For the first time ever, five English teams have qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur have all made it to the last-16, and all but Chelsea won their group. Each Premier League side can be considered a contender for the Champions League this season. Liverpool won 7-0 twice in the group stages, City beat Napoli away, Spurs beat Real Madrid at home and Chelsea recorded an impressive victory away to Atletico Madrid, while United made light work of their group.
Roy Keane reckons at least one of the English teams have a chance of success in the competition this season, but doesn’t see Liverpool mounting a challenge.
Following Liverpool’s 7-0 victory over Spartak Moscow at Anfield on Wednesday night, Keane did his best to dampen any excitement around the team. Jurgen Klopp’s side served up a feast of brilliant attacking play. Philippe Coutinho scored a hat-trick, Sadio Mane got two and Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah scored a goal each. However, Keane was reluctant to offer any praise, because they have “beaten nobody yet.”
“They’re certainly in great form at the moment, they are scoring for fun and it was a comfortable night for them,” the former United captain said on ITV’s highlights of the Champions League.
“Their attacking players enjoyed it, but the big tests are yet to come for Liverpool. Clearly they’ve beaten these so called lesser teams, but they’ve beaten nobody yet. It’s lovely to watch, but they wouldn’t get that time and space against a decent team, it’s as simple as that. Give quality players time on the ball like that, and they are going to punish you. The reality is if they are playing a top team in Europe, they won’t get the time and space, they won’t get those opportunities. If you know this game, then you understand they have so much bigger and tougher tests coming up.”
You can watch Keane speak about Liverpool here.
However, the Irishman’s view on United was quite different.
Despite coming through a group that was less competitive than the one Liverpool faced, as Klopp’s side had to play Sevilla, Keane gives Jose Mourinho’s team a real chance of achieving success in the tournament this season.
Like Liverpool, it could be argued that United have “beaten nobody yet”, but Keane didn’t mention this when discussing the Red Devils.
Keane’s comments about Liverpool, once again, didn’t go down well with supporters of the club. Last month, the Republic of Ireland’s assistant manager said they were “going nowhere fast” and that if Liverpool “were playing out in my back garden, I wouldn’t watch them.”
He didn’t wind them up as much this time, but he did seem to touch a nerve with his latest comments.
https://twitter.com/caparsebiscuits/status/938544071236308992
Liverpool won 7-0. Scored the most goals out of any other British team. Have scored 43 goals in 11 games. Beat two sides 7-0 in the Champions League group stage YET Roy Keane and Lee Dixon talk about defensive frailties😂😂😂 What a joke😂😂😂
— Justin Davies (@JustinDavies96) December 6, 2017
https://twitter.com/AdamDavies___/status/938545778288676864
https://twitter.com/timbolton1/status/938546029548507137
This ridiculous Roy Keane clip will be played for eternity – love it ❤️pic.twitter.com/3KxoZ0U4eb
— Empire of the Kop (@empireofthekop) December 6, 2017
https://twitter.com/mesolithicguy/status/938523476209651713
Roy Keane really doesn’t want to say anything good about Liverpool does he? 😂
— Nathan Godwin (@NathanGodwin95) December 6, 2017
Liverpool win 7-0
And Roy Keane still can't say anything nice or positive on highlights show!If you didn't watch the match and just heard his after match punditry you would think we just about scraped a tight win!
— Phil Morris speedway (@philmorrisgb) December 6, 2017
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