Diogo Jota scores for Liverpool in back to back games as the Reds got their 10,000th goal in history, winning their Champions League tie against Midtjylland on Tuesday night.
The win, however, came with yet another sacrifice as stand-in defender Fabinho was forced off by a first-half injury before Mo Salah, who was brought on as a substitute, rounded off the victory with an injury-time penalty.
Jurgen Klopp’s side struggled all night long as Roberto Firmino, Salah and Sadio Mane were left on the bench and even the introduction of the latter pair with an hour played made little improvement to their attacking play.
Liverpool were nearly pegged back when substitute Evander fired just wide for the visitors before Anders Dreyer went even closer late on, but the hosts managed to close out the win, despite a poor performance, when Salah converted a penalty he had won himself in injury-time to keep up their perfect start to their Group D campaign.
Watch the match highlights…
Despite a poor showing by the Premier League champions, Trent Alexander-Arnold was named the man of the match as he was head and shoulders above anyone else on the pitch.
He made important plays, ran the show from right-back and made both goals.
One of Midtjylland’s dangermen, Mabil, who was removed with 25 minutes to go posed zero threat to him and was Liverpool’s most creative outlet all night long.
Had Minamino and Jota had their shooting boots on more regularly, he could have had a quartet of assists, but he can rest easy after a superb double which played a major part in Liverpool’s win.
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Stats and facts from the match (Backed by Opta)
- FC Midtjylland became the 17th team to play their first-ever UEFA Champions League away game against an English side – with all 17 failing to win and 15 losing.
- Liverpool failed to register a single first-half shot on target for the first time in 51 home games in all competitions, since October 2018 against Manchester City in the Premier League.
- Excluding qualifiers, FC Midtjylland have lost eight of their 10 away games in European competition (W1 D1).
- Liverpool started without any of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane or Roberto Firmino for the first time in the Champions League since 2015-16 and just the 40th time in all competitions since then (P40 W17 D16 L7).
- Since his Liverpool debut in October 2016, Trent Alexander-Arnold has registered 35 assists in competitions, with no Premier League defender managing more in that time (also 35 for Andrew Robertson).
Marseille 0-3 Man City: The Citizens won comfortably as Ferran Torres, Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling score
Manchester City’s 100 per cent start to their Champions League campaign this season remained intact after a dominant 3-0 win at Marseille.
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Ferran Torres who joined from Valencia during the summer put them in the lead from close range, before Oleksandr Zinchenko hit the outside of the post with a low effort.
Marseille hoped their fortunes would change in the second half, but City doubled their lead before the hosts could truly muster any threat as Ilkay Gundogan swept home from 10 yards following a Raheem Sterling’s header across.
Sterling then got on the score sheet himself nine minutes from time, tapping home City’s third from a trademark Kevin De Bruyne delivery.
The result means City top Group C by three points following Porto’s win over Olympiakos, while Marseille are bottom, and without a Champions League win in 11 outings.
Stats and facts from the match (Backed by Opta)
- Manchester City have won their opening two matches in the Champions League group stage for a third time in the last four seasons (also 2017/18 and 2019/20), while City are unbeaten in their last 13 matches in the group stage (W10 D3).
- Marseille suffered their 11th consecutive Champions League defeat – in European Cup/Champions League history only Jeunesse Esch (16 between 1973 and 1987) and Anderlecht (12 between 2003 and 2005) have lost more consecutive games in the competition’s history.
- Raheem Sterling has been directly involved in 28 Champions League goals in 36 appearances under Pep Guardiola (18 goals, 10 assists), more than any other Man City player since 2016/17.
- Man City’s Ferran Torres became the youngest Spanish player to score in three consecutive appearances in the Champions League, age 20 years and 241 days.
Other Tuesday Champions League results
- Lokomotiv Moscow 1-2 Bayern Munich
- Shakhtar Donetsk 0-0 Inter Milan
- Atalanta 2-2 Ajax
- Atletico Madrid 3-2 Red Bull Salzburg
- FC Porto 2-0 Olympiakos FC
- Liverpool 2-0 FC Midtjylland
- M’gladbach 2-2 Real Madrid
- Marseille 0-3 Manchester City
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