Liverpool’s Champions League defence ended in a 4-2 aggregate defeat to Atletico Madrid.

Hopes of Jurgen Klopp’s side overturning a one-goal deficit appeared promising when Gini Wijnaldum levelled the tie with a header on 42 minutes.

During extra time of the cagey affair, Roberto Firmino broke his season-long duck at Anfield after Jan Oblak had kept out the striker’s initial headed effort.

But substitute Marcos Llorente struck back for the visitors just moments later with a low drive that saw Adrian well beaten at his near left-hand post.

Llorente punished the Reds’ slack defending further with a second goal on the stroke of first-half extra time with a near carbon copy of his opening strike.

Atleti compounded matters when Alvaro Morata also came off the bench to dispatch their third of the night and fourth on aggregate in the final minutes.

Here were the key talking points from Anfield:

Reds lose out in battle of wills

 

It was always going to come to an end sooner or later.

Liverpool’s 285-day reign as European champions may be over but few envisaged it would be drawn to a close in such a confusing manner.

In extra time, 90 minutes of relentlessness was rendered obsolete after a succession of blunders by Adrian when facing Atletico Madrid counter-attacks.

Such an anticlimatic finish to the Reds’ continental title defence flew in the face of a pulsating encounter where they had given as good as they got.

Driving rain hammered the Anfield pitch for virtually all of this last 16 clash but did little to dampen the spectacle of both sides going full pelt throughout.

Jurgen Klopp guarded against the gamesmanship and tactical stubbornness that dominated Atleti’s first-leg win and threatened to limit them once more.

But not even the power of Anfield could prevent Diego Simeone from producing another tactical master class as bodies and minds were fully spent.

Adrian shows his true colours

 

The key difference between the teams ultimately came down to goalkeepers.

Jan Oblak proved a near-impenetrable wall that was only breached twice in 120 minutes while Adrian failed to cover himself in glory at the other end.

Scrutiny of the Spaniard’s mistakes in this match are likely to prove more scathing than anything he has experienced in the previous seven months.

Yet there is no masking the fact that Alisson’s understudy is showing his true colours with an alarming lack of elite-level experience in shot stopping.

All of Atletico’s goals were down to Adrian’s poor positioning and compounded by his gifting to Marcos Llorente to open his account with a weak clearance.

Until now, Liverpool have been largely ignoring the elephant in the room. This defeat hit home the blunt realisation that Alisson’s no.2 is not up to scratch.

Ox shows merits of Klopp’s method

 

Klopp boldly resisted the temptation to play Simeone at his own game.

Instead of combative options in midfield, the Liverpool manager chose a line-up which suited his ideology more far more than that of his opposite number.

It allowed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to assume centre-stage in one of his strongest performances to date following his 2018 move from Arsenal.

Fashioning chances and stealing possession at will came naturally to him against one of the more dogged opponents Liverpool have faced this season.

Oblak may have been equal to his series of long-range efforts but was powerless to stop Gini Wijnaldum scoring from Oxlade-Chamberlain’s cross.

Dynamism has, from time to time, been a missing aspect in midfield this term. For Klopp, defensive diligence remains the overriding priority.

Clearly the times are changing with Oxlade-Chamberlain dictating the pace with his sharp movement and constant desire to take ownership of the ball.

Costa’s pantomime act wears thin

 

Few players get a bigger kick out of being hated than Diego Costa. The ex-Chelsea striker thrives on a reputation of being football’s pantomime villain.

His latest attempt to reprise the role, however, spectacularly backfired.

So insignificant was Costa’s contribution to Atletico’s victory that only his petty act of time-wasting alerted Liverpool fans to his on-field presence.

Offering the ball to Adrian for a free kick before throwing it away was followed by his overreaction upon eventually being substituted by Simeone.

A water bottle was kicked over as he left the pitch while the Brazil-born Spain international antics in the mixed zone post-match left far more to be desired.

No one was laughing when Costa pretended to cough on the assembled journalists in an apparent joke to the current Coronavirus pandemic.

At 31, Costa should have grown out of a phase where he thrives on being despised and routinely hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

But even the Anfield crowd have grown tired of his incendiary antics.