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Luis Diaz came out on top in a battle of former Liverpool teammates in the Champions League — with the winner of the Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich tie potentially set to take on the Reds.
Liverpool travels to PSG as the second favorite to progress to the semi-finals, but Bayern Munich has taken charge of its game after a dominant performance early on at the Bernabeu.
Opening the scoring in the first half when he ran off the back of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Diaz was in good form for Vincent Kompany's team. And he certainly came out on top in that duel.
"Not one moment does he look over his shoulder," Joe Cole said as he analyzed Alexander-Arnold's role in Diaz's goal during TNT Sports' coverage of the game.
"You can't sleep when Luis Diaz is about," Steven Gerrard had outlined on commentary. "The speed and the timing of the run is exquisite."
Alexander-Arnold couldn't deal with Diaz in that key moment, though a superb cross later led to Kylian Mbappe pulling a goal back — the latest reminder of why Thomas Tuchel leaving him out for England was so strange.
Prior to that, the Real Madrid crowd had made their feelings clear. When Vinicius Jr missed a big chance in the second half, the Brazilian was greeted with deafening whistles from his own fans.
Diaz played well and Harry Kane doubled the Bayern Munich advantage in the second half, but it was Michael Olise who was the standout performer for the German side.
He gave Alvaro Carreras a torrid night down that flank, causing Real Madrid a real problem. Earlier in the day, speaking with talkSPORT, Gerrard had pitched the idea of the Frenchman replacing Mohamed Salah at Anfield.
"I think the concern, if you're trying to replace Salah in terms of like-for-like, I think there are very few out there that you can go and grab," Gerrard said. "Olise would be one, I would say, but I don't think he'd be available.
"But from experience, being around Liverpool as a player, and also since I've left, Liverpool's recruitment team will have different options, and that doesn't necessarily mean they'll look for a like-for-like.
"When we had to replace Sadio Mane, for example, we went for Diaz, who's slightly different, if you like, or when Luis Suarez has left, they've had different types of options to try and replace the players.
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"Liverpool have got a fantastic record of replacing top players that have gone before, so I've got every confidence from a recruitment point of view that they'll have different types of options, not necessarily a like-for-like.
"But one thing is for certain, they have to try and replace some kind of goal involvement in terms of goals and assists, which is extremely difficult, because they've been incredible for Liverpool for many years."
Alexander-Arnold and Real Madrid look likely to be heading out of Europe, but for Liverpool, the aim is not only to bounce back from a hammering at the hands of Manchester City by showing much more against PSG, but also to qualify for next season's edition of the tournament.
Without Alexander-Arnold and Diaz and with plenty of inconsistency at the moment, it is in need of a swift upturn in form or will face another year in the Europa League as punishment.
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