Liverpool all but qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League after Mohamed Salah’s VAR penalty secured a narrow 1-0 win over Girona at the Municipal de Montilivi.
The result marks only the second time in the club’s history that Liverpool have won their opening six games of a European campaign.Liverpool’s last game against Newcastle was only the third time in 21 games under the Dutchman’s leadership that Arne Slott’s side failed to win.
They arrived in Girona knowing that another win would move them closer to securing a place in the last 16 draw as one of the seeded teams, having strengthened their position at the top of the table after Donnie van de Beek was penalized for a foul on Luis Diaz. , only after VAR intervened.
No player has scored more goals in Europe’s big five leagues in all competitions this season than Mohamed Salah (28 – 16 goals, 12 assists)
Salah kept his cool to slot his shot past Paulo Gazzaniga to keep Liverpool perfect.
The Egyptian became the 11th player to score 50 Champions League goals, overtaking Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Kylian Mbappe, while Thierry Henry (51) and Thomas Muller (54) are now in his sights.
Having missed out against Real Madrid two weeks ago, he made no mistake this time when he got the chance in the 63rd minute to extend his impressive record of scoring in 11 of his last 16 games.
It had been a bit of a toil from the Premier League leaders up until that point, with Alisson pulling off some fine saves to deny Brian Gill and Arnaut Danjuma when he returned to the side.
20 of Liverpool’s last 23 goals have come after the break and they could already have enough points to finish in the top eight depending on other results in week six.
Slott’s side return to European action in January at home to Lille, when they can mathematically secure a last-16 tie against a play-off side.
Meanwhile, Girona are staring down the prospect of relegation after a fifth defeat in their opening six games.
Why is Allison’s return important?
“Liverpool” goalkeeper Alisson celebrates the victory
This result gives Slot the luxury of being able to rotate in Liverpool’s last two league games, don’t underestimate the benefit as they try to fight on all fronts.
Former Southampton and Chelsea midfielder Oriol Romeu admitted Girona had to do everything they could to throw Liverpool out of their rhythm and the hosts created several chances to seal a shock victory.
Brazilian international Alisson helped the Reds record a fifth straight clean sheet in the league, which they last achieved in 2005. The 32-year-old has been sidelined since October with a hamstring problem that has seen him miss 11 matches.
Caoimhin Kelleher has kept five clean sheets in his absence, including against Real Madrid and Manchester City, but made his first real mistake at Newcastle on Wednesday when the latter’s misjudgment held the hosts to a 3-3 draw. to play a draw.
Salah has now scored in four consecutive away starts for Liverpool in all competitions for the first time since December 2022.
But Allison has that extra quality, and he showed it to frustrate Danjuma on several occasions on a night when the men in front of him weren’t at their best.
Girona’s end product let them down, but when those moments of quality came it was Alisson who stood up to make sure there were no slips in Catalonia.
“Allison was definitely out for two months,” Slott said. “I joked with the players that maybe they wanted to see how ready he was because they let him make so many saves. But he showed , why I always say that he is our number one.”
Darwin Nunes, who has just one goal in his last 10 matches, was twice denied by Gazzaniga but the Uruguayan had another of those now all-too-common disappointing performances with a header from Dominic Tshobosla’s curling cross meaning supporter Curtis Jones and Salah could not capitalize :
Luis Diaz forced a penalty in the second half
But the hosts were undaunted and would have gone ahead had it not been for Alisson and Daley Blind’s lack of composure in front of goal.
The former Manchester United, Ajax and Bayern Munich defender’s last goal came 11 months ago, and it was evident from Miguel Gutierrez’s six-yard pass.
Alisson saved Alejandro Francis’s follow-up effort, parried Gutierrez’s shot, dived to his right to keep out Yasser Asprilla’s long-range effort, and Liverpool rallied to win.
Slot: Darwin need a goal
Arne Slot, head coach of Liverpool.
“I almost feel sorry for Girona, they are such a top team and they deserve a lot more than the three points they have so far. They had a really good game plan today but we had a really good goalkeeper.
“I would like to see Darwin score because he needs a goal and that’s why I kept him on the pitch for a long time. He was a threat, but when a striker doesn’t score, you always ask yourself if it’s a bad game due to lack of confidence.
“Girona lost a lot of quality in the summer, so to play the way they do and give us Feyenoord and PSV so much trouble.”
Liverpool firing on all cylinders – Opta Stats
Arne Slott has won his first six European games as Liverpool manager
- “Liverpool” has won all six UEFA Champions League games this season. Only in the UEFA Champions League and European Cup competitions between September 2021 and February 2022 have the Reds enjoyed a longer winning streak in the competition (7 games).
- This is the third time Liverpool have kept five consecutive clean sheets in both the UEFA Champions League and European Cup competitions, having previously done so between September-December 2005 and September 1983-March 1984.
- Girona have failed to score in four of their six UEFA Champions League games this season (W1 L 5), despite their expected total of 1.02 non-penalty goals being the third-highest this term. during the season, second only to games against Sturm. Graz in November (1.67) and Feyenoord in October (1.52).
- In major European tournaments, “Liverpool” won five consecutive away victories for the third time in its history after May 2022 (6 games) and September 1984 (5 games).
