World class strikers Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah scored second half goals to give Liverpool an imposing 2-0 lead after the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie against Inter Milan.
Inter dominated large periods of the match at the San Siro before Firmino’s clever flick header in the 75th minute and Salah’s deflected strike in the 83rd deflated the hosts.
“It was all Inter but once they scored the goal then Liverpool took complete control,” former Socceroos captain Craig Foster said on Stan Sport.
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“It was a phenomenal, high quality game and Inter didn’t deserve to lose it 2-0.”
The late goals give 2019 champion Liverpool a crucial cushion to take back to Anfield for the second leg next month.
“We both took a lot of risk in the pressing,” Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk said.
“It’s about the hard fight, the battle when you have the ball – be brave, make the right decisions and keep it tight at the back.”
Inter Milan didn’t manage a single shot on target in the 90 minutes and now faces missing out on a first quarterfinal appearance since 2011 in European football’s elite competition.
How different it might have turned out for the Italian champions had Hakan Calhanoglu’s first half shot from a tight angle not hit the crossbar.
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It was a night when Trent Alexander-Arnold lost his place in the Liverpool record books as the team’s youngest Champions League player as Harvey Elliott was handed his first appearance in the competition at 18 years, 318 days.
Elliott played for the first 59 minutes, during which Liverpool were largely underwhelming and came closest to scoring when Sadio Mane headed over in the first half.
“It was tough,” van Dijk said. “We suffered but something that we expected as well.”
In the other Champions League game this morning, Kingsley Coman struck in the 90th minute for Bayern Munich to salvage a 1-1 draw against Red Bull Salzburg.
Bayern, which had come from behind to win 6-2 on its previous trip to Salzburg in the group stage last season, was forced to do it again after Chukwubuike Adamu’s 21st minute opener for the Austrian champions.
“It wasn’t enough in the first half,” Bayern midfielder Joshua Kimmich said.
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“Salzburg came up with dangerous counterattacks.
“We controlled it better in the second half. The team realised we wanted to win the game. That we can is not in question.
“We have to bring that on the field in every game. We’re not in a flow where everything just happens.”
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