Neymar, when upright, can do great things on a football field
Whether you’ve watched him regularly over the last few years or just seen some of those YouTube compilations set to awful dance music, you’ll almost certainly be aware of Neymar’s reputation for making opponents look a bit silly with his exceptional skill and trickery.
Rarely do we see the Brazilian served up a dose of his own medicine, yet at Anfield on Tuesday night, we saw exactly that.
Liverpool were on top from the early stages of their 3-2 win over Paris Saint-Germain. Prior to Daniel Sturridge heading home their opening goal of the game, Neymar had dropped back to help his defence deal with the home side’s relentless pressure.
Unfortunately for him, he found himself facing Sadio Mane, who, with a drop of the shoulder and a quick shimmy, made light work of breezing past the former Barcelona forward and continuing his path towards goal.
Just Sadio Mané sending Neymar back to the shadow realm
🔥 pic.twitter.com/KscCrxBNGQ
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 18, 2018
Effortless.
Sturridge’s header and a penalty from James Milner gave Liverpool a two-goal lead in the first half, only for Thomas Meunier to halve the deficit for the French champions before the break. It remained this way until seven minutes from time when Kylian Mbappe looked to have rescued a point for PSG against the run of play.
However, a late, late goal from Roberto Firmino saw Liverpool claim maximum points on the night.
Jurgen Klopp’s side now turn their attention to a home game with Southampton at the weekend before a League Cup and league double-header with Chelsea, who sit above them at the Premier League summit on goal difference. A difficult run of fixtures is followed by a Champions League trip to Napoli and a visit to Premier League champions Manchester City in the league.
