Liverpool ahead Diogo Jota had his title up in lights on Monday night time as he netted twice in Portugal’s 9-0 drubbing of Luxembourg.
The 26-year-old additionally helped himself to an help within the one-sided Euro 2024 qualifier in Faro as his nation took a step nearer to an impending place on the finals subsequent summer time.
His brace appears to have come at an opportune time, having discovered himself out of the Reds’ beginning XI for his or her two earlier video games, however Jurgen Klopp could discover it troublesome to disregard him after final night time’s affect.
That final phrase was chosen intentionally, for once we have a look at the statistics from the sport (by way of Sofascore), a couple of pertaining to Jota will definitely elevate fairly a couple of eyebrows.
The Liverpool attacker ended the night time with two targets however might simply have had extra. One effort got here again off the body of the objective, whereas he was deemed culpable of lacking two ‘large probabilities’. On one other day, he might’ve simply had a hat-trick and Portugal could have topped the double figures mark.
The 26-year-old had six pictures total, and people comprised almost 20% of his whole touches from the sport. He made contact with the ball simply 32 instances, a meagre quantity for somebody who performed the total 90 minutes. For comparability, Joao Cancelo – who solely performed the final half-hour – recorded 25 touches.
Maybe probably the most shocking stat of all was Jota’s move completion. Taking into account that he scored twice and shot six instances, it appears loopy to assume that he ended the sport with a mere eight passes to a teammate (and tried solely 13).
It’s a stat which appears much more staggering when contemplating Portugal’s sheer domination, not simply on the scoreboard however when it comes to possession (66% to 34%) and pictures (22 to 4).
The numbers would possibly counsel that the match handed the Liverpool ace by considerably, nevertheless it’s unattainable to dispute that he made probably the most of his involvement with three objective contributions. Klopp and Reds followers actually wouldn’t object to Jota being that medical in a pink shirt over the remainder of the season!
#Ep89 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️
