OPINION
For a long while now there has been a debate about who the better goalkeeper is between Liverpool shot-stopper Alisson and his Manchester City counterpart Ederson.
The two regularly compete for Brazil’s number one shirt and the competition between the two has become even fiercer since Alisson joined the Reds last summer.
The club’s supporters regularly debate the respective merits of their man, but the Liverpool ‘keeper firmly underlined his status as the alpha with a masterclass against Porto on Wednesday night.
Ederson, on the other hand, suffered a bit of a shocker against Tottenham Hotspur as his team exited the Champions League on the same night.
There’s no doubt that he should have done better with Son Heung-min’s first goal. It wasn’t a powerful or well-directed effort from the South Korean, there’s no way it should have beaten a ‘keeper of Ederson’s quality.
If he had kept that out then it would have been a completely different game and we likely would have avoided the craziness of that first 20 minutes. That wouldn’t have been ideal for us neutrals, but Pep Guardiola surely would have preferred it after Raheem Sterling’s opener.
Alisson, at the very same time as this was happening in Manchester, was keeping Liverpool’s first leg lead secure over in Portugal. The hosts started the game extremely well and were creating chance after chance. However, they couldn’t find a way past the sublime 26-year-old.
Eventually Alisson was beaten by an Eder Militao header from point blank range, but there was nothing he could have done about that. His job had already been done as he almost singlehandedly ensured that Liverpool weathered the first half storm.
This game underlined both that the Reds’ stopper is having a better season than his City counterpart and that he is the superior ‘keeper in general. There’s no doubt that Alisson put the debate to rest on Wednesday.
