Goalkeepers became the stars last night: Alisson and Szczęsny hailed as saviours for Liverpool and Barcelona

Two of the four Champions League games yesterday unfolded similarly. Both Liverpool and Barcelona played away, suffered an incessant pummelling from the locals (Liverpool against Europe's top team, Barça playing with 10 players most of the time) and both ended the same way, with the visitors snatching a goal in the final minutes denying the victory to the more dominant side.

In the case of Barcelona, many people are claiming for Ballon d'Or consideration for Raphinha, who has now scored 25 goals in all competitions - already surpassing Lewandowski in his own team - and made 18 assists. However, most pundits agreed that the real stars for both teams were the goalkeepers. In Barcelona, Szczęsny made 8 saves, and in Liverpool, Alisson Becker made 10 saves.

Szczęsny, who received a lot of criticism from an earlier league phase game against Benfica (that ended 5-4 for Barça) just a few weeks ago, more than redeemed himself yesterday, and he is today in most covers of sport newspapers in Barcelona. And the stats don't lie: he has been part in 14 games, and Barça has won 12 of them, only having two draws and no defeats.

Anre Slot, Liverpool manager, praised Becker, saying that he is "the best goalkeeper in the world. I've never seen someone at this level". On TV, Manchester United keeper Peter Schmeichel said that Alisson may have made "one of the best goalkeeping displays I've ever seen in my life" in CBS Sports (via TeamTalk).