The Warm-Up: Code Red for Liverpool against Sevilla

There’s clearly something about 3-0 half-time scorelines in the Champions League that doesn’t sit well with Liverpool. 2-0 or 3-1 or 4-0? Fine, proceed as usual. 3-0? Code red, code red. Calling all supervisors to aisle five; we’ve got a situation here.

It only took the Reds half an hour to sail into what looked to most like an unassailable position against Sevilla, whose defending from set pieces could only be characterised as Liverpudlian. Twice, Philippe Coutinho swung over corners from the right. Twice, an away player managed to flick the ball on to the far post. Twice, the ball was turned home by a grinning attacker with no marker in the same postcode.

When Roberto Firmino made it three, nonchalantly knocking the ball into the net while looking in the opposite direction, the game looked up for Sevilla. Only mystic Gary Neville had an early premonition that there was to be drama ahead.

Then, for some reason, the street-smart Liverpool who came into the game off the back of four straight three-goal wins turned into the jellified Liverpool who collapsed against Spurs a month ago. Mo Salah wasted chances, tiny Wissam Ben Yedder scored a header from a free-kick and Alberto Moreno let out his inner Mr Hyde in the box, leading to a Sevilla penalty.

Then, as the minutes ticked down, a hundred wasted counter-attacks and, in the third minute of stoppage time, an uncleared corner, a shot for Guido Pizarro, a leaden-footed Loris Karius and Klopp doing that weird grin/grimace thing with his mouth again.

Liverpool fans must have been pulling their hair out, but for the rest of us it was deeply, deeply amusing. More please.

With Real Madrid making, erm, crumble out of APOEL over in Nicosia, the pressure was on Tottenham to get a result against Borussia Dortmund to seal top spot in their group. The early signs weren’t positive, however: walking Scrabble jackpot Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang rounded off a slick team move to put the Bundesliga giants ahead in the first half.

But this time, unlike their limp display in the north London derby, Spurs were able to muster a response. True, it owed much to Dortmund’s kamikaze approach to playing out from the back, but Mauricio Pochettino won’t mind that too much. Goals from Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son did the job, meaning the final game against APOEL will be a free hit for a few squad players.

As for Dortmund, things are starting to look a bit grim. They’re languishing in fifth in the league, having lost four of their last five, and could now even miss out on the Europa League. Rubbish Pep Guardiola look-alike Peter Bosz needs an improvement – and fast.

Another night, another win for Guardiola’s charges, even if they never really looked like hitting top gear against a dogged Feyenoord side. In fact, aside from a fine Raheem Sterling goal, the moment of the evening was probably City’s second substitution.

The man taken off was Yaya Toure, 34-year-old veteran of title wins past. And on for his Champions League debut ran Phil Foden, literally half the Ivorian’s age (and probably not much more than half his weight, either). The youngster might have been a bit disappointed not to start, but looked assured during his cameo and will hope for more minutes in the months ahead.

Not sure whether he mentioned, but Jeff Stelling has a few doubts about Expected Goals. He doesn’t like to talk about it, really.

The Warm-Up won’t ruin the visual gag by telling you what’s in the box before you watch the video, but suffice it to say that Thiago Silva is currently the clubhouse leader in the Paris Saint-Germain squad when it comes to gift-giving.

Almost like the Napoli striker might have been quite useful in a situation in which your team desperately needs a goal to qualify for the World Cup. Right, Gian Piero?

The Warm-Up is actually quite a big fan of the Everton underdog, but yesterday he became the first player in Premier League history to be retrospectively charged for diving. Or, in FA jargon, “successful deception of a match official”, which at least acknowledges the fact that his antics against Crystal Palace got the job done at the time.

Everton are appealing the decision.

The Warm-Up enjoyed this documentary about the emergence of Gabriel Jesus, produced by the good folk over at FourFourTwo magazine:

Also worth your time: Rory Smith on how PSG are viewed by their French rivals, Adam Bate on Guardiola and his critics, Amy Lawrence on Arsenal’s new head of recruitment, some horrible self-promoter on Bordeaux star-in-waiting Malcom.

Qarabag vs Chelsea, Basel vs Manchester United… sorry, but it’s a night to ignore the Premier League’s representatives in the Champions League. PSG vs Celtic could be a goal fest if the first meeting between the sides was anything to go by, but Juventus vs Barcelona is surely the tie of the night.

The Catalans were 3-0 winners when the sides met in September, so the Old Lady will be out for a spot of revenge, hoping for a repeat of their dynamite semi-final victory over Barça in Turin earlier in the year. Should be a cracker.