Marcos Llorente spent lockdown watching repeats of Atletico Madrid’s famous Champions League win at Liverpool
The Spanish midfielder struck twice in extra-time to eliminate the holders in the last 16 tie
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Atletico Madrid’s Marcos Llorente was the hero on the night they knocked holders Liverpool out of the Champions League just before the novel coronavirus pandemic disrupted football and he has been watching repeats of the match during lockdown.
Llorente scored for Atletico in the first half of extra time in the last-16 second leg in Merseyside on March 11 and then struck again before Alvaro Morata rounded off a 3-2 win for the visitors to secure a 4-2 aggregate victory.
“We all enjoyed that night a lot. I’ve watched it a good few times in these last few months,” Llorente told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser on Friday.
“At home I’ve had all the time in the world and every time I see it the hairs on my skin stand up. I’ve watched the whole match a couple of times and extra time three or four.”
The great nephew of Real Madrid’s six-times European Cup winner Paco Gento, Llorente had made little impact at Atletico since switching from Real last year and had only scored three goals before his quick-fire double against Liverpool.
A few weeks after knocking out Juergen Klopp’s side, Llorente revealed on his Instagram account that he had named his dog Anfield.
The victory over Liverpool was Atletico’s last match before the Spanish season was postponed due to the pandemic.
They returned to individual training in early May and progressed to group training later in the month before resuming full training last Monday. Atleti’s first game back when the Spanish campaign restarts is at Athletic Bilbao on June 14.
Reuters
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