When Liverpool signed Adrian on a free transfer this summer, they probably didn’t expect him to be a title hero so soon.
Since Alisson had won a Champions League and a Copa America in the past few months, Jurgen Klopp certainly expected the Brazilian to be featuring for the start of the season.
But things in football change fast, and with Alisson’s injury last weekend, Adrian got this chance to shine sooner than expected, and that’s exactly what he did when saving the last penalty of the shootout against Chelsea on Wednesday night, guaranteeing the UEFA Super Cup for the Reds.
Liverpool midfielder Fabinho has been interviewed by Esporte Interativo after the match, and admitted he didn’t even know that Adrian was a free agent this summer.
He said: “Yeah, man, there are players who are enlightened. And Adrian is living this enlightened moment”, Fabinho told Esporte Interativo. “He came here to Liverpool, unfortunately Alisson got injured, but he was prepared. He’s a goalkeeper who, in practice, we saw that he has a lot of quality.”
“I didn’t know he was training without a club. But he shows that he prepared for it. Today he was safe in the game. He helped us a lot with this penalty save. I’m very happy for him and hope he can continue helping us.”
Fabinho also spoke about his importance of winning a title so early in the season, claiming it will give the squad some motivation for the upcoming games.
“It was a very tough match. I think for those who watched, it was a game with a lot of thrill. It was back and forth, a 2-2 draw. So when we scored the second goal, we were hoping to hold the game a little longer, hold on to that result, but we didn’t.”
“But it’s very important to come out with this title. We played two titles this early in the season. We wanted to win both, unfortunately against City we couldn’t on penalties. Today we were happy in the shootout. It’s a European title. One more title for our career at Liverpool. So it’s very important for the team’s confidence too, for the course of the season.”
