FIRM, THEN WOBBLY

Firmino and Mane put Reds 3-0 up before they collapse in truly dreadful second half

LIVERPOOL suffered a second-half meltdown as they threw away a guarantee of progress to the knock-out stage.

And boss Jurgen Klopp said his players were responsible for their own downfall because they “stopped playing football”. The Reds produced a stunning first-half display to blow Sevilla away, as Roberto Firmino scored two goals and created another for Sadio Mane.

But their defensive problems returned to haunt them as the Spanish side produced a crazy Champions League comeback with three second-half goals of

FROM the sublime to the ridiculous... but then that is the story of Liverpool’s season.

Jurgen Klopp’s Jekyll and Hyde side produced a truly stunning first-half display to destroy Sevilla and set up a serene passage into the knockout stage.

But the Reds suffered a second-half meltdown that again exposed the defensive frailties that make them such a nerve-shredding watch for their own supporters, and no doubt their manager too.

It had all started so majestically when Roberto Firmino led Liverpool to a three-goal half-time lead with two strikes of his own and an assist for Sadio Mane.

Yet a couple of errors from former Sevilla defender Alberto Moreno – echoing his performance against the same opponents in the Europa League final – turned the whole tone of the contest, as Wissam Ben Yedder struck twice after the break.

And the Spanish side completed a remarkable comeback, when Guido Pizarro forced home from a corner in the dying seconds of stoppage time.

Liverpool’s form since a meltdown at Spurs has approached the sublime at times, their record of scoring three or more in five straight games revealing just how devastating they can be.

But this was no Maribor, remember. The Spanish side had not lost at home in their previous 25 games. Indeed, only Juventus had won here in the last 12 months. Yet here it took Liverpool just 29 pulsating minutes to run up a treble and it should have been more.

If Mohamed Salah has rightly been taking all the plaudits recently, then it was the turn of both Firmino and Mane to stand in the warm glow of the spotlight, with both showing their importance to Klopp’s rampant team.

Mane made the Spanish defence look as though they were playing in diving boots, and the way he dissected their backline was done with the surgical precision of a specialist. The Reds’ third goal was the essence of that, the winger driving onto a long ball from Moreno to leave stragglers in his fumes as he ran unchecked into the box.

Even though his shot was saved, Firmino had the simplest task of tapping in. Yet, even before then, he and Salah had slashed huge holes in the home defence, their pace forcing errors from the opening seconds... and that swiftly led to goals. The first two came from identical corners, created by Salah’s pace. Coutinho swung the first across and Georginio Wijnaldum flicked a header over to the far post, where Firmino was lurking to fire home a crisp left-foot shot.

He may have scored again when Henderson sent him scuttling through, his shot producing a save. But, from the corner, he flicked on this time, and Mane stooped at the far post to head home.

Before that, though, Sevilla had shown why they are so formidable at home, when Loris Karius had produced a fine save to deny Nolito, and then Ben Yedder shot wide from a fine position.

The little striker may have thought that miss – at 1-0 – was a costly one, but he more than made up for it with a startling second-half display.

The goal that offered the home side a lifeline was a soft one, Moreno sleeping at the near post as Ever Banega’s free-kick was swung in, and Ben Yedder turned a header home on 51 minutes.

By the hour mark, the game was truly back on, though Sevilla required some fortune as Ben Yedder went down too easily under Moreno’s tackle.

The little forward kept his composure to convert from the spot, even after he was forced to retake the penalty when the referee adjudged his team-mates had encroached.

That set up a nervejangling final half-hour and Liverpool were made to pay, when they gave away a corner with seconds remaining, failed to clear with comic ineptitude, and Pizarro rammed home.