Chelsea suffered their first loss of the 2020/21 season as they went down to Liverpool at home. And apart from Sadio Mane who scored both of Liverpool’s goals, it was Alisson Becker who turned out to be the other hero of the match.
Besides making a number of good saves during the second half, Alisson also managed to stop Jorginho from scoring from the penalty spot and this is something which has not happened very often in the past.
Jorginho is undoubtedly one of the finest penalty takers in English football right now and Alisson has revealed how his minute homework helped him keep the Italian at bay.
“I was studying him and it was full of goals,” Alisson told ESPN Brasil, as quoted by the Mirror.
“I could see that he’d scored a lot of goals. He’s certainly a taker who’s an expert. It’s very difficult.
“The way he goes, he doesn’t have a defined corner, he waits for the goalkeeper until the end. And nowadays it’s not new, everyone studies.
“He probably studied me too, I studied him. But he has a way of hitting. I was happy to wait until the last second without taking a step.
“We’ve been at the Community Shield, when the goalkeeper doesn’t save, it’s not something that takes away your confidence, but it’s something that makes you a little down.
“I knew I had to give an answer to my teammates on the pitch. Perhaps it wouldn’t interfere with the result at the end of the match, but we certainly had the clean-sheet back, it was something we had been pursuing a lot.
“And the opponent had the quality to create the opportunities. I am very happy and very grateful to God for giving me the opportunity to save the penalty today.”
If Jorginho had scored from the spot then the outcome of the match could have been totally different. But Alisson made sure that his team did not have to go through a nervous last quarter.
