Soccer Football - Champions League - Girona v Liverpool - Estadi Montilivi, Girona, Spain - December 10, 2024 Liverpool's Alisson Becker in action as he makes a save REUTERS/Albert Gea
GIRONA, Spain (Reuters) - Liverpool keeper Alisson saw plenty of action on his return from injury in the Champions League win at Girona on Tuesday, and manager Arne Slot was full of praise for the Brazilian who played a big role in maintaining their perfect record.
Alisson had been out with a hamstring injury since Oct. 5, and while his replacement Caoimhin Kelleher impressed during his absence, Alisson showed why he is Slot's first choice with several saves before Mohamed Salah's penalty gave Liverpool the win.
"Alisson definitely didn't look like he'd been out for two months," Slot said.
"I joked with the players that maybe they wanted to see how ready he was because they let him make so many saves.
"But he showed why I always say that he's our number one."
Liverpool defender Andy Robertson also praised his keeper but was unhappy with how many chances they allowed Girona, with Alisson pulling off saves from Alejandro Frances and Miguel Gutierrez in the opening half.
"He has been out for a while so maybe we had to see whether he was rusty or not and he certainly wasn't," Robertson said.
"But we have to have more control. We can't leave so many gaps, we have to press aggressively and a lot better. Especially in the first half, it was a bit too back and forth for our taste."
Slot was also complimentary towards the opposition, who really posed problems for Liverpool but ultimately fell to their fifth defeat in six games, thanks in large part to Alisson.
"I almost feel really sorry for Girona, they are such a high quality team and they deserve much more than three points that they have so far," Slot said.
"They had a really good game plan today but we had a really good goalkeeper."
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Toby Davis)
