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Lineker in awe of Alexander-Arnold cleverness v Barcelona

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BT Sport and BBC Sport host Gary Lineker was left gobsmacked by Trent Alexander-Arnold’s quick thinking as his performance helped Liverpool to a stunning victory over Barcelona in their Champions League semi-final.

Trailing 3-0 after the first leg in Spain, the Reds hit back quickly through Divock Origi in the opening 10 minutes, before a quickfire Georginio Wijnaldum double levelled the scores on aggregate.

The winning goal came courtesy of a brilliant moment of inspiration from Alexander-Arnold, who took advantage of some lack defending at a corner to whip the ball in low for Origi to net his second and Liverpool’s fourth.

Taking to his personal Twitter account, Lineker was blown away by what he say from the young right back, writing: “That is unbelievable from @trentaa98. Incredible.”

Opinion

It was an incredibly smart piece of thinking from the Liverpool defender and it just shows why he is so highly rated by club and country. His awareness of the situation was head and shoulders above that of the Barcelona players, many of which have been playing Champions League football before Alexander-Arnold was on his first professional contract at Anfield. You cannot teach that sort of thinking – it is a natural footballing intelligence that primarily comes with age and experience and the young Liverpool man was operating at a level far beyond his years. It was a moment of magic which ended up in a well deserved winner for the Reds. He is a prodigious talent but more individual flashes of brilliance will earn him a statue outside the ground before too long. What a performance, what a game, what a result. The celebrations will be going on long into the night on Merseyside.

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