National media explain why £30m Liverpool player will be 'annoyed' despite his country winning last night
03/21/2025 09:00 AM
Liverpool saw 10 players in action during Thursday’s opening day of international fixtures.
The Reds have a large number of players away every time the national team games roll around these days, with many of them key performers for their countries.
There was some bad news, unfortunately, with a sprinkling of worrying displays from those members of the Liverpool squad who did play.
Ibrahima Konate was reportedly in poor form for France and was hooked at half-time.
Meanwhile, Alisson Becker was taken off with a head injury during Brazil’s win over Colombia and looks probable to miss Wednesday’s clash with Argentina.
Arne Slot and Liverpool will no doubt be keeping one eye on Alisson’s situation, with Caoimhin Kelleher on stand-by to play Everton on April 2nd if needed. However, it turns out that Kelleher did not have the best Thursday night for Ireland either.
Caoimhin Kelleher ‘annoyed’ by soft goal conceded
Some have questioned Slot’s decision to play Kelleher in goal for Sunday’s Carabao Cup final in the days since the defeat at Wembley.
But when it comes to Ireland, the Liverpool academy graduate has developed into the undisputed number one.
Kelleher’s appearance against Bulgaria in Plovdiv was his 21st for the national team, and was a generally a good night for Ireland as they came away with a 2-1 win.
But according to national outlet RTE, Kelleher’s performance was not one of the best on the pitch.
READ MORE: Whether Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker will be fit to face Argentina after Brazil substitution
Scoring the £30m-rated 26-year-old as a six out of 10, they claim Kelleher will have been ‘annoyed’ at letting Martin Petkov’s strike ‘bobble’ home off the post to put Bulgaria ahead after just six minutes.
To be fair, though, it seems that the Liverpool man was fine from there on, described as ‘calm with the ball at his feet and smart with his distribution.’ That sounds like Caoimh.
Which other Liverpool players were in action on Thursday?
With so many Liverpool players featuring on Thursday, it can be tricky to get a full overview of how things went.
| Player(s) | Country | Minutes Played (Goal) | Result |
| Caoimhin Kelleher | Ireland | 90 | 2-1 W vs Bulgaria |
| Alisson Becker | Brazil | 77 | 2-1 W vs Colombia |
| Andy Robertson | Scotland | 90 | 1-0 W vs Greece |
| Kostas Tsimikas | Greece | 90 | 1-0 L vs Scotland |
| Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo | Netherlands | 90, 90 (x1) | 2-2 D vs Spain |
| Ibrahima Konate | France | 45 | 2-0 L vs Croatia |
| Dominik Szoboszlai | Hungary | 90 | 3-1 L vs Turkey |
| Wataru Endo | Japan | 90 | 2-0 W vs Bahrain |
| Luis Diaz | Colombia | 90 (x1) | 2-1 L vs Brazil |
Along with Kelleher, Alisson, Andy Robertson and Wataru Endo were the only four to pick up wins.
Alisson and Robertson did so against Liverpool teammates, with Brazil beating Colombia and Scotland beating Greece in the battle of the Reds left-backs.
That meant Luis Diaz and Kostas Tsimikas ended up on the losing side, although Diaz did get himself a goal. So too did Cody Gakpo, who – alongside Virgil van Dijk – played 90 minutes of the Netherlands’ 2-2 draw with Spain.
Two more Liverpool players suffered defeat as Konate’s France surprisingly lost 2-0 against Croatia while Dominik Szoboszlai and Hungary were beaten 3-1 by Turkey.
