The score was 0-0 when the midfielder, who now plays for Brighton, came onto the pitch, but Liverpool went further to lose the match 3-1 to Los Blancos.
It was Lallana’s terrible year
Adam Lallana has expressed how difficult it was to replace Mohamed Salah in the first half of the 2018 UEFA Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. The score was 0-0 when the midfielder, who now plays for Brighton, came onto the pitch, but Liverpool went further to lose the match 3-1 to Los Blancos. “In hindsight, I was petrified coming on,” Lallana said. “Maybe petrified is a bit of a strong word, but in hindsight, I feel like I’m in a position where I can maybe say that. I had a terrible year, it was my first year with one injury after another, and I couldn’t find some kind of rhythm in terms of being on the pitch.”
The worst thing when you play football is coming in 20, 25 minutes
“So I just came back from a big, big hamstring injury, I think I played 15 minutes of the last game of the Premier League season, and I just had no rhythm, no form. We lost the Champions League final, and I remember how after it finished, just feeling relieved that I got through the game. I could not get near anyone. I could not approach Luka Modric. And I couldn’t get near anyone. I was running around. I felt like a rabbit in the headlights”. Rather than embracing the game itself, Lallana revealed that he was determined not to make a mistake that could cost his team. “I didn’t feel like letting myself down when I went in and how I performed because if you play football, the worst thing is coming in 20, 25 minutes,” he continued.
“To get into the game, especially on that magnitude and especially because I had no minutes. I remember just running, and I was late into tackles. I was absolutely blowing, catching my breath and I never thought, ‘Oh, I just played in the Champions League final’. And I remember thinking, ‘thank god, I didn’t make a mistake leading to a goal.”