Liverpool took a confident stride towards the Europa League quarter-finals with a comprehensive success at Sparta Prague on Thursday.
Alexis Mac Allister’s early penalty was followed in the first half by a Darwin Nunez double before goals after the break from Luis Diaz and Dominik Szoboszlai saw the Reds cruise to a 5-1 victory. The result means Jurgen Klopp’s men have still only lost four times in all competitions this season and remain in the hunt for a quadruple.
But there was plenty that went unnoticed or under the radar during the 90 minutes at the Epet Arena.
Nunez may have been substituted shortly after the interval but that was still plenty of time for the Liverpool player to make a devastating impact on the game.
And, after scoring his second and Liverpool’s third of the night, it appeared some Sparta fans were keen on making an impact on Nunez himself. As he celebrated towards the corner flag, the Uruguayan was targeted by some missiles from crowd, one of which appeared to be a drinks container that glanced his shirt.
The referee had a word with Nunez immediately afterwards, much to the striker’s bemusement. Maybe the home supporters thought the forward was simply thirsty after all his hard work.
Klopp’s transfer vacation
Any keen observer of post-match press conferences against teams outside the supposed top tier of European clubs – okay, it’s a pretty niche group – would have seen the question coming a mile off.
And sure enough, a local Prague journalist asked Klopp whether there were any players from Sparta worthy of signing, to which the Liverpool boss had a clipped response.
“I retire in the summer,” he said, referring to his imminent Anfield exit. “Do I need to take him holiday?”
Grateful Sparta
As was the case throughout the Europa League group stage, the arrival of Liverpool in town was kind of a big deal for Sparta Prague.
