Quote Originally Posted by Insidious View Post
The game ended up being a far more stressful watch than it should have been, but I think our experience and how we expected things to go versus Newcastle's naivety could show a bit, upon reflection.

Newcastle were 2-0 down, down to 10 and have their first Cup Final in forever on the Horizon. They should have been sitting in and trying to conserve energy and we should have casually knocked it around ourselves to prep for Real Madrid.

We largely did try to "rest on the ball" whereas Newcastle decided to throw the kitchen sink at it, rather than letting this one go and accepting they have points in the bag that we don't.

They ended the game dead on their feet and Joelinton off injured - what on Earth were they thinking? If I were a Newcastle fan, I wouldn't be hailing the spirit shown, I'd be pissed at the prospect of being weaker ahead of a first chance at silverware in years.

So as much as it was more stressful than it needed to be, I'm not so arsed at our players for losing focus provided we are at full concentration against Real Madrid.

Clean sheet, brilliant three points, try to score first (and early) at Anfield against and get the place rocking.
We pressed them high up the pitch pretty effectively all game and with that great goal from Nunez we’ve climbed out of the mid-table dogfight.