AS Roma 4-2 Liverpool (6-7 aggregate): 5 Talking Points

#4 Liverpool miss Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's drives from midfield

Too often it looked like Liverpool's midfielders were happy to let their opposition take charge in midfield. With Di Rossi passing the ball around the park with surgical precision and Naingollan toying with the rest, Roma kept trying and testing things in midfield.

What Liverpool seemed to lack is the pace and directness of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The former Gunner has got quick feet, has great pace and can also test the keeper from range. He also steps up during the big games and had been quite impressive in Liverpool's wins over City this season.

Liverpool will miss the Ox at Kiev too. Wijnaldum will need to up the ante and be the force that helps add the numbers in the opposition box. If he doesn't storm back and forth against a midfield of Kroos, Modric and Casemiro, Liverpool will struggle to connect the midfield and the frontline

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Shambhu Ajith