Mario Balotelli and Iago Aspas’ scoring exploits add to Liverpool’s misery
Champions League hopefuls Liverpool scored just once against Carlisle on Wednesday evening from a total of 47 shots! Yes, that’s League Two (the fourth tier in English Football) Carlisle United. As the Reds continue to struggle for goals upfront, two former Liverpool strikers have stolen the headlines in Italy […]
Champions League hopefuls Liverpool scored just once against Carlisle on Wednesday evening from a total of 47 shots! Yes, that’s League Two (the fourth tier in English Football) Carlisle United.
As the Reds continue to struggle for goals upfront, two former Liverpool strikers have stolen the headlines in Italy and Spain in mid-week with their exploits.
Mario Balotelli is reigniting his career with a bang with AC Milan as he scored a peach of a free-kick in the victory over Udinese, while corner-kick “specialist” Iago Aspas netted twice in Celta Vigo’s surprise 4-1 thrashing of Barcelona.
Sinisa Mihajlovic, Milan’s head coach and certainly someone who knows a thing or two about great free-kicks, has stated this week that the “real” Balotelli is back. There really is no arguing with that as the 25-year-old held the ball well in attack, won three aerial duels and created the joint highest number of key passes (three – equal to Antonio di Natale’s tally) on the pitch.
Perhaps even more shocking for Liverpool supporters is Aspas’ goal haul against European Champions Barcelona, which took Celta to the top of La Liga. Aspas has now scored three goals in five games. Liverpool have four in six league games.
Celta Vigo’s No. 9 managed a pass accuracy of 90% against the Catalans and he even managed to chip the keeper for his first goal! What sorcery is this! His two goals came from just three shots on target.
As Celta fans savor Aspas’ goals, the Kop will always remember him for one thing; a corner kick in the loss against Chelsea at Anfield in the dying minutes of a match that eventually led to Liverpool losing the title to Manchester City in 2014.
After all, his haul of 0 goals from 14 league appearances is hardly the stuff of legends.
Here is a vine of Aspas’ infamous corner against Chelsea in 2014. Try not to laugh so hard…
Stats from whoscored.com
