by Reg » Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:07 am
Since Jurgen Klopp took charge of his first Champions League match at Liverpool in September 2017, the Reds have registered more clean sheets in the competition than any other side (18).
RB Leipzig have managed only two clean sheets in their 11 home Champions League matches (W6 D2 L3) though this is their first such defeat since October 2019 against Lyon.
Among all players within the top five European leagues this season, only Robert Lewandowski (30) has scored more goals in all competitions than Liverpool's Mohamed Salah (24).
Salah has scored 24 goals in 34 matches in all competitions this season, surpassing his tally for the whole of the 2019-20 campaign, in which he netted 23 times in 48 appearances.
In Curtis Jones and Ozan Kabak (both 20), Liverpool named two players under the age of 21 in their starting XI for an Champions League knockout stage game for the second time, also doing so v Juventus in April 2005 (Scott Carson and Anthony le Tallec).
Liverpool midfielder Thiago has now enjoyed a win in each of his past 11 Champions League appearances, the joint-longest run of wins by a Spaniard in the history of the competition alongside Javi Martinez (November 2020) and Dani Carvajal (April 2018).
In what was his 114th appearance for Liverpool in all competitions, Brazil goalkeeper Alisson registered his 50th clean sheet for the Reds, with only Jan Oblak (59) and Ederson (64) managing more among goalkeepers within the top five European leagues since he joined the Reds in 2018-19.
English sides have now won each of their four European Cup/Champions League encounters to be played in Hungary, with Leeds United (in 1969 & 1974) and Liverpool (in 2009 and 2021) winning twice each.
RB Leipzig against Liverpool was the first European Cup/Champions League knockout match to be played in Hungary in just under 30 years, since Budapest Honved beat Sampdoria 2-1 in the last 16 of the 1991-92 competition.