Liverpool drew 0-0 with Bayern Munich on Tuesday night to extend their unbeaten home run in Europe to 20 matches. It’s the second longest stretch without home defeat in the club’s history, but the result means the Reds’ progression in this season’s Champions League is far from guaranteed.
Seven of the last ten ties in this round which began with a 0-0 draw saw the side playing at home in the second leg progress to the last eight. In fairness, the seeded nature of the draw for the last 16 means a lot of those ties were more lopsided than this one is.
However, factor in the quarter and semi-finals, and 15 of the last 21 teams to get a 0-0 away from home in a Champions League first leg have gone through. Liverpool have plenty of hard work ahead of them to retain European interest beyond the middle of March.
0-0 draws at Anfield in the first leg of European knock-out ties are not common occurrences, with this being only the fifth ever. Remarkably, three of them have now been against Bayern Munich, and indeed the German side have now played at Liverpool four times over the years but never scored.
The Reds’ Champions League campaign for 2018/19 is rapidly being defined by their inability to convert their clear-cut chances . This isn’t as big a problem as not having any great opportunities at all of course, but it definitely means they’re doing things the hard way.
Against Bayern, Liverpool had three clear-cut chances in the first half , though they didn’t test Manuel Neuer with any of them.
This follows on from the Reds’ game in Belgrade where they wasted their only clear-cut chance while it was 0-0 – they’d have stood a much better chance of getting away with a poor performance if that went in – and Liverpool unbelievably wasted four golden opportunities at home to Napoli.
As that was their previous European game, this means Jürgen Klopp ’s team have missed their last seven clear-cut chances in the Champions League. With an average conversion rate of roughly one in three, it’s not unreasonable to expect at least a couple of goals from seven high quality opportunities.
The main culprit has been Sadio Mané , who missed two of the three against Bayern. In total, the Senegalese forward has now spurned eight clear-cut chances in the 2018/19 Champions League, which is at least two more than any other player from any club.