117 touches, 85 passes, 19 long balls – one Liverpool player was a machine v Atletico

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Liverpool edged a thrilling encounter in the Champions League on Tuesday night, running out 3-2 winners at 10-man Atletico Madrid.

Jurgen Klopp’s Reds began brightly in the Spanish capital and raced into a two-goal lead by the quarter-hour mark.

Mohamed Salah beat Yannick Carrasco, Thomas Lemar and Koke before rifling into the bottom-left corner via a deflection after just seven minutes played.

Then, Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross was half-cleared towards Naby Keita, who rifled home a ferocious volley from 20 yards out.

On 20 minutes, Atletico fired back through Antoine Griezmann – following a VAR check – and equalised with his second 15 minutes later.

However, the Frenchman’s night ended early in the second half, getting sent off for a high boot which caught Roberto Firmino in the face.

And in the second half, Mario Hermoso brought down Diogo Jota in the box for a penalty which Salah converted.

At the other end, Jota barged into Josema Gimenez, but the referee opted to overturn his own initial spot-kick decision after a VAR check.

Most of Liverpool’s players delivered fairly mixed displays on the night, and Alexander-Arnold was no different.

But while he struggled defensively on a few occasions, he was once again superb in attack – and clocked up some pretty amazing statistics before his late substitution.

As per Whoscored, Alexander-Arnold touched the ball 117 times and made 85 passes with an accuracy of 85.9 percent.

He also made two key passes, two tackles, one interception, one clearance, seven crosses and 19 long balls, of which three and nine were respectively accurate.

Admittedly, it wasn’t the perfect display – aside from being exposed a few times, he also picked up a needless booking for kicking the ball away after handling it.

But those stats show just how much Alexander-Arnold contributes to the team and how crucial he is for Klopp.

No player is going to shine all the time, particularly against such a strong opponent on their own patch, but he certainly showed just how much of a machine he is.