-final up next on Sunday – away at Manchester United, no less – and a Premier League title race that is well on track but temporarily on the backburner until the end of the month, this was an opportune time for the manager to rest his big guns, ease those creaking limbs and give nights off to the one, two or three who might have needed it after a punishing few weeks for an injury-hit squad.
Instead, Klopp went stronger than expected and within 15 minutes, Liverpool were 9-1 up on aggregate and four had been scored on the night. It was tantamount to sticking two fingers up to UEFA, who no doubt would have sought more balanced competition for their knockout ties.
The fightback of Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen against Qarabag keeps alive a romantic, narrative-riddled meeting with the Reds but no-one will want to be drawn with Klopp’s in-form team on Friday afternoon, you can be sure of that. On they roll, gathering momentum on all fronts.
Darwin Nunez, one of several surprise starters, got the ball rolling inside seven minutes when he finished off Dominik Szoboszlai’s cut-back for his 17th of the campaign before Bobby Clark scored his first senior goal almost immediately after, thanks to some typically tenacious pressing high up, this time from Mohamed Salah on his first Liverpool start since New Year’s Day.
Salah, who was one of few high-profile names whose inclusion was not a shock, registered his 20th goal of the season after Clark turned provider by winning it after more dawdling from a shell-shocked Sparta. The Egyptian then supplied Cody Gakpo for number four shortly after. Done and dusted. The patrons had been given their money’s worth with over 75 minutes left to play.
Salah’s effort, by the way, made him the first Liverpool player to reach the 20-goal milestone for seven successive seasons. Imagine how many more if he’d have notched had this not been just his fourth appearance of 2024?
Sparta claimed a consolation that their supporters deserved when Veljko Birmancevic nudged ahead of Wataru Endo before rolling one past an otherwise underworked Caoimhin Kelleher but it mattered little. The damage had long been done in this tie and Szoboszlai’s strike, shortly after half-time, saw the hosts bring up double figures for the aggregate scoreline.
Gakpo’s touch from a shot by the excellent Harvey Elliott, who was introduced for the second half, made it six on the night and 11 over the two legs. That’s now 13 for the season for the Netherlands international, with five of those coming in Europe.
Gakpo has not always nailed down a spot in this team but his contributions in this tournament have been important and will have been gutted not to have secured a first Anfield hat-trick after skying Elliott’s well-weighted pass shortly after. An offside flag then denied him a third in stoppage time. It was not checked particularly rigorously either.
