Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah net as Liverpool claim comfortable Champions League win over Rangers
Napoli will take some catching, but Liverpool are now comfortably on course for qualification in the Champions League group stage. Domestic form remains a worry but, in this competition, their next game is up at Rangers and, if this tie is any evidence, there is a gulf between these teams which is unlikely to be overturned even with home advantage at Ibrox.
The 2-0 scoreline flattered Rangers almost as much as a 6-3 defeat in the Manchester derby flattered Manchester United. Were it not for a heroic performance by goalkeeper Allan McGregor, Rangers would have returned north egos bruised and reputation in tatters.
Liverpool were so much better. If anything, as pleased as he will have been with the overall performance, Jurgen Klopp will feel frustrated that it took a second-half penalty to put daylight between these teams.
Liverpool should have had so much more. Instead, it was only when teenage prospect Leon King brought down Luis Diaz – he got there marginally before John Lundstram who looked set to do the same thing – that Liverpool could feel comfortable.
Not that Rangers were threatening. Just that a 1-0 lead will always be vulnerable, no matter the disparity between teams. Once Salah had put his penalty down the middle – it is the tenth consecutive Champions League group game in which he has scored – Liverpool had the cushion they needed.
As if to prove this point, with five minutes remaining, Fashion Sakala had a shot blocked on the line and from the resulting corner, Alisson made his first real save of the game from Rangers top scorer Antonio Colak. You can never be too careful.
It has taken these clubs since the dawn of European competition to finally meet and, when they did, were it not for Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor, the contest would have been over before half-time.
He’s been around a bit, McGregor. Fans south of the border may remember him at Hull City. That spell ended in relegation but he was Rangers’ stalwart here, all that stood between them and an embarrassing rout.
Jurgen Klopp wanted better from his players, and he got it. Liverpool were hungrier, faster, superior technically in every area. Had they finished as consistently as they opened up Rangers with their passing and pace down the flanks, and it could have been five by the time the visitors returned to the dressing-room.
Still, what should we have expected. The player that gave away the free-kick that led to the first goal, Ben Davies, was once on the books here. He was one of the players signed in haste two seasons ago, in response to the crisis at centre-half. Davies arrived from Preston and later left having never played a game.
He was a panic buy, a desperate attempt to alleviate a unique set of circumstances, and it became very obvious very quickly that he did not meet Liverpool’s lofty standards. He gets in at Rangers, though. Starts in the heart of defence. And it was there that he took Darwin Nunez out clumsily after seven minutes and let his old team-mates in.
It was a beautiful goal, a direct free-kick struck handsomely by Trent Alexander-Arnold. You may read, or hear, from several sources that the full-back answered his critics, not least England manager Gareth Southgate who appears to have him at number four in a field of four and, as such, not even going to Qatar.
Well, yes and no. Certainly, Alexander-Arnold showed why he would be a great option to call on in any tight spot. His free-kick from a central position, up and over the wall and leaving McGregor no chance, with the ball curling out towards his right post, was a peach. Yet Southgate has never said Alexander-Arnold doesn’t take a mean free-kick. Neither has anyone else.
He is absolutely brilliant with a dead ball, one of the best in the world, let alone the country. It is defending that is questioned and detractors will no doubt balance that against the free-kick Alexander-Arnold gave away, upending Ryan Kent after 18 minutes.
James Tavernier blasted it into the wall, Kent then sent the loose ball sailing high into The Kop. Rangers don’t have a free-kick taker in Alexander-Arnold’s class. If they did, Alexander-Arnold’s clumsiness might have proven more costly.
That was Rangers only chance, if we are to call it that, leaving Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson alone with his thoughts for much of the game. At the other end, McGregor was busier than a one-armed plate-spinner trying to keep Liverpool at bay. He made several world class saves, plus any number of very good ones. Nunez alone could have had a half-time hat-trick.
Starting after three minutes when his shot on the turn forced a magnificent reflex save. McGregor barely stopped after that, and his duel with the Uruguayan striker – desperate for a goal and a run in the team – was the most compelling action of the night.
In the 34th minute, a lovely chip over the top of the Rangers defence by Jordan Henderson found Nunez whose one-touch control shows why Liverpool paid their premium. McGregor got his hand up to stop the shot, though, and a second chance went begging.
Just seven minutes later, a scorching run down the right from Mo Salah finished with Nunez in again, but McGregor tipped it round the post. Then, to minutes before half-time, Diogo Jota was the supplier but again McGregor was equal to Nunez’s finish. He must have been sick of the sight of the man in the yellow jersey by that stage.
Nor would he be alone. Some of Liverpool’s chances missed – Luis Diaz’s shot in the 12th minute, Virgil Van Dijk’s glancing header after 28 – but most were thwarted by McGregor. He tipped round from Salah after 15 minutes, saved a low shot through a crowd of players from Diaz on 35 minutes.
Rangers haven’t got a Champions League point in this campaign and are heading out of Europe. That they left Anfield with dignity intact, however, is very much down to McGregor.
