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Thierry Henry Lavishes praise on ‘absolutely outstanding’ Liverpool FC star player
Thierry Henry Lavishes praise on ‘absolutely outstanding’ Liverpool FC star player
Thierry Henry recently showered praises on the “absolutely outstanding” Ibrahima Konate after the defender helped the reds to claim a 2-0 solid victory over the Italian outfit,Inter Milan in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Thierry Henry says Ibrahima Konate was his man of the match during the reds 2-0 victory at San Siro.
Ibrahima Konate, was paired alongside Dutchman virgil van Dijk in the heart of Liverpool’s defence and the duo produced a brilliantly composed performance at the back to help Liverpool keep the hosts at bay.
The reds scored two late goals in Milan as the forward’s stepped up with Roberto Firmino heading home from a corner in the 75th minute and Mohamed Salah drilled in a second eight minutes later.
Speaking about Salah’s goal at the San Siro, Arsenal legend Henry also praised Konate following a solid performance at the defense line for Liverpool.
“His awareness, he knew that the ball was going to come to him and he made sure the ball was going to come to him because Konate was about to unleash it,” Henry said on CBS Sports after the final whistle. “I don’t know what he said to him, but Konate left it!.
“And by the way, what a game from Konate. He was absolutely outstanding tonight.”
Asked whether he was surprised Van Dijk had been named man of the match, Henry replied: “Yeah, I thought Konate was man of the match for me.”
Konate, 22, has only started 13 games in all competitions this season, with the Frenchman having played seven times in the Premier League so far this term.
The defensive performance from the Anfield outfit was the foundation of their victory against the Serie A side, and manager Jurgen Klopp was delighted by how his rearguard performed on Wednesday night.
Speaking at his post-match UEFA champions league news conference, Klopp said: “We defended really well, the way you have to defend, we like to win the ball early but if that is not possible and against them it is really not possible because they make the pitch really big.
“The three centre-backs, they pass a lot of back passes to them and then from there they go diagonal to either [Denzel] Dumfries or [Ivan] Perisic.
“That makes it really tricky, so you have to defend with passion; organisation helps as well with but with passion and I thought defensively it was a really strong performance, but it would be silly if we wouldn’t defend well because it means a lot to us this competition and these games, so we invested a lot and it’s good.”
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