Girona 0 – 1 Liverpool

Liverpool nearly certified for the knockout phases of the Champions League after Mohamed Salah's VAR penalty awarded a slender 1-0 victory over Girona on the Municipal de Montilivi.

The outcome implies that for less than the second time within the membership's historical past, Liverpool have gained their first six matches of a European marketing campaign. In Liverpool's final outing towards Newcastle, Arne Slot's facet didn’t win for simply the third time in 21 matches beneath the Dutchman's administration.

They arrived in Girona understanding that one other victory would take them one step nearer to a spot within the spherical of 16 as the highest seed. They consolidated their place on the prime of the desk after Donny van de Beek was penalized for a foul on Luis Diaz within the field solely after VAR intervened.

Salah stored his cool to transform his spot-kick previous Paulo Gazzaniga to maintain Liverpool good.

The Egypt worldwide grew to become the eleventh man to succeed in 50 Champions League targets, surpassing Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Kylian Mbappe with Thierry Henry (51) and Thomas Muller (54) now in his sights.

After lacking the penalty a fortnight in the past towards Actual Madrid, there was no mistake this time when he had the chance within the 63rd minute to increase his spectacular goalscoring file in in 11 of his final 16 matches.

The Premier League leaders' efficiency as much as that time had been considerably labored, with Alisson making good saves to disclaim Bryan Gil and Arnaut Danjuma on his return to the workforce.

Twenty of Liverpool's final 23 targets have come after the break, they usually could have already got sufficient factors to ensure a top-eight end – relying on different leads to week six.

Slot's facet will return to the European stage in January at residence to Lille, once they can mathematically safe a spherical of 16 draw towards a facet who’ve made it previous the play-offs.

In the meantime, Girona are eyeing elimination after a fifth defeat of their first six matches.

Why Alisson's return is vital

This outcome offers Slot the luxurious of having the ability to rotate in Liverpool's last two matches within the league stage. Don't underestimate the advantages of this example as they attempt to combat on all fronts.

Former Southampton and Chelsea midfielder Oriol Romeu admitted Girona needed to do their greatest to take Liverpool off their rhythm – and the hosts created a number of probabilities to stage a shock victory.

Brazil worldwide Alisson helped the Reds safe a fifth consecutive clear sheet on this competitors, one thing they final achieved in 2005. The 32-year-old had been out since October with a hamstring drawback. -legs which brought on him to overlook 11 matches.

In his absence, Caoimhin Kelleher stored 5 clear sheets, together with towards Actual Madrid and Manchester Metropolis, however made his first actual mistake at Newcastle on Wednesday, along with his late misjudgment permitting the hosts to grab a 3-3 draw .

However Alisson has this additional high quality. He confirmed it to frustrate Danjuma on a number of events throughout a night the place these in entrance of him weren’t at their greatest.

Girona's last outcome allow them to down, however when there have been these moments of high quality, it was Alisson who stood tall to make sure there have been no setbacks in Catalonia.

“Alisson positively didn’t appear like he’d been out for 2 months,” Slot mentioned. “I joked with the gamers that possibly they needed to see how prepared he was as a result of they let him make so many saves. However he confirmed why I all the time say he's our primary.”

Darwin Nunez, who has scored only one objective in his final 10 appearances, was twice denied by Gazzaniga, however the Uruguay worldwide produced one other of these irritating performances now all too frequent along with his fluffy header on Dominik Szoboszlai's suspended cross signifying assist from Curtis Jones and Salah was unable to take benefit.

However the hosts had been undeterred and would have taken the lead had it not been for the shortage of composure from Alisson and Daley Blind in entrance of objective.

The previous Manchester United, Ajax and Bayern Munich defender's final objective was 11 months in the past and it appeared apparent from his missed shot from Miguel Gutierrez's cross from the six-yard field.

Alisson saved Alejandro Frances' follow-up try, pushed away a Gutierrez shot and threw himself to his proper to dam Yaser Asprilla's long-range strike. Liverpool rallied after the restart and gained.

Slot Machine: Darwin Wants a Objective

Liverpool boss Arne Slot:

“I nearly really feel actually sorry for Girona, they’re a really prime quality workforce they usually deserve way more than the three factors they’ve up to now. That they had an excellent sport plan as we speak however we had an excellent goalkeeper.

“I’d have liked to see Darwin rating as a result of he wants to attain and that's why I stored him on the pitch for fairly a very long time. He was a menace however when a striker doesn't rating you all the time marvel if he’s a foul sport or due to a insecurity.

“Girona have misplaced a number of high quality this summer season, so to play like they do and provides us, Feyenoord and PSV, a lot problem says quite a bit about them.”

Liverpool are firing on all cylinders – Opta Stats

• Liverpool have gained all six of their UEFA Champions League video games this season; Whether or not it's the UEFA Champions League or the European Cup, it was solely between September 2021 and February 2022 that the Reds loved an extended profitable streak within the competitors (7 matches) .
• That is the third time Liverpool have stored 5 successive clear sheets within the UEFA Champions League and European Cup, following September-December 2005 and September 1983-March 1984.
• Girona have failed to attain in 4 of their six UEFA Champions League matches this season (W1 L5), though their whole of 1.02 non-penalty anticipated targets is the third highest in a match within the competitors this season, behind solely his matches towards Sturm. Graz in November (1.67) and Feyenoord in October (1.52).
• In main European competitions, Liverpool have gained 5 consecutive away matches for the third time of their historical past after Might 2022 (6 matches) and September 1984 (5 matches).

Historical past of the match in statistics

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