LAST-GASP FIRMINO SEALS LIVERPOOL WIN
SUBSTITUTE SENDS ANFIELD WILD WITH WINNER AFTER PSG HAD FOUGHT BACK
Substitute Roberto Firmino drilled home an added-time winner as Liverpool won an enthralling Champions League opener 3-2 at home to Paris St Germain.
Last season’s beaten finalists had squandered a twogoal lead given to them by Daniel Sturridge, on his first start for the Reds in the competition, and James Milner’s penalty inside 36 minutes.
However, PSG enjoyed a stroke of luck with the absence of an offside flag in the build-up to Thomas Meunier pulling one back and when Neymar and Kylian Mbappe combined for the latter to score seven minutes from time it appeared the damage had been done.
However, Firmino - left out of the starting line-up with an eye injury sustained in Saturday’s win at Tottenham - struck in the second minute of added time as Jurgen Klopp’s side began another European adventure in dramatic style.
Liverpool had impressively kept at bay the visitors’ feared forward line of Mbappe, Neymar and Edinson Cavani - scorers of 101 goals between them since the start of last season - for 83 minutes.
Reds left-back Andrew Robertson pretty much had the measure of the lightningquick Mbappe for the majority of the game, Neymar drifted in and out while Cavani was little more than an irritation to Virgil van Dijk.
But the Brazil international and the French World Cup winner combined after seizing on a late opportunity to seemingly inflict more Champions League pain on the Reds just 115 days after the heartbreak against Real Madrid in Kiev.
Firmino proved there was nothing wrong with his focus with a dead-eye shot across a crowded penalty area to bring up a century of goals for him, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane since August 2017.
Mikel Arteta has hailed Manchester City as the best side in the world as he prepares to fill in for suspended manager Pep Guardiola in the Champions League.
Guardiola must serve a touchline ban during tonight’s Group F opener versus Lyon at the Etihad Stadium as a result of his sending-off in last season’s quarter-final against Liverpool.
That will leave Arteta to direct affairs from the bench.
Arteta said: “For me we have the best players in the world and I look at our players as if they are the best.
“I wouldn’t change my players for any others. They are absolutely fantastic, the hunger in this group is incredible.
“People talk about money to spend but people have to look inside this club, what we have created, it’s phenomenal.”