Bobby dazzler sets up first & nets second in fast start for Reds

AS a combination, they might not be showing the same destructive harmony as Jurgen Klopp is accustomed to.

But more often than not, at least one of club football’s most familiar attacking trios delivers. And more often than not, when it is the Champions League, it is Roberto Firmino.

Only Cristiano Ronaldo is ahead of Firmino since the start of last season’s competition. When he doubled the lead given them by Naby Keita, it was the 21st time the Brazilian had either scored or assisted in European play in that period.

And even though Liverpool failed to add to those two goals inside the opening half-hour, Firmino’s tap-in will surely mean Klopp’s team have enough to take to Porto.

They will probably produce a better performance than this workmanlike effort there, too.

In the Reds’ gallop towards last year’s Champions League final and in their stellar, leagueleading domestic efforts this season, there has not been a more sung, unsung hero than James Milner.

His value to Klopp’s operation has long been understood, but this gave everyone another nudge. Returning, in the absence of the suspended Andy Robertson, to the makeshift role he once mastered, Milner’s first meaningful contribution was a sweetly-hit, play-spreading pass to Sadio Mane.

From there, the ball was shuttled via Firmino to Keita, who, for the second time in five days, called on a deflection to decisive effect.

After his success with a diverted header at Southamp