It was one of those matches where you wondered if the manager would get away with resting some of his big stars on the bench. It was one of those matches where you always felt the team in the lead would regret not adding a second or third. It was one of those matches where you weren’t shocked at all to see the road underdog score an equalizer to steal a point.
Since the Champions League went from using a second group stage to a 16-team knockout tournament in 2003-04, no league had ever qualified five teams for the knockout rounds — until now. With Liverpool’s 7-0 destruction of Spartak Moscow on Wednesday, the English Premier League officially placed five clubs into the Champions League Round of 16 in what is a remarkable turnaround for the league. Kind of.
If there's one stat that sums up Liverpool's 2017-2018 season so far, it's this: Liverpool have more 7-0 wins than 1-0 wins.
One of those happened Wednesday at Anfield against Spartak Moscow in the Champions League to secure victory in Group E. Watch the highlights, and meet me after the jump, where I will have some nuanced analysis on how exactly Liverpool are able to carve teams up like this.