The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Robertson on target in thriller
Champions League action
LIVERPOOL 4 RBSALZBURG 3
Defending champions Liverpool’s first European outing on home soil since winning the cup in Madrid was not quite the celebration they would have anticipated after a tense 4-3 win over Red Bull Salzburg.
Anfield was hosting a landmark 100th European Cup match but very few of those occasions would have seen them squander a three-goal lead.
Leading through goals from Sadio Mane, against his former club, Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah, the European champions were in cruise control.
It merely seemed a matter of how many more with almost an hour to play but uncharacteristic casualness crept into their play and they almost paid dearly for it.
The last time this ground hosted Champions League football it witnessed one of the competition’s greatest comebacks as Barcelona were defeated 4-0 in the semi-final second leg.
Five months on an altogether different turnaround left Jurgen Klopp’s side confused and chasing shadows as Salzburg proved there is much more to them than teenage goalscoring sensation Erling Braut Haaland.
The son of former Leeds, Notts Forest and Manchester City midfielder Alf-Inge Haaland was only fit enough for a place on the bench after with illness but Hwang Hee-chan and Takumi Minamoto pegged their hosts back to 3-2.
With Salzburg coach Jesse Marsch sensing blood he sent on Haaland and the Norwegian scored his 18th goal of the season within four minutes.
There was more than a brief moment of panic as manager, players and fans questioned how this could have happened. However, there was still one more twist to come, with Salah’s volley settling things 20 minutes from time.
It was a Jekyll and Hyde performance from Liverpool. Their defence, with regular centre-back Joel Matip’s replacement Joe Gomez showing signs of ring rust, was breached seemingly at will in the second half.
Napoli’s 0-0 draw in Genk offered the Reds every incentive they needed to take the game to their Austrian opponents.
Nine minutes in, Mane, who scored 45 goals in 87 games for Salzburg between 2012 and 2014, broke the deadlock after running on to Roberto Firmino’s delightful pass to stroke home.
Next came a collectors’ item as Robertson began a move from inside his own half and continued his charge forward to side-foot home fellow full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross at the near post for his first goal since May 2018 and only his second in 89 games for the club.
Salah smashed a half-volley wide before benefiting from Firmino’s parried header from Mane’s cross to score close in.
Another moment for the archives saw Virgil Van Dijk sold a dummy by Hwang in the box for the Salzburg forward to start the comeback by beating Adrian. Liverpool’s lackadaisical approach cost them when the unmarked Minamino volleyed home Hwang’s cross and sensing their chance Haaland was thrust into the action.
It didn’t take long for him Haaland to make his mark, rolling home a simple shot from three yards to equalise.
However, when the bewilderment began to subside, Salah struck a superb winner, volleying home Firmino’s knockdown for his 12th goal in 13 Champions League appearances at Anfield.