Trent Alexander-Arnold: Scoring on Liverpool European debut was a 'thing of dreams'

Trent Alexander-Arnold
Trent Alexander-Arnold jumps for joy after putting Liverpool ahead Credit: AP

The Liverpool teenager Trent Alexander-Arnold said that it was a “thing of dreams” to make his European debut for Liverpool and to score a spectacular free-kick in a 2-1 win that takes his club into the second leg of their Champions League qualifier against Hoffenheim in pole position.

The 18-year-old who scored the first, before a Havard Nordtveit own goal doubled Liverpool's lead, has been at the club since the age of six. Alexander-Arnold said: “It is a thing of dreams to make your European debut for your boyhood club. Especially to make it with a goal was very special for me. More importantly, we got the win. We are still a bit disappointed with the late goal but it is always good to take a lead back to Anfield.

“I kind of got egged on to take the free-kick, to be honest. I never put my hand up first but I had the confidence to take it and it paid off.”

The Hoffenheim substitute Mark Uth scored a late goal to keep his side in the tie, with the second leg at Anfield next Wednesday. Jurgen Klopp said he had instructed Alexander-Arnold to take free-kick duty. “I told him he has to do it,” Klopp said. “I don’t want the credit for the free-kick because he can shoot free-kicks better than I could ever do.

“I watched as many Under-23 games as I could last year and he took free-kicks there and the goal is the same size … he’s good at this. It’s a big challenge [taking free-kicks] after training between him and Ben Woodburn, they are both good and both improving. It’s to his credit. Maybe it helps when the manager tells him he takes it and nobody else.”

Klopp was happy with the result, only Liverpool’s second victory in their last 13 European away games. “If you think backwards to before the game, had someone said we would win I would have taken each result – even at 8-7.

“I’m happy about the result, yes. I’m not only happy with their goal but I think they deserved the goal over the 90 minutes with their efforts. I also thought that we played defensively really well because the plan was to let them play in the spaces that we believe were not dangerous. It is a specific style of play which is really difficult to defend.”

Klopp claimed the penalty that Andrej Kramaric missed in the first half for Hoffenheim came from a move that was offside. “It [Simon Mignolet’s save] gave us a boost and it was a blow for the other team. We scored two goals, could have scored more.”

The 30-year-old Hoffenheim manager Julian Nagelsmann, who shares an agent with Klopp, took issue with his compatriot’s remark about letting the home side have the ball in areas they could not hurt Liverpool.

“No, I don’t agree,” he said, “we had the ball in many important spaces. He has to say that and defend his team, he won’t say ‘Hoffenheim played so well and we were s***’. I can give one example when Wagner played a square pass into space that was an important ball and another situation with Serge Gnabry, and many others.”

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