Five goals, five matches, one stadium
Anfield. Again. Marcos Llorente scored the opener on Wednesday night before Liverpool turned things round to beat Atletico Madrid 2-1.
The script is getting repetitive. Last season the Spanish midfielder took both Madrid goals on the same pitch, and Liverpool still got out with a 3-2 win courtesy of a Virgil van Dijk header in stoppage time.
Go back further. 2019-20, second leg of the last 16, two goals in extra time, 3-2 on the night and 4-2 on aggregate for Atletico.
Five Champions League goals against Liverpool in five matches. All of them at Anfield.
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A statistic nobody else owns
Llorente is not a forward. That is what makes the whole thing strange.
Among every player with at least 10 Champions League goals, he is the only one who has scored half of them against a single opponent. Five of his 10, all against Liverpool.
The chasing pack is not close. Sebastien Haller has five of 12 against Sporting. Anthony Gordon four of 10 against Qarabag. Luiz Adriano eight of 21 against BATE Borisov.
The shot count is the detail that stings. Six attempts against Liverpool, five goals, an 83% conversion rate. Against everyone else, across 54 matches, five goals from 44 shots. Eleven percent.
Cristiano Ronaldo still holds the all-time mark against one club, 10 against Juventus. Against Liverpool specifically, only Karim Benzema has done better than Llorente with seven in eight. Vinicius Junior sits level on five.
Liverpool get a reprieve, sort of
One more line for the collection. Llorente is one of eight players in the competition’s history with at least five goals against one team at one away ground. Only Ronaldo at the Johan Cruijff ArenA and Robert Lewandowski at Rajko Mitic are ahead, with six apiece.
A UEFA rule introduced this season prevents two clubs meeting in three consecutive league phases, so Liverpool are spared this particular fixture next year.
Nothing, though, rules out Liverpool and Atletico being drawn together in the knockout rounds a few months from now.
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