Liverpool's imperfect win maintains perfect campaign

The mathematics of a complicated competition may remain unclear but one element is apparent.

- RICHARD JOLLY

Liverpool will skip the Champions League’s inaugural knock-out play-off round and head straight for the last 16. They in effect booked their place, and a top-eight finish in the group stages, on a night decided by two men who won them the competition in 2019.

Mohamed Salah scored a penalty, as he did in the final then. Alisson Becker saved plenty of shots, as he did on that Madrid night. Now Liverpool have a Spanish double in a couple of weeks, even if Girona acquitted themselves better than Real Madrid did at Anfield, even if Arne Slot was delighted with their efforts against Carlo Ancelotti’s side and critical of the display in Catalonia. But the outcome was the same and they have 18 points. Such are the peculiarities of the format that their reward will be fewer games. Liverpool should now have a midweek off in February, a few days before they visit Manchester City, who could be in the play-off round. That may be the ultimate reward for victory.

Now Slot has 19 wins in 22 games with Liverpool, a clean sweep of six in Europe for six-time European champions. It is a perfect record but the perfectionist in Slot was unhappy. “If you ask me about all the six games, I’m really pleased with all the results,” he said. “I’m really pleased with the first five games, but I’m far from pleased about the performance tonight.” In particular, he was annoyed by a lack of intensity. “Every time we lost the ball, we were not aggressive enough,” he lamented. “We had hardly any control at all over the game.”