TOP GUN TRENT LIGHTS UP REDS

Wonder strike puts Liverpool in driving seat but late gaffe gives Germans hope

That is the trouble with 18-year- olds. they can be anything. So trent alexanderarnold was the hero who scored the fabulous free-kick that set up this victory, he was the man who tormented hoffenheim with his powerful runs down the right, and he was the kid stuck looking helpless with an arm in the air, done by the diagonal ball that leaves hoffenheim with a sniff at anfield.

Not much of a sniff, mind. they still need to win by two goals and there was little on show here to suggest they can do that without further conceding. Liverpool should be fine, even if that failure to keep a clean sheet will be another frustration for Jurgen Klopp.

had the scoreline stayed 2-0 the tie would be as good as over. and had alexander-arnold not at the last showed that small degree of inexperience it probably would have been. It was a real pity, a blemish on what would otherwise have been a man- of-the-match performance by the teenager.

But this was his first European game — as it was hoffenheim’s — and no youngster can be expected to perform flawlessly at this level straight from the starter’s pistol. hoffenheim are weaker than they were when coming fourth in the Bundesliga last season — they have lost two key players to Bayern Munich, surprise, surprise — but they are tricky and inventive and in Julian Nagelsmann have one of the finest young coaches in Europe. Emphasis on the young there — at 31, Liverpool substitute James Milner is older.

So this was a good result. Liverpool were the better team, even if Simon Mignolet was required to save a penalty after 10 minutes, and they looked in control after an early bout of nervousness. they will have to be careful in the return, though. Defender Benjamin hubner could have equalised in injury time, left unmarked from a free-kick only to head over the bar. One lapse like that next week and it could get very edgy.

So kudos to alexander-arnold for the cool way he executed his duties as free-kick taker in the absence of Philippe Coutinho. It is testament to his ability that his more experienced team-mates give him the responsibility, and to deliver on this stage was hugely impressive. hoffenheim may be a village, but the team draws from a bigger area and there were 25,000 here last night, and very noisy they were too. alexander-arnold put it in the net in front of the boisterous Sudkurve end, where hoffenheim’s ultras reside. Momentarily, he silenced them completely.

as captain Jordan henderson said, alexander- arnold was impressive last year and has gone up another level in the summer. he is athletic, powerful and takes a mean dead ball, as hoffenheim goalkeeper Oliver Baumann discovered to his cost.

he was utterly flat-footed as alexander-arnold capitalised on a free-kick awarded for a cynical foul by Ermin Bicakcic on the dangerous Sadio Mane. Bicakcic was booked but a greater punishment was to come, alexander-arnold sending it over a veryry long wall and nestling in at Baumann’sumann’s near post. the goalkeepereeper did not even move. he either made a seriousus misjudgment or wass simply defeated by thee perfect strike.

the second, however, was plain rotten luck. a quick freekick resulted in Roberto Firmino playingg in Milner on the left. he attempted to findnd Mohamed Salah butut a deflection off harvardd Nor-Nordveit sent the ball loopingping over Baumann and into thee net insteadinstead. Milner at least had the good manners not to celebrate too wildly.

at that moment it seemed the tie, as much as the match, was over, yet who can ever be certain with Liverpool’s back issues? Sure enough, they were undone by an old chestnut, the diagonal ball in behind the full-back. alexanderarnold froze, arm aloft, Dejan Lovren played hoffenheim on, substitute Mark Uth took it on his chest and finished smartly.

at least the two away goals have limited the damage. It could have been a very different game had hoffenheim taken the huge opportunity presented to them with 10 minutes gone.

Penalty heroics have often been a feature of Liverpool’s campaigns

in EurEurope. think Bruce GrobbelaarGr in 19841984, Jerzy Dudek in 2005. this was no final, of course, but even so, Simon Mignolet’s seventh penalty save from his last 20 stopped hoffenheim taking the lead. that this was the third time in 10 minutes that Liverpool had looked panicked at the back only underlined the fragility in this area under pressure.

In the fifth minute, Mignolet made an injudicious sprint from his line into a wide area and was forced into even more frantic recovery, but hoffenheim did not make it count.

Soon after, Lovren made a hash of mopping up a cross before Mignolet stepped in to make it safe.

the defender was at fault for the penalty award, too, a clumsy challenge on former arsenal man Serge Gnabry drawing the attention of Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers. he took a while but finally pointed to the spot. Up stepped former Leicester man, andrej Kramaric, a Nigel Pearson signing — a club record at £9million at the time — who never made the grade. he was around the title-winning squad but only made two appearances, and did not even qualify for a medal. Maybe this is why.

Kramaric never looked greatly confident. his angle, his short run, everything seemed to telegraph where the ball was going. In the end, it was even worse than that. a lovely height, soft, far too near: of Mignolet’s penalty saves for Liverpool, this would have been one of his easiest. he will hope for a quieter night at anfield next week, before the tournament proper raises the bar.

JURGEN KLOPP praised his ‘little hero’ last night after Trent Alexander-Arnold helped fire Liverpool to the brink of the Champions League group stage.

The 18- year- old scored a brilliant free-kick and James Milner doubled the lead, before Alexander-Arnold showed his inexperience to let Mark Uth pull one back for Hoffenheim late on.

‘We had more chances to close the game but they had chances too,’ said manager Klopp, whose keeper Simon Mignolet saved an early penalty. ‘Our little hero put his arm up (for the goal). for an 18-year- old to have the balls to take a free-kick like that is exciting for me.’