Liverpool travelled to Porto on Tuesday as part of the UEFA Champions League Group stage game. The Reds were the clear favourites since the start of the game. With Diogo Jota completed his anniversary at Liverpool while facing his former side at their home.
In the domestic league, Liverpool was sitting on the top of the Premier League table without losing a game. In the UCL, they had made a comeback against Milan in a 3-2 win. Porto FC is also sitting 2nd in the Primeira Liga with 5 wins and 2 draws. Porto faced Atletico Madrid in the first game of the group stage and had a 0-0 scoreline.
The game started with the team wearing a black armband in respect to passing away of the club legend and world cup winning England striker Roger Hunt.
Trent Alexander-Arnold had missed the game with an injury and James Milner had replaced him in the back. This game marked the 400th appearance of Jordan Henderson as a player for Liverpool. The attack was propelled by the midfield masterpiece of Curtis Jones. He had either assisted or been involved in almost all the goals for Liverpool.
Meanwhile, the Porto side has no answers to the attack of Liverpool players. The second half seemed to be more attacking from the Liverpool side. There were always better chances for the Liverpool forwards. Thus, this was shown on the faces of the attackers when they were substituted.
Mohammed Salah had scored two goals, Mane had scored a goal, and Jota had missed some sitters. Major relief for Liverpool fans was the return of Roberto Firmino on the scoring sheet. Started on the bench and when given a chance, he scored a brace.
Defence-wise, Alisson has nothing to offer except for timely calculated saving of many effortless shots from the Porto players. The only goal scored by Porto was due to a misjudged header from Joe Gomez. This game sums up how lethal the Liverpool attack is and how the team is shaping up as a force.
Key numbers from the game
- Liverpool remain unbeaten against Porto in all 9 ocassions.
- Liverpool topped the group with 6 points.
- Jordan Henderson appeared in his 400th game for the club.
- Winning by 5-1 meant that this is the 6th game in which Liverpool had scored a minimum of 3 goals consecutively in 6th consecutive game. This happened only twice in the club’s 129-year history. Once in May 2009 & October 1892.
- Sadio Mane joins with Michael Owen as 3rd best Liverpool scorer in the UCL with 20 goals.
- Sadio Mane 5th goal against Porto makes him a player scoring most goals against an opponent by a Liverpool player.
- James Milner has provided 12 assists as no player has provided more assists in the UEFA Champions League for Liverpool (excluding qualifiers) and he levels the legend Steven Gerrard.
- Mo Salah had consecutively scored for the 6th consecutive time. The last player to do so is Salah himself for 7 times in April 2018.
- With 30 goals in UCL, Salah becomes only 3rd African player to score 30 or more goals. He is behind Didier Drogba & Samuel Eto’o.
Porto 1 – 5 Liverpool: Post match reaction.
On what pleased him most about the performance…
“That we had a tricky start because obviously Porto watched the Brentford game, started pretty direct. We struggled a little bit in the beginning. But we played, really, some good football and scored nice goals, but had even better chances. So, it’s all good for tonight.”
On Curtis Jones’ performance…
“Curtis played a good game. He had some problems a little bit with the stomach before the game; they told me I need to keep an eye on him but I told him after the game whatever it is, keep it because it was really a good game. I liked a lot about his performance tonight. So, let’s keep going, Curtis.”
On what the current run of form does ahead of Sunday’s Manchester City clash and scoring 20 goals in September…
“Unfortunately, it didn’t feel like that, but thank you for telling me! We conceded as well some or a few. We play against Man City, I don’t think now it makes too much sense to think too much about how many goals we can score against them.”
On the situation with Trent Alexander-Arnold…
“So the situation when you play Saturday and Tuesday, the players who start the game – which Trent obviously did – have on Sunday no training, they have recovery. But Trent anyway in the middle of the session felt his adductor and in that area he has now a little injury.”
Moreover, Klopp also informed that Sunday’s game against Manchester City might come too soon for Trent. Thus, Milner could be seen starting in a similar position against the Sky Blues.
What’s next for Liverpool
Liverpool will be welcoming Manchester City at Anfield in a Premier League fixture. It will be a battle for going top of the table.
