DIVOCK & ROLL STARS
Origi strikes a chord as Reds make history as first English side to bask in clean sweep
EVEN Liverpool’s reserves have a taste for European conquest.
Jurgen Klopp made eight changes but still a youthful looking side were too much for AC Milan, who looked a little out of their depth on this stage.
Divock Origi marked a rare start with his second goal in four days to win the match and make the Reds the first English team to win all six Champions League group games.
Boss Klopp said: “I’m very proud, especially because it’s the sixth game. We chose that line-up because we wanted to win. We needed fresh legs. We needed desire to play this game, which is difficult in this hectic schedule to always be on fire for the next game. I could not be more proud.”
Inevitably, it was Mo Salah who was the difference as he taunted the poor Italians and turned the game with a brilliant finish to cancel out Fikayo Tomori’s first-half opener.
Klopp surprised many when he selected both Salah and Sadio Mane in his XI but you suspect there was a political element to his decision. It heads off any UEFA scrutiny for a start and any potential moaning from Atletico Madrid and Porto, the other teams in the group who retained an interest in qualifying going into last night.
Yet the simple truth is Salah has an insatiable appetite for goals and standing, as he does, high in the Champions League Golden Boot charts this season, he would not want to miss out on any gifts in the San Siro.
As it turned out, he did not. And a gift it was.
Milan had taken the lead thanks to a mistake from a corner by Takumi Minamino but Salah was clearly in the mood, a series of mesmerising turns and dribbles taunting his marker Theo Hernandez.
Roused by the Milan goal – which was converted from close range by ex-Chelsea defender Tomori as Alisson was betrayed by Minamino’s error – Liverpool pressed forward with menace.
And when Alex OxladeChamberlain’s clever snapshot was weakly parried by jittery goalie Mike Maignan, Salah was alert enough to drive the rising ball into the roof of the net with the technical brilliance of someone at their peak. It took
his Champions League tally to seven and his Liverpool total this term to 20 in all competitions for the fifth year running since he arrived at Anfield.
It puts him in hallowed company because the last player to do that was Liverpool legend Ian Rush. It is no longer an exaggeration to say the Egypt international is fast rising to that level in the Anfield annals, ranking alongside Rush, Roger Hunt and Gordon Hodgson.
Who could have predicted that when the Chelsea reject had another stab at the Premier League back in 2017?
Five years later, he has the best goals-to-games ratio in
Liverpool history ahead of all those greats. It is mindblowing. Which is more than can be said of this contest. The Reds began the game with only three players from their best 11 but still they looked a long way above the strangely lethargic Italians for much of the game.
It says much that Origi, who struggles to get a game in the league, looked a menace.
He grabbed what proved to be the winner in 55 minutes, heading into the roof of the net from another Maignan parry, this time from Mane’s shot.