The dog name still fits: Llorente's crazy Liverpool record
Liverpool remains a magical place for Marcos Llorente. Atletico's 3-2 defeat on Wednesday also demonstrated how right his mother was in choosing a pet name.
In Liverpool, he becomes a goalscorer: Marcos Llorente (left). picture alliance / empics
Marcos Llorente isn't a traditional defender; he's far too versatile for that. The 30-year-old sometimes plays on the right wing for Atletico Madrid, sometimes in central midfield, previously also as a floating striker, but these days mostly at right back. That was certainly the case on Wednesday evening, when his Champions League campaign began at Liverpool FC.
Llorente had personally knocked the Reds, then defending champions, out of the competition in March 2020. In the second leg of the round of 16, Liverpool had initially equalised the 1-0 deficit from the first duel and scored early in extra time to make it 2-0 before Llorente, who had only joined from Real Madrid before the season, broke hearts en masse at Anfield with a brace (97th/105th+1) and left Jürgen Klopp stunned .
Five and a half years later, he repeated the feat, at least on a personal level. Llorente, a 56th-minute substitute for Diego Costa as a loose striker, this time starting at right-back, again scored two goals to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 2-2 draw, although this time Liverpool got the happy ending thanks to Virgil van Dijk's injury-time header.
This means Llorente has actually managed to score twice in each of his two away games at Anfield, which is already a rarity for him. The 19-time Spanish international (zero goals) has scored 24 goals in 245 La Liga appearances and seven in 45 Champions League games – four of them against the Reds. What's more, Llorente has scored more than three times against no other team, domestic or international, and even that feat was only achieved against Granada CF.
"Whatever, I'll name the dog 'Anfield'"Naturally, the story of a dog named "Anfield" was revived on Wednesday evening. Contrary to some reports, the dog doesn't belong to Llorente himself, but to his mother. "During the lockdown, I sent my mom a dog," he explained in a UEFA interview in 2022. "She always suffers a lot at my games and gets very nervous." And because she was so impressed by his Liverpool performance in 2020, "she thought, 'What the heck, I'll name the dog 'Anfield,' that would be a nice memory for all of us.'"
Llorente, however, naturally took a more sober approach to his latest Anfield feat. "The two goals didn't mean much today," he admitted, and lamented: "Van Dijk's goal can happen. What shouldn't happen is two goals conceded so early in the game." Atletico still has a "long way to go" in this Champions League season. At the very most, they could face Liverpool again in the knockout phase.
