Liverpool 2 Lille 1: Reds maintain 100% Champs League record as Salah & Elliott put Kop club on brink of winning league
MO SALAH claimed his 50th European goal for Liverpool as Arne Slot’s side stuck a red flag on the summit of the Champions League table.
Harvey Elliott continued what has been an astonishing first campaign for the Dutchman who succeeded Jurgen Klopp.
For while the German will always be seen as one of Anfield’s true icons, history so far suggests that Slot may yet over time be at least as revered. At this rate, anyway.
Elliott’s 67th strike against a side reduced to ten men early in the second half means Slot’s men equalled the club’s best – ever sequence of seven successive wins the competition, a run set, of course, by Klopp.
Yet when so many within the Kop feared his departure last summer might signal a down- sizing of intent, the current side just get better and better.
They also sit top of the Prem. Nobody would suggest they won’t be there at the end.
They way things are going in Europe, nobody could say that they become the No.1 team on the continent – and follow Klopp’s 2019 success – is beyond them either.
The most impressive aspect of Liverpool’s approach to this clash was their control.
This didn’t need to be a raucous night. It was only really ever about ensuring progress and especially against opponents who were anything but mugs.
Say what you like about French football and how soft it might be by comparison to the Premier League but Bruno Grensio’s side touched down boasting a club record 21 games unbeaten.
Like Slot’s machine, they had also beaten the mighty Real Madrid and for over half an hour they threatened, probed and gave no impression whatsoever that they were intimidated in their hallowed surroundings.
The Ligue 1 side are proper football team and they got the respect they deserved.
Slot made four changes from the side that beat Brentford 2-0 thanks to the time added on double that proved Darwin Nunez actually can finish.
The mercurial Uruguayan, who often has trouble hitting barn doors, was rewarded with a starting spot but there was no barn – storming for him in a cagey first third of the game.
This was about cat and mouse. Precision. No gung-ho requirements, especially as Lille confidently stroked the ball around in possession.
Then Curtis Jones dropped a bomb.
Kostas Tsimikas robbed striker Jonathon David and the blossoming England midfielder pounced.
In a flash, he delivered a fabulous fifty-yard pass into the path of Salah who motored forward, like he does and as Lucas Chevalier moved forward the icon of Anfield kept his cool and bent a trademark left-footer around him.
Amazingly that was his first goal from open play in 440 minutes. You would never have known he’d gone that long.
As finishes go for Liverpool’s all-time top European goal scorer, it was about as good as it ever was for him.
Shortly after that landmark opener came another for the team that Brentford manager Thomas Frank described at the weekend as the best team in the world.
They surpassed the first 36 minutes to set a new club record, beating the 572 set under Rafa Benitez without conceding a goal in season 2005-06 as Miracle of Istanbul Champions League holders.
Here was a team if not at the peak of their powers then one certain that most history could be written.
In their previous six games of this Champions League campaign, they had conceded only once.
They were now going for another major mark – bidding to become only the second team ever after Leeds United in the whole history of Europe’s premier competition to win six games in a row without their goalkeeper picking one out of his net.
It all seemed to get more comfortable, too, in the 59th minute after Aissa Mandi got his marching orders.
Already booked, his challenge on Luis Diaz was as stupid under the circumstances as it was cynical and German referee Felix Swayer had no option but to go yellow and red on him.
Then Slot’s side got sloppy three minutes later. A low cross wasn’t dealt with and Jakan Haraldsson connected first – time.
Alisson deflected that effort but then had no chance as David fired home the rebound to claim his 18th goal of a campaign – including five in Europe that is maker bigger fish than Lille across Europe take notice.
Yet there was no real panic. Slot had replaced Jones and Ryan Gravenberch for for Alex Mac Allister and Elliott at the start of the second leg.
Those fresher legs counted, too, for Mac Allister immediately got busy, pulling his midfielders into a tighter, more aggressive unit.
Elliott got the reward in the 67th minute after that resurgence had pushed the French into retreat mode.
He smashed home his first European goal at Anfield from around 25 yards after Lille half – cleared a corner.
It wasn’t the greatest of strikes, deflecting of a flailing Lille leg, but it didn’t matter.
But it still meant job done. And then some.