Thiago Alcantara바카라™s sublime long-range strike and Mohamed Salah바카라™s latest individual goal maintained Liverpool바카라™s perfect record in their UEFA Champions League group with a 2-0 win over Porto on Wednesday. (More Football News)
Liverpool was assured of advancing to the last 16 even before its fifth straight victory in Group B, while Porto stayed in second place ahead of a match against Atletico Madrid in two weeks that will help to determine which team qualifies with the English club.
Thiago바카라™s 52nd-minute opener was a thing of beauty, the Spain midfielder meeting a headed clearance with a sweetly struck first-time shot off his laces from 30 meters (yards) out that stayed low, skimmed across the turf and flew into the corner.
바카라śWow,바카라ť Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said of the goal with a broad smile. Salah then scored a 10th goal in his last 10 UEFA Champions League games 바카라” and his 17th in all competitions this season 바카라” by dropping his shoulder as he drifted into the area from the right and shooting low inside the near post in the 70th.
Liverpool fielded a weakened team for the game, with regulars like Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold getting the night off, while youngsters Neco Williams and Tyler Morton were handed rare starts. Klopp said there was no danger of his players not taking the game seriously, though.
바카라śSome people might have thought we would play a little bit of an easy game but we were not here for that,바카라ť Klopp said. 바카라śAnfield sold out means we want to go for it and that바카라™s what the boys did.바카라ť The six-time European champions will look to complete a sweep of victories in the group stage, a feat never achieved by an English team, in their closing game at AC Milan.
바카라śIt would be good to go through with all wins 바카라” that would be really impressive and good to take on into the competition,바카라ť Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamblerlain said, looking ahead to the game against Milan.
바카라śIt바카라™s a great place to play football. Every single one of us dreams of playing at the San Siro on Champions League nights. That바카라™s what we바카라™re here to do, despite our position.바카라ť On the same night, Porto will host AtlĂ©tico, which like Milan has four points. A win would guarantee Porto바카라™s progression to the knockout stage.
The Portuguese team might have had a good chance to clinch qualification with a game to spare had it taken a couple of early chances for Mehdi Taremi, who misdirected a header from in front of goal, and Otávio, who sidefooted wide from an even better position after being set up by a cross from Luis Diaz.
Liverpool started to get on top by the half-hour mark, with two poor clearances by inexperienced goalkeeper Diogo Costa setting up chances for Salah and Sadio Mane. and Porto then seeing veteran center back Pepe go off injured.
Liverpool had goals by Mane and Takumi Minamino ruled out for offside either side of Thiago바카라™s fabulous strike, which was only his second for the club following a move from Bayern Munich in the offseason of 2020.
