They eventually won via penalty shootout, butChelsea’s inability to effortlessly pass their way outof Liverpool’s relentless press, partly due to EdouardMendy’s poor kicking, was why Liverpool was themuch better team in that match, especially in thefirst half.
Within the first 5 minutes of the game, there was anervy moment for Chelsea when the Senegalesegoalkeeper, while trying to beat Liverpool’s press, got his long pass wrong, as he kicked it straight to aLiverpool player.
That resulted in a counter-attack, but fortunately forhim and his team, the Reds failed to take fulladvantage of that mistake.
In contrast, the quality of the passes, short and long, made by Mendy’s Liverpool counterpart, AlissonBecker, didn’t allow Chelsea to put the Liverpooldefense under any sort of pressure.
The Brazilian consistently delivered accurate longpasses to his midfielders any time the Chelseaattackers man marked his defenders.
His quality passes in addition to Mendy’s poor kickingwere a big advantage for Liverpool, as it helped themretain possession to put more pressure on Chelsea.
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The Daily Telegraph football news correspondent, Matt Law, reacted to that by saying it might be bestfor Chelsea to avoid passing the ball back to theSenegalese goalkeeper.
“Chelsea might want to avoid passing back to Mendytoo often – amazing goalkeeper but his kicking hasn’tgot any better,” said Matt Law via his verified Twitterhandle.
The worry for Chelsea is that Mendy’s mistakeagainst Liverpool was not a one-off.
A recent match in which his poor kicking cost histeam was the quarter-final first leg against RealMadrid.
In that game, Karim Benzema took full advantage ofhis under-hit pass to Antonio Rudiger.
There are a few other instances but that one will do.
The Senegalese goalkeeper has to improve thataspect of his game.
If he doesn’t, as long as he remains the first-choicegoalkeeper, there is no doubt that Chelsea willcontinue to struggle against the top teams that presshigh up the pitch.