Michael Owen reacts to Alisson’s display in Liverpool’s Champions League win

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Michael Owen has told BT Sport (3/11; 22:35) that while Alisson may not get many of the headlines following Liverpool’s win over Atalanta on Tuesday, he insisted that the Reds goalkeeper deserves major praise for his performance.

It appeared that it may be a tough night for the Brazilian. Atalanta were the top scorers in their Champions League group after the first two games. They are also the second-highest scorers in Serie A this term.

However, Jurgen Klopp’s men proved to be too good for their opponents. Diogo Jota scored a hat-trick, while both Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane also got on the scoresheet in a 5-0 win.

The scoreline suggests the Reds had it easy. But, while they were certainly the better side, the backline was still given work to do.

As shown by Whoscored.com, Alisson made six saves during the contest. There were a couple of times early on where he perhaps looked a little more unconvincing. But he was outstanding as the game went on.

The performance was all the more impressive given that Alisson had the largely untested partnership of Joe Gomez and Rhys Williams in front of him.

And Owen made sure to highlight Alisson’s contribution as he feared that it may go under the radar otherwise.

“I thought tonight as well, Jurgen Klopp mentioned Alisson there, and of course, he’s not going to get any headlines, but when you’ve got a young kid in front of him, a new back four in a way, how calming was he? There was never any wild clearances, there was no nervousness around,” he told BT Sport.

“Sometimes a goalkeeper can transmit that nervousness. And he made a couple of good saves as well. Very good.”