Liverpool defeated Red Bull Salzburg 2-0 to book a knockout berth in the 2019-2020 Champions League. With the win, the Reds keep their hopes of defending their title alive.
Naby Keita drew the first blood in the 57th minute on a play engineered by Trent Alexander-Arnold, while talisman Mohamed Salah doubled the lead seconds later.
Liverpool win Group E with 13 points, 1 ahead of Napoli, who romped 4-0 over KRC Genk on Arkadiusz Milik’s hat-trick and a goal by Dries Martens in the final stretch.
Liverpool had conceded three times in their win over Salzburg at Anfield in October, but they maintained a clean sheet against their opponent this time.
Klopp’s men played some nervy 20 minutes, however, they finally regained composure, but were lucky enough not to have conceded a goal in that spell. Alisson, whose late save denied Napoli a draw in their previous game, was the man on duty to stop everything coming his way.
Meanwhile, expectations were high from the Salzburg striker Erling Braut Haland, who scored in the game against Liverpool at Anfield, but the teenager’s lack of experience came to the fore as Liverpool swept things away.
Reds star Salah missed as many as four clear-cut chances in the game, all at 0-0, but the Egyptian striker’s fabulous finish from the most acute of angles locked the game in favour of the visitors to keep their chances of defending the title alive.
Reply with an emoji to describe Mo’s outrageous goal ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/udE3WlcR0o
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 10, 2019
Notably, Liverpool had defeated Tottenham in the final match of the 2018-19 Champions League with a 2-0 scoreline.