Liverpool maintained their 100 per cent record in this season’s Champions League with a 1-0 win at Girona on Tuesday, the only goal of the game coming from Mohamed Salah’s second-half penalty.
A sixth win from six keeps Liverpool top of the league phase standings on 18 points, five ahead of Inter Milan who are in action at Bayer Leverkusen later on Tuesday, while Girona remain on three points in 30th place.
Girona suffered their fifth defeat of the competition but made Liverpool work for the victory and in the opening half had chances to take the lead but were foiled by the visitors’ keeper Alisson.
Liverpool struggled against a side happy to sit back and bide their time, but found the breakthrough from the penalty spot with Salah converting in the 63rd minute after Luis Diaz was fouled.
“Six wins out of six, you can’t ask for much better than that. It’s not easy to do or there would be more teams doing it,” Liverpool defender Andy Robertson said.
“We’ve played a lot better than tonight, we weren’t at our highest level, but at this point it’s about winning the games and securing qualification.”
Girona were pinned back in the opening minutes by Liverpool’s pressure, with the visitors creating two early chances.
Defender Joe Gomez was denied his first goal for Liverpool by a reaction save from Paulo Gazzaniga from a close-range header, with the keeper also saving a shot from Darwin Nunez minutes later.
Girona, with every player behind the ball, were happy to break on the counter-attack and Liverpool keeper Alisson, making his first appearance since early October after a hamstring injury, was soon called into action.
Daley Blind completely missed a cross on the edge of the six-yard box but the ball fell to Alejandro Frances and Alisson held his effort at the second attempt, and later punched away a shot from Miguel Gutierrez.
“We competed toe to toe, we had our chances and, well, we have to accept that we lost,” Girona’s Frances said.
“It’s time to move on. The main thing was to have chances against a great team and we had them.”
Nunez had another effort saved when put through by Salah and Girona responded with a shot from outside the area by Yaser Asprilla which Alisson parried away for a corner, with Girona growing in confidence.
Alisson was again involved in the opening seconds of the second half, saving from Arnaut Danjuma and Liverpool struggled to break down a stubborn Girona defence before a Donny van de Beek foul on Diaz gave Salah his chance from the spot.
Salah missed a penalty in Liverpool’s last Champions League game against Real Madrid, but made no mistake this time sending the keeper the wrong way and the ball into the bottom corner.
Girona never really looked like finding an equaliser with Liverpool maintaining possession much better than in the opening half and leaving the Estadi Montilivi with all three points.
Meanwhile, Michael Olise netted a second-half brace as Bayern Munich came back from conceding an early goal to win 5-1 against Shakhtar Donetsk, their first away victory in this season’s competition.
Shakhtar went ahead in the fifth minute through Kevin but Bayern levelled six minutes later with Konrad Laimer scoring and they took the lead with a Thomas Mueller goal on the stroke of half time.
A penalty converted by Olise in the 70th minute eased the Bayern nerves before Jamal Musiala added a fourth goal three minutes from time and Olise netted again in added time to round off the win.
Bayern’s third successive win moves them up to eighth in the standings on 12 points while Shakhtar are in 27th on four points.
Real Madrid got a much-needed 3-2 Champions League win at Atalanta thanks to goals from Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr and Jude Bellingham as the holders snapped a two-game loosing run in the competition.
Real handed the Serie A leaders their first defeat in this season’s revamped Champions League after Mbappe gave them the lead with a strike from inside the box in the 10th minute before he was forced off with an injury.
Charles de Ketelaere equalised with a penalty after Aurelien Tchouameni tripped Sead Kolasinac from behind just before the break but Vinicius Jr stroked home a rebound in the 56th minute to put the visitors back in front.
Bellingham extended their lead after a counter attack three minutes later but Ademola Lookman reduced the deficit in the 65th before Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois worked his magic with a string of saves to secure a hard-fought win.
With two games left, Real are 18th in the 36-team table on nine points, three points off the top eight spots which secure direct qualification to the last 16. Atalanta are ninth on 11 points.
Dinamo Zagreb and Celtic played out a lifeless 0-0 draw, with Celtic keeper Kasper Schmeichel producing the match’s memorable moment with a late save.
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