Liverpool became the first English club to win all six of their games in a Champions League group phase.
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Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was happy with the level of performance shown by Liverpool in the victory at AC Milan on Tuesday. Manager Jurgen Klopp opted to make eight changes for the encounter at San Siro. The Reds came from a goal down to beat the Italian side 2-1 thanks to goals from Mohamed Salah and Divock Origi. That result saw the Merseyside club make history as they became the first English club to win all six of their games in a Champions League group phase. Fikayo Tomori had opened the scoring for the home side just before the half-hour mark, but they were not able to hold on to the lead, as Liverpool ran away with all three points.
“I said recently I think the team is in the best shape it’s been,” Oxlade-Chamberlain told Liverpoolfc.com. “I think we’re a better team than we have been at this point in time. And I think that comes with playing together for years, having moments of success, understanding what we needed to do to get that, the levels we had to set and how relentless we had to be to achieve those things. I think that just stands us in good stead every game going forward.
“Whether it’s the Carabao Cup, obviously the FA Cup will be starting soon, the last few Champions League games where we’ve made changes, maybe in recent seasons gone by when we make so many changes it doesn’t always go the way you want it to and the performance drops off. But I think tonight was a really good example. We can be proud of the fact that the whole squad is important and the whole squad is moving forward and developing together because that is crucial.
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“We’ve had moments where we’ve had a lot of injuries and players need to step up and fill the shoes of some really top players that play a lot of football for this club. So moments like tonight where the young lads can come in and prove their worth and all of us as a group can continue the high standards and winning games and getting a result, I think that shows the team is in a good place.”
Other than the comeback and feats achieved by Liverpool, Oxlade-Chamberlain found a lot of positives from their win in Italy. Naby Keita and Joe Gomez returning from injuries were some of the other plus points from that result. He continued: “I think you have to keep the standards high to keep up with where the team is trying to move to.”
“The boys are performing really well. The lads that play regularly, they set the standards high, all of us in training set the standards high. And if you want to be around this and be a part of this team moving forward and this football club, you’ve got to have that between your teeth and the desire to work hard, show what you can do, take your chances when they come.
“I think tonight was a really good example of that from a lot of players that haven’t played maybe as much as they have in other seasons. Nat came back in tonight for the first time in a while, he was brilliant. I thought Neco was outstanding at right-back. Young Tyler again was really solid, really good. Divock, it’s two in two for him now – he has been brilliant. I could go through the whole team. Kostas at left-back was solid. It was good to see Naby back as well and Joey G – it’s important for us moving forward, so it’s good for them to get some minutes. All in all, it was a good night’s work for us, for sure.”
