By Reuters
Liverpool booked their spot in the last 16 of the Champions League with a 2-1 victory over 10-man Lille on Tuesday at Anfield, thanks to goals from talisman Mohamed Salah and substitute Harvey Elliott.
Arne Slot’s men maintained their 100% record and are top of the 36-team table with 21 points, three points clear of second-placed Barcelona with one game of the league phase remaining. Lille are 11th with 13 points.
Salah netted his 50th European goal for Liverpool in the 34th minute when he sprinted onto a long pass from Curtis Jones after Kostas Tsimikas won the ball inside the Reds’ half, and then curled a shot around goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier.
“Special is, I think, the word that describes Mo’s performance at this club,” Slot said. “Or maybe there are even better words to use, but he’s been outstanding for this club for so many years, and still he does. Today, great goal.”
Despite being reduced to 10 men when Aissa Mandi was shown his second yellow card in the 59th minute for his tackle on Luis Diaz, Jonathan David levelled for the visitors three minutes later when he hammered home the loose ball after Hakon Arnar Haraldsson’s shot was blocked.
The strike was David’s fifth in the competition’s league phase this season and only the second goal Liverpool had conceded, with the first coming in their opening game at AC Milan.
Liverpool quickly regained the lead when a corner was headed out to the edge of the box and Elliott fired a crisp shot that took a wild deflection into the net in the 67th minute.
“Very good team,” David said of Liverpool. “I think they might be the best team in the world at the moment.
“We came against the first of the Champions League group so we knew it was going to be a complicated game even more so when we went to 10 men,” he added. “It’s frustrating, we wanted to hold on as long as we could but it’s very difficult.”
Darwin Nunez celebrated what he thought was Liverpool’s third goal just before added time, but it was chalked off for offside. The Anfield crowd chanted Nunez’s name in appreciation of the effort.
Lille showed why they were unbeaten in 21 successive games in all competitions inside the opening minute on Tuesday when Gabriel Gudmundsson’s thunderous shot from outside of the box sailed just wide of the net.
Salah squandered several terrific chances. He could not quite connect with Diaz’s blistering square ball in the first half, and then had only the keeper to beat in the 44th minute but shot wide of the post.
Liverpool travel to PSV Eindhoven for their final match of the league phase on Jan. 29, while Lille host Feyenoord.
